NEWS AND VIEWS

Class-action suit seeks data on forced and slave laborers

by Myroslaw Smorodsky

This appeal is being issued to all diaspora Ukrainians by the joint litigators in the current class-action suit brought against German companies. This suit deals with the matter of forced and slave laborers who were taken from their native lands by Germany during World War II. A questionnaire is being distributed worldwide [it was published in last week's issue of The Weekly] to seek out all who may qualify for benefits from a potential settlement in this case. Information obtained from these questionnaires will be analyzed and presented as statistical evidence.

Many oppressive policies were implemented during the German occupation of Ukraine. These policies ranged from enslavement to annihilation of the population by the German forces. Army conscription of German soldiers created a massive drain on Germany's labor force. One solution for replenishing the labor supply was to import millions of foreign workers from subjugated lands. From 1941 to 1944, laborers from the East (Ostarbeiter), from countries such as Poland and Ukraine, were systematically transported to work in the factories and farms of Germany and Austria.

For example, in 1942 Hitler personally issued an order demanding the selection of 400,000 to 500,000 Ukrainian girls and women between the ages of 15 and 35 to work in German households and on farms. Nevertheless, the total number of laborers transported from Ukraine for these and other simlar purposes remains undocumented to this day.

After the war, many Ukrainians who had been taken from their native lands under the above circumstances found themselves in displaced persons camps. Some returned to their homeland and have been accounted for by documentation compiled from records in the former Soviet Union. Others, who went on to live beyond Ukraine's borders, have thus far not been adequately accounted for. The class-action suit currently under way can only be fully and equitably resolved if all possible data on forced/slave laborers is brought together into a single comprehensive database. This appeal is an effort to compile the most accurate representative statistics of all Ukrainian-born individuals who were unwillingly transported from their homes to work for Germany.

Readers of this press release are asked to inform all friends, family members and acquaintances of Ukrainian descent about this broad effort. Information about the lawsuit and the (short) questionnaire may be found at http://www.smorodsky.com/forcedlabor/ or on BRAMA-Gateway Ukraine at http://www.brama.com/.

This is a major opportunity to bring redress to this grave and egregious injustice of history. Once settlement is achieved, the terms are such that no further actions of this kind can be instituted.

The complete text of this appeal in English and Ukrainian, the questionnaire and links to related documents is located at: http://www.brama.com/news/press/990915forcedlabor.html

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, October 3, 1999, No. 40, Vol. LXVII

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