Current Affairs Czech Nazi labor camp victims to receive 423 million DM
423 million DM, that's the sum that Monday's agreement in Berlin has allocated to compensate Czechs forced to work as slave labourers for Nazi Germany during World War Two. Signed by representatives from Germany, the United States, Israel and Eastern and Central Europe, the agreement allocates 10 billion DM to victims worldwide - a sum regarded by many as the last big pay-out for the German crimes of the Second World War.
Monday's declaration by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's that "with this agreement we can close the last open chapter of the past" seems to confirm this.
However, as their numbers dwindle year by year, is the 7,000 USD that each Czech survivor can now expect to receive a case of too little, too late? Libor Roucek is the spokesman for the Czech government:
