Thursday, June 05, 2008

Italian Court Rules Germany Must Pay for "Hitler's Italian Slaves"

 The ANNOTICO Report

 

There is extensive data on the use of Italian slave laborers by the Nazis. After the fall of Mussolini, there was a wave of revenge against the Italians. Italians who were already in Germany were turned into slaves. Between September of 1943 and April of 1944 a minimum of 23,000 Italians, many former soldiers, were deported to Germany to work as slaves in German industry. Additionally, over 10,000 partisans were captured and deported during the same period. By 1944 there were over half a million Italians working for the Nazi war machine.

 

Incidently, The Germans shipped the contents of entire Italian factories north since their invasion of Italy.

 

Trains with over 9000 Jews from Italy that were Refugees from Germany, Austria, etc were sent back to Labor Camps in Germany and East Europe. Germany has previously much earlier on paid compensation for these and other Jews.

 

 

Germany has resisted for many years, the pleas of just these 50  "Hitler's Italian Slaves"  to gain compensation for the physical and mental trauma they suffered.

 

 

Germany Must Pay 'Hitler's slaves'

WWII deportees are entitled to sue, high court rules

 

ANSA, Rome

June 4, 2008

 

Germany must compensate Italian WWII deportees for the ill-treatment they suffered in Nazi labour camps, Italy's highest court ruled Wednesday.

The Cassation Court rejected the German government's plea for immunity from crimes committed against the deportees, dubbed 'Hitler's slaves'.

The high court came to the same conclusion in 2004 but Bonn appealed, arguing it could not be held accountable under a 1961 treaty governing mutual assistance in war claims.

The Cassation Court said in its ruling that ''the Federal Republic of Germany has no right to be considered immune from the civil jurisdiction of Italian judges''.

About 50 former deportees, many of them soldiers shipped off to Germany after Italy joined the Allies in September 1943, have been trying for years to gain compensation for the physical and mental trauma they suffered.

The majority of them are from Piedmont but some also from Tuscany and Sicily.

Wednesday's ruling was hailed by Luca Procacci, a lawyer acting for 12 men who have taken the German government to court for their ill treatment at a Daimler Benz factory near Stuttgart.

''At long last these 12 elderly men from southern Piedmont will get justice,'' he said.

''They were taken by the Germans when they were just boys, tortured and pressed into labour at the Gaggenau death camp. They were civilians, not military, and they've endured unspeakable suffering all their lives. One of my clients still has to to tie himself to the bed in order to sleep''.

''It's a disgrace that Germany is still trying to find one excuse after another not to fork out a euro,'' said Procacci, who is seeking 100 million for each ex-deportee. Procacci said he knew of ''a thousand'' similar cases which were ''ready to get going'' if the Turin trial is a success.

He said his clients have been surviving for years on a pension of just 450 euros a month.

T wo of an original group of 14 have died since Procacci put the case to a Turin court in 2000.

The lawyer also thanked the Cassation Court for rejecting a plea from Italian government lawyers who had argued that the statue of limitations should apply in the case.

Thousands of Italians were deported to Germany in the last year of the war after dictator Benito Mussolini fell from power and Italy abandoned its former ally.

The 12 claimants in the current class action were all captured in the town of Avigliana, near Turin, and sent to the K2 camp at Gaggenau, were they were used on the production line at the local Daimler-Benz plant.

They are also suing Daimler-Chrysler.

 

 

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