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MAGAZIN - FOCUS - Kurzfassungen - 12.08.07, 09:24
Verein ehemalige Heimkinder fordert von der Industrie Schadenersatz – „Firmen, die in Heimen arbeiten ließen, sollen zahlen“
München. Der Verein ehemalige Heimkinder weitet seine Schadenersatzforderungen auf die deutsche Industrie aus. Das berichtet das Nachrichtenmagazin FOCUS unter Berufung auf Angaben des Münchner Anwalts Michael Witti, der zusammen mit seinem Hamburger Kollegen Gerrit Wilman die Interessen des im Oktober 2004 gegründeten Vereins ["Verein ehemaliger Heimkinder e. V."] vertritt. Bisher richteten sich die Forderungen an den Staat und beide Kirchen [die Römisch Katholische Kirche in Deutschland] [sowohl wie die Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD)] als Träger und Betreiber der Einrichtungen.
Die Schadenersatzforderungen beruhen darauf, dass bis Ende der 70er-Jahre viele Kinder und Jugendliche in Heimen arbeiten mussten, anstatt in die Schule zu gehen oder einen Beruf zu erlernen. Sie arbeiteten beispielsweise auf Feldern, oder sie montierten Schaltkreise, fertigten einfache Bauteile und entrosteten schmiedeeiserne Zäune. Auftraggeber seien deutsche Unternehmen gewesen, sagte Witti zu FOCUS. „Die Firmen, die damals in Heimen arbeiten ließen, müssen dafür zahlen - und zwar gewaltig“, so Witti weiter. Je nach erlittenem Leid sollten die Betroffenen Geld erhalten. Man müsse „über Milliarden reden“.
Die deutsche Bischofskonferenz sammelt Erkenntnisse über die Zustände in ihren Heimen zwischen 1950 und 1975. Ein vertrauliches Papier, das FOCUS vorliegt, empfiehlt, die katholische Kirche solle in der Auseinandersetzung mit der Vergangenheit „moralische Verantwortung“ übernehmen.
QUELLE: FOCUS 33/2007 vom 13.8.2007.
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English translation of German news magazine article in the FOCUS MAGAZINE - Abridged Version - from 12.08.07, 09:24
The Association of former Wards of the State [a victims association of children and minors institutionalised in the former West Germany] / Former Institutionalised Children / Care-Leavers-Survivors [of West-Germany] demand compensation from German industry – “[post war West-German industry] business enterprises that used child slave labour [of any kind], must pay.”
Munich. The German Association of former [institutionalised] Wards of the State have expanded its demands for compensation to include German industry, the German news magazine FOCUS reports with reference to a recent announcement made by the Munich human rights lawyer Michael Witti and his associate Gerrit Wilmans in Hamburg who together are representing the interests of the [registered] Association ["Verein ehemaliger Heimkinder e.V."] founded in October 2004. Up until recently demands for compensation were directed simply to the State and both the German Catholic Church as well as the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Germany, as the operators of these Institutions [where child slave labour and all forms of other abuse did occur].
The demands for compensation are based on the fact that up until the end of the 70’s many children and young persons in these institutions were forced to work instead of being allowed to attend school or learning a trade [i.e., they were deliberately prevented from furthering their education]. They were [for example] compelled to work [always unpaid of course] in agriculture, were used to assemble circuit boards or manufacture simple building components [or machine parts] and to apply anti-rust treatment to balustrades and wrought-iron fences. The employers [of this fast pool of unpaid child slave labour] are alleged to have been German firms and enterprises, so Mr. Witti informed FOCUS. ”All firms that used and profited from this form of labour in these institutions back then, have to be made to pay – and pay mightily [i.e., not just a token amount], Mr. Witti said. Victims should be compensated monetarily, each according to his or her suffering [, according to the wrong and injustice committed against each individual, according to the adverse life consequences and illnesses stemming there- from for each of the them, but equally according to the seriousness of the breach of the then existing domestic law and international agreements by which the parties were bound and which they all chose to ignore]. “The figure to be discussed” should be “in the billions”.
The German Bishop Conference is collecting relevant information regarding the conditions in these institutions covering the period between 1950 and 1975. A confidential report [in this regard], [a copy of which] FOCUS is in possession of, recommends that the Catholic Church take "moral responsibility" for its [unsavoury] past [in connection with these matters].
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