Agreement on Payments to Ukrainian Ostarbeiters Signed

On January 17 the Ukrainian National Mutual Understanding and Reconciliation Fund and Austrian Reconciliation Fund signed in Kyiv an agreement on cooperation and voluntary payments to Ukrainian citizens forced to work in Austria during the World War II when it was part of Hitler’s Third Reich.

The agreement provides for voluntary compensation to forced labor workers employed in industry. They will receive 35,000 schillings (5,000 deutschmarks). Payments will also be made to forced labor workers employed in the agricultural sector (20,000 schillings or 2,600 deutschmarks), children under 12 years brought with their parents, as well as those born during the forced labor of their mothers. An additional 5,000 schillings (700 deutschmarks) will be paid to women who during their servitude had to bear children in maternity hospitals specially designated by the Nazi, or were forced to interrupt their pregnancies. The prisoners in concentration camps will receive 15,000 deutschmarks from the German Memory, Responsibility, and Future Funds. If a person entitled to compensation died after February 15, 2000, the payment will be made to his or her heirs according to legislation, said head of the Mutual Understanding and Reconciliation Fund Ihor Lushnykov (see the photo) at January 17 a press conference. Applications will be accepted for two years. Payments will be made subject to the beneficiary’s statement waiving any other claim against either the Austrian government and Austrian companies, and the FRG government and German enterprises, which should be signed on receipt of payment. The blanks for required explanations are available at oblast offices of the fund, as well as at social security agencies cooperating with the fund, said Mr. Lushnykov, Interfax-Ukraine reports.