GERMANY: SHAREHOLDERS & FORMER I-G FABEN WORKERS CLASH

(22 Dec 1997) French/Ger/Nat

Shareholders and former slave workers of I-G Farben clashed on Monday at a demonstration against delays in the closure of the company that produced gas used in Nazi death chambers.

Demonstrators disrupted the annual general meeting and called for the final closure of I-G Farben and the distribution of its capital amongst the victims of slavery.

I-G Farben was ordered into liquidation 50 years ago at the Nuremberg trials, but so far has managed to avoid closing down.

Hundreds of demonstrators massed outside the annual general meeting of I-G Farben in Frankfurt on Monday demanding the immediate liquidation of the company.

These people are the victims, or relatives of victims, who suffered at the hands of the company's cruel slave workers policy.

SOUNDBITE: (French)
"We have come to demonstrate against the I-G Farben shareholders meeting"
SUPER CAPTION: Jacques Esperansa, former I-G Farben employee

I-G Farben employed thousands of "slaves", most commonly Jews and east Europeans to produce Zyklon B, the gas used by Nazi Germany to execute thousands in its death camps.

SOUNDBITE: (French)
" The two main shareholders are holding a meeting today, it's a question of money. In 1957, during the Nuremberg trials I-G Farben was sentenced to compensate the deportees and survivors. But today, 50 years later, only a very small part of the money has been distributed amongst the victims."
SUPER CAPTION: Rene Marcel Delattre, former Farben employee

SOUNDBITE: (French)
"They have made a lot of money from our labour, I was in I-G Farben there ( pointing), in Frankfurt, very far from here, I spent there 14 months, working 12 hours per day. We had just a pair of trousers made from this material (points at banner) and a shirt and no socks, in summer and the cold winter, never a coat or gloves or food, we worked there 12 hours non-stop "
SUPER CAPTION: Rene Marcel Delattre, former I-G Farben employee

The I-G Farbenindustrie A- G was ordered into liquidation 50 years ago at the Nuremberg trials which tried Nazi war criminals.

Tempers flared as shareholders were stopped from entering the meeting by demonstrators.

UPSOUND: (German)
"What's up with you? You criminals! You will bring it to start again (the Nazi regime)"
SUPERCAPTION: Anonymous share holder

However, the "in liquidation" status of the company is still maintained by its two main liquidators and shareholders.

They are attempting to increase the company's capital - which already stands at 30 (m) million DM capital - before closing down, while others are calling for the release of the funds.

Assets in former East Germany and money on Swiss bank accounts recently discovered need to be centralized and added to the overall worth of the company.

Under German law a company cannot go into liquidation until all such processes are completed.

Meanwhile former Jewish slave workers still fight for compensation.

They want the company to be closed down and the remaining capital to be used to pay rents for the former slave workers.

The Critical Shareholders Association (C-S-A), who represent shareholders uncomfortable with the company's grim past, have also spoken out.

The C-S-A is pushing for I-G Farben to be liquidated and the capital to be paid to the thousands of workers who are still alive and could feasibly file for compensation.

SOUNDBITE: (German)
SUPERCAPTION: Henry Mathews, representative of Critical Shareholder Association

To many shareholders and Germans alike these share certificates are stained with the blood of thousands of slave workers.

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