The “I.G. Farben Industrie” Foundation
At the shareholders’ meeting of I.G. Farben in Liquidation on August 18, 1999, the company’s board of directors brought forward a motion to set up a foundation for compensation of former I.G. Farben forced laborers, “while preserving all the rights of the creditors and holders of share certificates.”[1] The endowment funds, in the amount of 3 million DM, were to be generated by the sale of a commercial property. Former slave laborers for I.G. Farben were to be compensated from the interest earned, about 200,000 to 300,000 DM annually. The motion was approved by a large majority of the shareholders. The declaration of intent did not meet the requirements of those damaged by the I.G. Farben concern. Buna/Monowitz concentration camp survivors such as Hans Frankenthal drew attention to the small capital endowment of the planned foundation. The small size of the endowment, he argued, was “not a serious idea of compensation.”[2]
The “I.G. Farben Industrie” Foundation (Stiftung “I.G. Farbenindustrie”) was established in 2001, though with an investment of only 500,000 DM (255,000 euros). Pointing to the existence of its own foundation, I.G. Farben i.L. declined to participate in the German Economy Foundation Initiative for compensation of Nazi-era forced laborers.
After 2001, the interest of I.G. Farben i.L. was focused on the assets of the Swiss company Interhandel. Interhandel had been founded in Basel by I.G. Farben in 1928/29, under the name of I.G. Chemie, as a financial holding company for foreign investments. In 1940, the concern had broken off all official relations with its subsidiary to avoid seizure of the Interhandel-controlled General Aniline and Film Corporation (GAF) in the United States by the U.S. Alien Property Custodian—an effort that miscarried, however, as the GAF was seized on April 24, 1942. After the war ended, there was a legal battle between the U.S. Government on the one hand and Interhandel and the Swiss Government on the other, until the GAF shares finally were sold on Wall Street in 1965. The proceeds were divided between Interhandel and the U.S. Government. “The ‘Swiss’ share accrued to private beneficiaries; the American share went to the public War Claims Fund, from which war-damaged Americans were compensated.”[3] As early as the 1980s, I.G. Farben i.L. wanted to sue for this “Swiss share” in the Federal German courts, but the effort failed in the court of last resort, the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof).
In the period 2004–2007, the “I.G. Farben Industrie” Foundation, together with the shareholders’ association of I.G. Farben i.L., made a further attempt in this direction before the U.S. courts, declaring their intent to compensate the I.G. Farben forced laborers out of the proceeds. In the meantime, Interhandel had become part of the Union de Banques Suisses (UBS), and the value of the “Swiss share” was estimated at US$ 3.4 billion. I.G. Farben i.L. had been trying since 1999 to get former I.G. Farben forced laborers involved in this lawsuit, but they declined repeatedly.
Meanwhile, the “I.G. Farben Industrie” Foundation had transferred its archives from Frankfurt am Main to Schwerin. Since 2007, a portion of the archives have been returned to Frankfurt am Main, where these documents are made available for academic research at the Fritz Bauer Institute.
(MN/PEH; transl. KL)