Slave Labor Lawyers Applaud Progress in Talks With German Government And Industry, Urge Bridging of Final Gap

Philadelphia (PROTEXT) - The following statement was releasedtoday by a group of U.S. lawyers representing Nazi-era slavelaborers and property owners in suits against German industrialcompanies and banks: "On our return to the U.S. after participating in intensivetalks in Bonn on November 16-17, we are pleased to recognize themajor improvements in the proposals put forward by Germanindustry and the German government. While the details of thenegotiations must remain confidential in order to promote aneventual agreement, we note these positive aspects of the mostrecent German proposal. -- The German side remains committed, as we do, to reaching anagreement with all parties by December 31, 1999. -- As has been publicly reported, the German government hasincreased its contribution to the Fund which, in turn, hasspurred German industry to further add to its share. The actionof the German government comes at a time of serious budget cutsand demonstrates its abiding commitment to addressing theunfinished issues of WWII. -- German industry has broadened its participation, both interms of the number of firms involved and their monetarycontribution. The current range of up to DM 10 billion ($5.25billion), while not yet sufficient to resolve all the claimssought to be included by the German side, represents a major stepforward and demonstrates the industry's good faith effort tobring this matter to closure this year. While material progress has been made, there is still asignificant gap between the parties on the final dollar amount.We urge the German side to continue to move forward toward acommon ground. We pledge our best efforts to do the same. We owethis to our clients and other victims of German industry duringWWII who have waited so long to be recognized." For further information contact: Stephen A. Whinston, Esq. Berger & Montague, P.C. 1622 Locust Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 Telephone: (215) 875-3000 Facsimile: (215) 875-3053 E-Mail: swhinston@bm.net J. Dennis Faucher, Esq. Miller Faucher Cafferty and Wexler LLP One Penn Square West, Suite 2500 30 South 15th Street Philadelphia, PA 19102 Telephone: (215) 864-2800 Facsimile: (215) 864-2810 Mel Urbach, Esq. One Exchange Place Suite 1000 Jersey City, NJ 07302 Telephone: (201) 395-4709 Facsimile: (212) 382-0020 These attorneys represent one of the three groups of U.S.lawyers for slave laborers in ongoing talks with the Germangovernment and certain German companies. They have filed suitsagainst over a dozen German companies and banks arising fromNazi-era violations of human rights. The talks are being co-chaired by representatives of the U.S. and German governments andalso include representatives of the governments of Israel, theCzech Republic, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus as well asrepresentatives of the Jewish Claims Conference and others. otsOriginal Text Service: Berger & Montague, P.C. Internet:http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Stephen A. Winston, Esq.,Berger & Montague, P.C. (USA) 215-875-3000, or Fax, 215-875-3053,or E-mail, swhinston@bm.net, or J. Dennis Faucher, Esq., MillerFaucher Cafferty and Wexler LLP, 215-864-2800, or Fax, 215-864-2810, or Mel Urbach, Esq., 201-395-4709, or Fax, 212-382-0020Web site: http://home.bm.net

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