Paying for the past [Widescreen]

An intriguing documentary which follows the story of a group of lawyers from Germany, United States and Australia who are in the process of negotiating the biggest class action the world has ever seen. Acting on behalf of Holocaust survivors who were either used as forced labour or slave labour for the German industrialists such as Siemens, BMW and Krupp, during World War II, these lawyers are seeking to put closure on Germany’s dark past through financial compensation, and emotional and moral reparation. Forced and slave labourers worked under the most horrendous conditions and came from the concentration camps, consisting of gypsies, homosexuals and Jews. BMW had upto 20,000 slave labourers by 1944, many who did not survive. Whereas forced labourers were never intended to be killed off, slave labourers were part of a German “destruction through work” policy, for example, at Krupp’s, eight out of ten slave labourers died. Australia, with the highest Holocaust survivor population after Israel, has over 3000 claimants with Henry Burstyner, a tenacious and unrelenting Melbourne lawyer, representing Australia in the class action. Includes personal narratives from Kitia Altman, Abraham Biderman and Erica Turek, Holocaust survivors in Melbourne and Sydney, along with family photographs, stills and archival footage and appearances by Karen Heilig (Claims Conference, NY), Kenneth McCallion (Goodkind Firm), Dr Michael Witti (Germany), Ed Fagan (Fagan & D’Avino, US) and Henry Burstyner in their negotiations with the German companies - their aim: settlement by the end of the millenium. Narrated by Robert Menzies.