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The Independent (London), September 1, 1998, Tuesday
VW sued by slave labour survivors
Imre Karacs in Bonn
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS began legal action against some of Germany's biggest and best-known companies yesterday, accusing the firms of profiting from Nazi-era slave labour.
One lawsuit names Volkswagen, while the second lists the German car- maker and its Audi subsidiary, as well as Siemens, the electronics giant, steel-maker Krupp-Hoesch, the engineering group MAN, and BMW and Daimler- Benz, the car manufacturers. Leica, the photographic equipment group, and weapons maker Diehl were also named.
The companies are believed to have used more than 2 million slave labourers during the Nazi era, a German lawyer, Michael Witti, said in Munich.
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CB: Flash ! This just in. The defendants answers to the complaints claim that the slave labourers CONSENTED to do the work for free, citing the theories of a prisoner of the Fascists , Antonio Gramsci.