Polish WW2 victims sue German corporations
Two indemnity lawsuits have been filed against two German corporations that collaborated with the Third Reich in World War Two, an attorney representing the suitors informed PAP on Tuesday.
The first lawsuit, against the Henschel GmBH company, has been filed by the grandchildren of Leopold Wellisz, a Polish-Jewish businessman whose company Fablok was taken over by Henschel, during the wartime German occupation of Poland.
The plaintiffs are demanding around EUR 4 million in compensation for their grandfather's losses through the Henschel company, then known under the name Henschel und Sohn.
The second lawsuit, for over EUR 380,000, has been brought against the Bayer AG corporation by the daughter of Tadeusz Sledzinski, an engineer and pre-war head of a large nitrogen plant in Poland, who was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1940 and from there sent to forced labour for the IG Farben company, a subsidiary of Bayer.
Both lawsuits are being piloted by the Defenders for Defenders War Compensation Foundation, which specialises in material indemnity claims by war victims.
"Further lawsuits are being prepared and will be filed with courts," said legal counsel Jerzy Pasieka, who represents the victims.
The Defenders for Defenders War Compensation Foundation was created to offer legal aid to victims of all armed conflicts around the world, both historical and ongoing ones. (PAP)
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