Between 2000 and 2007, Germany paid about 4.4 billion euros (US$ 5.82 billion) in compensation to some 1.7 million, mostly East European, victims of the Nazis' forced and slave labor program, most of whom had worked in factories and on farms.

At a news conference in Berlin on Thursday, the foundation which previously organized the payouts said it had developed new activities aimed at promoting reconciliation, and teaching younger generations about slave labor under the Nazis.

The "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" Foundation has new goals, now that "the complex task of compensating victims in more than 98 countries had been successfully finished", said Guenter Saathoff, a senior board member of the foundation.

Survivors still need help

Under the Nazis, an estimated 13 million people were forced to toil in Germany to keep Hitler's war machinery going between 1933 and 1945.

Following a series of class action lawsuits in the US against German companies in 1998, the German government and business leaders decided to set up a fund to compensate the survivors.

Half of the then 10 billion deutschmark fund (5 billion euros) was provided by the government, the other half by German industry.

The majority of those entitled to compensation lived in Eastern European countries such as Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, and received sums of between one thousand and five thousand euros.

Many of the survivors in those countries also needed medical assistance because of a lack of state support and the poor medical infrastructure there.

Such aid would continue to remain "a strong focus of the foundation's activities", said Saathoff, adding that, in 2009, more than 3 million euros had been spent on hearing aids, wheelchairs, and other medical equipment for the survivors, most of whom "were already very old".

Learn from history for a better future

In addition to that, the foundation supported projects aimed at making especially young people in Germany and Eastern Europe "aware of their joint history" and "promote understanding among them".

Another focus, said Saathoff, was on initiatives aimed at encouraging people to stand up for human rights, notably those of ethnic minorities.

"The Sinti and Roma in southeastern Europe, as well as Jews in Russia and other former Soviet Republics, still need the protection of all of us", he said.

Ethical investments

On balance, the foundation spent 8.3 million euros on a total of 345 projects. The financing comes from revenues garnered through the foundation's capital stock of 415 million euros.

"We apply strict ethical guidelines for our investments", said Harald Schneider, the foundation's finance manager.

"We do not invest in soft commodities such as foodstuffs, because there is too much speculation going on which have a negative impact on developing countries", he said.

The foundation, he added, would not invest in companies "where working conditions similar to those of Nazi slave laborers exist".

Instead, Schneider added, a greater focus was placed on providing micro credits for small enterprises "to ensure a better participation of ordinary people in economic life".

Author: Uwe Hessler

Editor: Susan Houlton