Whats the difference between slave labor and forced labor?
Most slave labor55%was Jewish, with the remainder Slavs, Poles, Romanis (gypsies), Jehovah’s Witnesses and political prisoners. This was labor as extermination. They lived and worked in concentration camps. But 99% of the forced labor was not Jewish. They lived in labor camps, often with their families, were lightly guarded, and got enough food to live. The goal was not extermination, but exploitation. Q: What’s your response to the charge that emphasizing the financial aspect of the Holocaust overshadows the human tragedy of it all? A: It’s a very tough question and there are two answers. One, in civilized society, the way in which we deal with wrongssay, a breach of contract or an act of negligence, or a willful actionis we monetize it. We did that with the victims of 9/11, and we compensated the families monetarily. It’s a way of society building accountability. Why should these companies, who used slave labor and stolen money, and then refused to return the money, go scot-free? It’
