Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future"

The Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" (German: Stiftung Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft; acronym EVZ), is a German Federal organisation with the purpose of making financial compensation available "to former forced laborers and to those affected by other injustices from the National Socialist period".

Background

Throughout World War II about 8.4 million civilian forced laborers from all over Europe and 4.5 million prisoners of war were deployed as slave and forced laborers in Nazi concentration camps, labor camps or other places of detention for industrial, agricultural or public administrative purposes.

The Foundation

Compensation

The foundation was established in August 2000 following several years of national and international negotiations in which the German government was represented by Otto Graf Lambsdorff. The Foundation’s capital of DEM 10.1 billion (EUR 5.2 billion) was provided in equal amounts by 6,500 German companies to the German Industry Foundation Initiative and the German Federal Government.