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Infanticide Case Filed Against Volkswagen

5 May 1999

Infanticide Case Filed Against Volkswagen; Kosovo Ethnic Cleansing Parallels Nazi Methods

    WASHINGTON, May 5 -- One of the most horrendous acts of
ethnic cleansing that occurred during the Nazi Regime is the focus of a
class-action lawsuit filed today in United States District Court for the
Eastern District of Wisconsin.  In Anna Snopczyk v. Volkswagen A.G., the
plaintiff, a 78-year-old Polish woman, alleges that German corporation
Volkswagen A.G. is responsible for the deaths of her two-month-old baby and at
least 350 to 400 other Polish and Russian infants during the years 1943 to
1945.  The plaintiff alleges that the infants died while in the care of a
children's nursery owned and operated by Volkswagen due to abominable
conditions there, and the intentional neglect and maltreatment of the children
by Volkswagen employees.  Known as a "Kinderheim," the nursery was established
by Volkswagen to care for the babies born by the Polish and Russian forced
labor population serving its automobile factory and neighboring farms in
Wolfsburg, Germany.  As part of Hitler's "Strength through Joy" program, the
plant produced munitions for the German war effort, as well as the Fuhrer's
affordable "people's car" -- the now-famous Volkswagen "Beetle" -- for members
of the German working class.
    Plaintiffs' class action attorney Michael D. Hausfeld, a partner at Cohen,
Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, P.L.L.C., filed the lawsuit against Volkswagen A.G.
The suit claims that under international law, Volkswagen's actions constitute
genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
    The babies of the Polish and Russian workers in Wolfsburg were taken from
their mothers usually only days after their birth and housed in the
Kinderheim, which was nothing more than two run-down wooden shacks, overrun by
insects and infection.  Numerous visitors and staff reported that the children
cried all night while insects crawled over them and bit them.  One eyewitness
described the infestation as so severe that the walls, floors and beds were
"alive" with insects.  The children were severely malnourished, and the food
they were given was too coarse for an infant to digest.  Near the end of its
operation, the mortality rate for infants at the Kinderheim was nearly 100%;
the children died with distended and discolored abdomens, and sores and
pustules over most of their body.
    After the War, the Allies conducted an investigation of the Volkswagen
Kinderheim and tried eight Volkswagen employees, including the manager of
Volkswagen's Wolfsburg factory, for war crimes.  The German physician
Volkswagen put in charge of its nursery, Hans Korbel, was executed in 1947 for
the "killing by willful neglect" of the children at Volkswagen's Kinderheim.
    According to Mr. Hausfeld, "There are no statutory limitations on the
horrific ethnic cleansing and genocide perpetrated by Volkswagen in the
Wolfsburg Kinderheim.  The plaintiff's legal right to seek compensation for
genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity during the Second World War
is preserved by the London Debt Settlement Agreement of 1953 and the
Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and
Crimes Against Humanity."
    Mr. Hausfeld, a Washington, D.C. attorney, was co-lead counsel for the
plaintiffs in the recent pro bono case against the Swiss banks that resulted
in a 1998 settlement by the banks for $1.25 billion.  In 1997, he represented
minorities in a major race discrimination case against Texaco that resulted in
a landmark settlement for over $176 million.
    Attorney Beth Kushner of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin law firm von Briesen,
Purtell & Roper, S.C., is also serving as counsel in this case.