Survivors' Lawsuit Seeks $40 Billion From U.S. for Not Bombing Auschwitz
FORWARD STAFF

In a bizarre addition to the Holocaust-related suits now winding their way
through the courts, two German-Jewish survivors of the Auschwitz death camp
are suing the American government for its failure to bomb the camp.

The plaintiffs in the class-action suit, Kurt Julius Goldstein, 87, and
Peter Gingold, 85, are asking for $40 billion in compensation for survivors
and the descendants of the Jews killed in Auschwitz in the closing months of
World War II. They claim that a decision to bomb the camp would have rescued
some 400,000 Hungarian Jews who were deported there in 1944 and 1945.

The suit was filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
on January 2. Judge Emmet G. Sullivan issued a summons to the U.S. attorney
general on March 8. The government has 60 days to respond.

Holocaust scholars here were largely dismissive of the suit. "This is silly
and ridiculous," said Michael Berenbaum, co-editor of "The Bombing of
Auschwitz," a comprehensive historical study published last summer. "How can
you litigate on the conduct of the war? And why don't they sue the German
government for creating Auschwitz in the first place?"

But the suit's legal architect insisted it has raised important issues.
"This is not some crazy lawsuit," said Peter Wolz, a Düsseldorf lawyer who
said it took him three years to build the suit. "The attitude of the U.S.
government during the war, and especially its decision not to bomb
Auschwitz, need to be addressed in a legal case."

American legal experts say that the case will probably be dismissed because
of the "sovereign immunity" statute, which protects governments from being
sued for their actions, or inaction, in this case. Mr. Wolz contends that
the protection should not apply because genocide-related issues are governed
by international law.

"It is a dead-end," said a prominent legal scholar who spoke on condition of
anonymity. "There is no way a U.S. court will accept this kind of argument."

In the past few years, Jewish survivors have filed numerous lawsuits against
Swiss banks, German companies and other European entities and governments,
leading to several multi-billion-dollar settlements. Recently, however, the
focus has been shifting toward America's role in the Nazi atrocities and
their aftermath. A lawsuit, since dropped, was filed against IBM alleging
that its German subsidiary colluded with the Nazi regime.

The Auschwitz bombing suit, despite its remote chances of success, is
creating a sense of unease among Jewish organizations. The $40 billion
sought in compensation is also raising eyebrows. The Swiss banks, for
example, settled for $1.25 billion and German industry and government for
$5.2 billion.

"It gives the Holocaust movement a bad name," said Marc Stern, legal affairs
director of the American Jewish Congress. "It is going to be seen as 'The
Jews are really out there to get all the money they can from the
Holocaust.'"

Elan Steinberg, the executive director of the World Jewish Congress, which
has been at the forefront of Holocaust restitution campaign, said, "We
absolutely don't support it."

Mr. Wolz, who is not Jewish, said that he based his 600-page case on Mr.
Berenbaum's book, on his own findings among recently declassified archival
materials and on other unclassified documents, including documents from U.S.
government agencies.

The central claim of the suit draws its impetus from an executive order
signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on January 22, 1944, calling
on the government to take all measures to rescue the European Jews.

"Why did the executive order not go through?" Mr. Wolz asked. He claims the
order was ignored because of the influence of a group of America's biggest
companies, which continued to do business with Nazi Germany during the war.
He asserts that the U.S. Air Force, which controlled the European skies in
1944, could easily have bombed the railways and the bridges bringing the
Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz between May and July 1944. But the camp and its
supply lines were taken off the final list of target proposals and never
were bombed.

"We want to show that because some people at the top of the U.S. government
and some major American companies had sympathies and business links with
Nazi Germany, hundred thousands of Jewish lives were not saved," said Mr.
Goldstein, who lives in Berlin. He said he spent 13 months as a forced
laborer in Auschwitz, at which most of his family perished.

Mr. Berenbaum said, "Even if I personally believe the Americans should have
bombed Auschwitz, I must say there is no clear-cut answer."

Mr. Wolz said he was prompted to act by the recent settlements reached by
Jewish groups with Swiss banks and German companies. "I was angered that
they could buy their way out for peanuts," he said.