Sixty Israelis who worked as slave-labourers in the Auschwitz extermination camp are due to receive 10,000 marks (£4,100) each in compensation from Volkswagen, an Israeli newspaper said yesterday.
The money, to come from VW's "humanitarian fund", will be the first time in more than 30 years that former labourers under the Nazis have received compensation and should serve as a minimum for future payments, the Jerusalem Post said.
The VW fund currently has a total of 20 million marks at its disposal and was set up by Mr Klaus von Munchhausen, a German lawyer who acts on behalf of former slave labourers.
Mr Von Munchhausen has asked that the fund, which is administered by the former Israeli prime minister, Mr Shimon Peres, the former Austrian chancellor, Mr Franz Vranitzky, and the former German President Richard von Weizsaecker, be doubled in value, the Post reported.
The Siemens electronics group set up a similar fund in September which has already received some 1,200 requests for compensation. But neither VW nor Siemens has acknowledged any liability in respect of the exploitation of slave labour under the Third Reich.
Germany has paid compensation to victims of the Nazis but only for loss of liberty or for damage to health, the Post said.
In a move welcomed by Jewish groups, Germany presented a plan in Washington on Monday to regulate the compensation of slave labourers under the Nazis.
Artworks looted by the Nazis and returned to France after the second World War are on display in Paris in the presidential palace, the prime minister's home and the Turkish Embassy, a Jewish group said on Thursday.
The World Jewish Congress said a French inventory of some 2,000 works of looted art still not returned to their rightful owners or their heirs showed some unusual locations for the works.
"There are two paintings by the school of Joseph Vernet, the 18th century painter, hanging in the Turkish embassy, placed there on loan by the French government," the congress's executive director, Mr Elan Steinberg, said. He added that antiques from the 2,000 pieces were in the French prime minister's residence and the Elysee presidential palace.
The World Jewish Congress has been leading a campaign to have looted works of art returned to their owners or, when there are no heirs, sold at auction to benefit Holocaust survivors.
Mr Steinberg said that while the French had placed on the Internet an inventory of works still under the care of the French government, their locations had not been known until the Matteoli commission, which is investigating the issue, reported two weeks ago. He said the group's interim report showed that two Louis XIV chairs and other pieces, including Oriental rugs, were in the prime minister's residence and a leather-covered medallion box was in the presidential palace.
He added: "Clearly, the Turkish ambassador has no idea that French authorities had placed works that did not belong to them in the Turkish embassy."
The 2,000 works of art are what remains of some 15,000 works looted by the Nazis and returned to France after the war.