Flick gives 6.5 million dollars to German slave labor foundation

The grandson of Nazi supporter and industrialist Friedrich Flick has made a big donation to a public-private fund set up to compensate former slave laborers, the German foundation running the fund has announced. The controversial modern art collector Friedrich Christian Flick gave € 5 million (US$ 6.5 million) to a global fund established in 2001 with € 5.1 billion to compensate former Nazi slave laborers, the foundation said. About 1.7 million now elderly ex-Nazi slaves, mostly in eastern Europe, have been given symbolic compensation through the fund. Flick had been strongly criticized for declining to join the slave labor compensation program which was jointly funded by the German government and industry. His grandfather, Friedrich Flick, was a wealthy businessman who joined the Nazi party and made big donations to Hitler. He worked closely with Himmler's SS and played a major role in the arms sector. After the war, Flick was accused of having heavily relied on slave labor and sentenced to seven years in prison at the Nuremburg trials in 1947. After winning early release from prison in 1950, Flick rebuilt his industrial empire. After his death in 1972, his eldest son Friedrich Christian inherited most of the Flick fortune.