Nazi-era slave aid plan blocked

Protestors clash with police outside the meeting in Frankfurt

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Plans to liquidate a German firm, which made poison gas for Nazi death camps, and use the funds for compensation claims have been blocked.

IG Farben's board threw out the proposal to donate proceeds from the sale of its assets -- estimated at $10 million -- to a $4.6 billion national compensation fund that began pay-outs to former slave labourers earlier this year.

The company was split up after the second world war by the Allies and put into partial liquidation in 1952. Shareholders had voted to completely liquidate the company by the end of 2001.

But at its annual general meeting in Frankfurt, the board refused to pass the compensation proposal, saying such a step could only be taken with the consent of 100 percent of the company's shareholders, not all of whom were present at the meeting.

Scuffles broke out between security guards and about 100 protesters, including some elderly Nazi-era slave labourers.

Ernst Krienke, head of IG Farben's supervisory board, shouted at the crowds: "This isn't a political forum," said The Associated Press news agency.

"What moral position we, or I, take is a completely different thing," Krienke added.

IG Farben has been embroiled in a series of lawsuits dating back to the Nazi era - some of which only came to light after German reunification in 1990.

Jews in western Europe, who were forced to work at IG Farben plants by the Nazis, received compensation in the 1950s.

Protests at the IG Farben meetings have intensified in recent years. In 1998, the annual shareholder gathering was cancelled because of the protests.