German Companies Will Fight Holocaust Ruling

Payments to aging Nazi-era slave laborers hit another snag when German corporations said they would appeal a U.S. judge’s ruling that set conditions for dismissing Holocaust-related litigation.

U.S. District Judge Shirley Wohl Kram said during a hearing that she would dismiss the lawsuits. But a spokesman for German companies said the judge’s written order contained conditions with which they could not comply.

The German government and corporations backing a $4.5-billion fund to pay survivors who are in their 70s and 80s will not release the money until all U.S. litigation against German defendants is dismissed.