Italian internees get no Nazi compensation

Some 60,000 Italian soldiers who were imprisoned by the Nazis in World War II have been told that they are not eligible for compensation from the German Government.

The former internees were hoping to establish claims under the provisions of a $4.5bn fund set up by Germany to make reparations for Nazi use of slave labour.

The International Organisation for Migration, which is handling claims from non-Jewish victims, said it sympathised with the claimants.

But the German compensation fund said Italian internees were excluded because they were prisoners of war.

The only exception would be those who were held in SS concentration camps.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service