German reparations for Holocaust reveal complexities of atonement
| Berlin
Germany is considered a global model when it comes to atonement, having paid out nearly 鈧�90 billion to Holocaust survivors around the world over the past 70 years.
The government has constructed world-class memorials and museums to highlight Nazi Germany鈥檚 role in the murder of 6 million Jews. Holocaust education is mandated in the public school curriculum, and the federal government staunchly allies itself with Israel. The move to financially redress past wrongs has been crucial to help legitimize democratic governance in Germany after World War II, and instructs others on how to heal wounds that strengthen a country鈥檚 foundation for the future, says Alexander Karn, a Holocaust historian at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.
鈥淎lmost聽every group that wrestles with a history of genocide comes back to the Holocaust at some point, because it鈥檚 one of the cases where there has been an enactment of justice,鈥� says Dr. Karn.聽
Why We Wrote This
The world is increasingly questioning what it owes victims of state genocide, enslavement, and policies of exclusion. Germany鈥檚 atonement after the Holocaust shows a path 鈥� albeit a bumpy one 鈥� forward.
Yet the good intent of German 鈥渞eparations鈥� has real limitations. Holocaust survivors and their advocates say the process of justice for historic harm is far more complicated, even when the commitment to justice is enormous 鈥� both in intent and in material compensation. Financial support, once rejected by survivors, can never bring closure, they say, especially as antisemitism still exists and is rising following the start of the Israel-Hamas war. As states and countries from California to the United Kingdom grapple with how to leverage reparations to address generations of trauma and poverty for slavery, colonization, genocide, and state policies of exclusion, Germany鈥檚 case illustrates just how complex is the idea of addressing massive past wrongs.
鈥淛ustice is too big a word, so we don鈥檛 use it,鈥� says R眉diger Mahlo, representative of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, in Europe, the nonprofit responsible for speaking for survivors and negotiating payments with the German government.
Evolution of survival
Most survivors alive today were聽children during the Holocaust.
The challenges they faced after the end of World War II were numerous, says Berlin-based Holocaust historian Verena Buser. They included post-traumatic stress disorder from losing family members, growing up in hiding, or dealing with post-war poverty. 鈥淥n a psychological or psycho-social level, they suffer from fears; they lost their trust in others,鈥� she says. 鈥淎ll these issues come back as you age.鈥�
There are an estimated 245,000 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust era left.
Germany has made some form of payments to survivors since the 1950s, when the Claims Conference first began negotiating on behalf of survivors and administering the resulting payments. The payments include direct compensation and home care services. Last year鈥檚 negotiation resulted in , with additional one-time funds for some of the poorest survivors 鈥� largely Jews from the former Soviet Union who fled the Nazi mobile killing units tasked with eliminating entire Jewish communities.聽
Initially, there was a chasm between how the government and survivors saw such agreements, says Mr. Mahlo of the Claims Conference. 鈥淚n the beginning, survivors said, 鈥榃hat is my father or sister worth? How can you possibly morally negotiate those kinds of things?鈥� So we didn鈥檛,鈥� says Mr. Mahlo.
At first, Israel didn鈥檛 want to sit down at the negotiating table, viewing payment as an easy route to making amends. Meanwhile, in 1951, only of Germans supported their government having talks with Israel. Germans today still use the term聽wiedergutmachen, or to 鈥渕ake one whole again,鈥� but that is a framing that didn鈥檛 work for survivors amid such loss, says Mr. Mahlo.聽
Over 70 years later, however, there is a general consensus that Germany owes its survivors, and those payments are critical to a society鈥檚 path forward.
Leon Weintraub, a 98-year-old resident of Stockholm, survived Ghetto Litzmannstadt, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and three other concentration camps before he was liberated by the French Army in April 1945 at the age of 19, diagnosed with typhus.
During the Holocaust, three of his聽sisters survived Bergen-Belsen, but everyone else in his immediate family was killed. He worked hard to earn a medical degree and established himself as a doctor in Poland. During a wave of antisemitism there in the 1960s, he started over in Sweden, where he now lives.
Today Dr. Weintraub gives speeches around the world educating the public about the Holocaust. He says payments for some survivors can be of substantial help, especially for older adults in Israel who are living out their last days in very poor conditions, says Dr. Weintraub, who himself receives 鈧�1,800 quarterly. 鈥淭hese payments ... are a little help but still very important for them.鈥�
In the face of such trauma, he says, the commonly used term 鈥渞eparations鈥� is not the right word. 鈥淏ecause there鈥檚 no price for human life. It鈥檚 economic and financial support for survivors, to help them in their lives after surviving a terrible experience of living daily with [the prospect of] death,鈥� says Dr. Weintraub, who retired as an obstetrician-gynecologist.
Still the payments are gestures heavy with meaning:聽鈥淭he German government has recognized the guilt of Germany as a state, country, nation,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat is their responsibility to continue to pay. It is the minimum Germany can do to help the few survivors.鈥澛�
Evolution of victimhood
Indeed, what Germany has done especially well, says聽Hilary Earl, a historian of Germany and professor at Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario, is to acknowledge that the German state was the main perpetrator in the crimes committed against Jews.聽
Contrast this, she says, with the Armenian genocide of 1915, for which the Turkish state has never taken responsibility.
Justice takes many forms, and means different things to different survivors, says Dr. Earl. 鈥淚t is education policy, and an education system that encourages German students to study and learn about the history of World War II and the Holocaust. It is immigration policy, it is ongoing transfer payments made to the state of Israel, it is cultural policy that dedicates money to commemorative events, and it is a government that enables open access to all historical documents that relate to this period. There are so many examples.鈥�
But justice for the past is also issued in the present 鈥� and perceptions of obligation and responsibility evolve in modern contexts.
Dr. Weintraub continues to speak publicly about the need to criminalize far-right ideologies. 鈥淏ecause, knowing about what happened, it鈥檚 our responsibility to make sure this never happens again,鈥� he says. On Oct. 7, Dr. Weintraub was in Tel Aviv and awoke to the sound of sirens. He says he has been re-traumatized by Hamas鈥� attacks on Israel and by the feeling that he needs to again hide in the face of antisemitism. He is fearful of future genocides of Jewish people.
Though Hamas attacked Israel, the public discourse has shifted in recent months as Israel wages war in Gaza. People increasingly are questioning how Israel, a country born out of the Holocaust, could itself undertake a campaign in Gaza that is causing such devastating violence to civilians.
Dr. Karn, the Holocaust historian, says that Israel and the Palestinian territories are both home to 鈥渢wo deeply traumatized peoples.鈥�
鈥淎nd while these cycles of violence play out, the categories of perpetrator and victim are sometimes blurred or even collapsed,鈥� he says. 鈥淎 group that has received reparations in the past or a group that may be entitled to reparations does not automatically achieve any kind of moral purity on the basis of their losses.鈥�
Yet no matter the current state of affairs, he sees a persistent demand for redress, not just from victims but for society overall. 鈥淭he important thing is that the democratic state has to deliver a concept of justice to its citizens in order to be viewed as legitimate 鈥� not only to its citizens but also in the international arena as well.鈥澛�
This story was produced as part of a special Monitor series exploring the reparations debate, in the United States and around the world.聽Explore more.
Editor鈥檚 note: The story was updated to correct Mr. Weintraub鈥檚 current age and details of his liberation from captivity during World War II. The story was also updated to correct what percentage of Germans in 1951 thought the German government should have talks with Israel. Further, additional context was added to the story to illustrate Mr. Weintraub鈥檚 experience as a Holocaust survivor and to include detail about the Oct. 7 attacks from Hamas while he was in Tel Aviv.
