Moral, Emotional and Tactical Considerations Concerning Reparations for Oppression

Reparations

"The German Reparations Question"
By Saul Jay Singer - 12 Elul 5778 – August 22, 2018
The debate regarding legal actions that could be initiated against Germany began soon after World War II, as Jewish organizations argued vigorously that the Jews had the legal and moral right to damages for losses sustained during the Holocaust.
When the German authorities made clear that they would not return Jewish assets to their rightful owners, the American military authorities passed a law in October 1947 mandating that all property illegally appropriated by the Nazi regime be returned to its original owners. Claimants, however, would have the burden of proof to establish ownership. In a bold and significant move, the law also authorized Jewish organizations to bring claims on behalf of heirless property, most of whose owners had been murdered in the Shoah.
Beginning in the early 1950s, Jews and Jewish organizations argued that, given the breadth of physical and emotional damages inflicted by Germany upon the Jews during the Holocaust, Germany should be responsible for far more than property losses, thus raising the issue of reparations.
The reparations question became a delicate issue not only for Israel and the Jewish world, but also for Germany, which was seeking to reestablish itself amongst the community of legitimate nations. Concerned about world opinion and wanting to silence the Israelis, Germany sought to put its new “Jewish problem” to rest.
Israel, however, maintained that the very idea of a “new Germany” was absurd on its face, particularly given that Germany’s leading financial, political, military, and financial positions were still held by Nazis. Moreover, as we will see below, most Jews viewed the idea of accepting German blood money with deep disdain, if not abject horror.
With the public in both countries opposed to reparations – only 34 percent of the German public believed that Germany owed Jews anything at all, and 21 percent still believed that the Jews themselves were responsible for what had happened to them during the Holocaust – secret negotiations began between Germany and Israel, with both nations concerned about adverse publicity.
Israel rejected Germany’s $100 million initial offer; demanded that Germany take direct responsibility for the Holocaust, and insisted that any settlement make clear that Germany could not buy Israel’s forgiveness – nor, by extension, the forgiveness of the Jewish people.
Following Israel’s War of Independence, Israel faced monumental challenges in establishing a firm economic foundation for the new nation, not the least of which were the overwhelming costs of absorbing and rehabilitating half a million destitute Jewish refugees. Prime Minister Ben-Gurion took what he characterized as a pragmatic approach, arguing that accepting a deal with Germany was the only practical solution to Israel’s economic woes; that reparations were necessary to restore what was stolen from Hitler’s victims; and that underscoring the reparation demand was the recovery of as much Jewish property as possible “so that the murderers do not become the heirs as well.”
Leading the struggle against reparations was a passionate Menachem Begin, who gave fiery speeches at mass demonstrations at which he addressed many Holocaust victims sickened by the prospect of permitting the perpetrators of genocide to obtain absolution through the payment of blood money. He called upon Israeli citizens to withhold paying taxes and urged them to engage in civil disobedience, even if the result is incarceration in “an Israeli concentration camp.”
The debate on the reparations issue was likely the fiercest and most heated in Israel’s history. On January 7, 1952, the day of the Knesset debate on this issue, Israeli security authorities went so far as to have contingency plans to deal with an insurrection, and the IDF prepared to counter an attempt to overthrow the government. The Knesset ultimately decided by a 61-50 vote to enter into direct negotiations with West Germany – but only after a 15,000-strong violent anti-Agreement riot outside the Frumin Knesset Building, led by Begin, was quelled by police after hundreds of protestors and officers, as well as several Knesset members, were injured.
This protest became the first time in Israeli history that demonstrators interrupted a Knesset session seeking to overturn a democratically made Knesset decision. Begin, who was subsequently held responsible for the violence, was barred from the Knesset for three months...
Ultimately, the Heskem HaShillumim, or Reparations Agreement, was executed by Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett for Israel and Chancellor Adenauer for Germany on September 10, 1952 and became effective on March 27, 1953. Pursuant to the Agreement, West Germany agreed to pay Israel for the costs of post-Holocaust resettlement of Jewish survivors, and to compensate individual Jews, through the Claims Conference, for financial losses caused by the Third Reich.
Over the next 14 years, West Germany paid three billion marks to Israel and 450 million marks to the World Jewish Congress. To date, total German reparations paid exceed $70 billion.
The Agreement displayed several fascinating legal novelties never before seen: Its signatories were two countries (Israel and West Germany) that did not exist at the time period it concerns; it designated a third-party as a beneficiary (the Jewish people); and it was the first agreement pursuant to which a defeated country agreed to compensate individual victims and casualties of war...
Even today, some eight decades after the Holocaust and with few remaining survivors of the Shoah, the issue of Israel and Jews negotiating and accepting German reparations remains highly controversial and heatedly contested.