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The German reparations to the Jews were profound, but what were the factors behind the success?

author:A millennium of literary history

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Historically, there have been many instances of injustice against minorities, such as genocide, slavery, torture, and mass deportations. The common feature of these cases is that they occurred in the past and involved the killing, exclusion and oppression of specific groups. Some unresolved historical injustices can also serve as a backdrop to modern conflicts. With the continuous development of human rights doctrine and the continuous improvement of the moral standards of the international community, more and more minority groups who have been unjustly treated have initiated claims.

German reparations to Jews set the benchmark for such claims. Since then, some countries have apologized and compensated for harm caused to indigenous peoples, such as Canada's compensation for Indians and Inuit, the United States' compensation for Indians and apologies for Native Hawaiians. These international cases of apologies and reparations for historical injustices provide a viable analysis for victims of other races around the world to initiate claims.

The German reparations to the Jews were profound, but what were the factors behind the success?

Nazi Germany's Anti-Semitism and Jewish Claims

The Jewish people are a distinct cultural and religious group that has been persecuted many times throughout history. As a minority and adherent to Judaism, Jews were excluded in Europe. The ingenuity of the Jews made them outstanding in all walks of life, which also caused discontent among the local emerging bourgeoisie in Europe. A large number of Jews arrived in Germany during the second Great Escape, and anti-Semitism was rampant in Germany due to fierce competition for jobs and contradictions between different religions and cultures.

During the Nazi regime, the Hitler regime brutally persecuted and plundered the wealth of European Jews. Even before the outbreak of World War II, Germany had a systematic policy of racial discrimination against Jews. On the economic front, exclude it from the job market and financial markets. Jews were forbidden to do business, work in state offices, or participate in journalism, film, and education.

The German reparations to the Jews were profound, but what were the factors behind the success?

The Nuremberg Code of 1935 further stripped Jews of citizenship in law. As racial discrimination intensified, Germany imposed a policy of apartheid, banning Jews from public places. The basic survival of Jews is also difficult to guarantee, and signs saying "Jews are forbidden" can be seen everywhere in the shops of the streets.

In 1938, Germany embarked on an even more frantic campaign to exclude Jews. In the early hours of November 10, Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich, a top German SS official, organized a violent burning and looting, burning Jewish homes, shops, and synagogues. Heydrich reported that 7,500 Jewish shops had been robbed and rapes of women had occurred. After the violent acts, the losses of the Jews were not commensurate with insurance compensation, and the insurance money paid by the insurance company was embezzled by the state.

The German reparations to the Jews were profound, but what were the factors behind the success?

At a subsequent conference on reparations, government officials, led by Hermann Wilhelm Göring, vowed to remove Jews from the German economy. Germany's policy of apartheid and persecution of Jews was a prelude to genocide. During World War II, Nazi Germany carried out inhuman and bloody massacres of Jews in the territories it occupied.

According to the Nuremberg Court indictment, the number of Jews killed by the Nazis was 5.7 million, and the estimates of the World Jewish Congress were largely in line with it. While carrying out the dementation of Jews, Nazi Germany did not forget to frantically plunder property. In addition to Jewish property in Germany, Jewish factories and art collections in the German-occupied territories were confiscated. Illegally acquired property filled the German National Bank.

The German reparations to the Jews were profound, but what were the factors behind the success?

Some of the items were resold by pawnshops run by the municipality and exchanged for cash. The value of individual and collective Jewish goods plundered by the Germans between 1933 and 1945 is difficult to estimate. During World War II, large numbers of Jews were displaced. According to statistics, between 1933 and 1941, the total number of Jewish refugees was as high as 1.396 million to 1.756 million, of which about 40% were from Poland and about 20% from Germany.

Between 1945 and 1949, as many as 250,000 Jews were displaced because of war and the exclusion of Jews in Europe. The homeless received basic livelihood assistance from the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency, the General Administration for Rehabilitation and Rehabilitation and the allied occupying forces. The Joint Distribution Committee and the Israel Jewish Authority also provided partial assistance.

2. Legal documents provide support

The basic material needs of the survivors put enormous financial pressure on these relief organizations, requiring Germany to return embezzled Jewish property and war reparations as a source of funding for the resettlement of refugees. There is no precedent for many of the legal and political problems caused by war. As early as January 1943, the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and 15 allied countries jointly issued the Declaration of the Allies against Plundering in Occupied Areas.

The Declaration was the first statement guaranteeing the lawful restitution of looted property and laid the foundation for future Jewish legal claims. In November 1944, the World Jewish Congress convened an emergency war conference calling for the return of the personal assets of Jews plundered during World War II and the payment of reparations to Jews. In addition to demanding the restitution of assets, Jewish groups have called on the German government for reparations. Compensation itself is both punitive and compensatory.

Although the evidence of crimes in Germany is strong, Jewish reparations still face many obstacles. First, the Jews did not have a sovereign state of their own people to back their claims in the early postwar period. Second, many Jews were deprived of their legal citizenship while their assets were confiscated by the Nazis, thus losing the protection of their governments. In 1945, the Allies convened a reparations conference in Paris aimed at reaching an agreement on German reparations.

Article 8 of the Final Document of the Paris Reparations Conference provided for the allocation of $25 million from German assets in neutral countries for reparations, and the reparations of about $5 million worth of gold found in Germany to stateless Nazi victims, mostly Jews. Jewish assets without surviving heirs were delivered to the Jewish Reparations Succession Organization. The damage caused by the murder, abuse, deportation, and looting of the Jews by Germany was immeasurable, and the compensation for this was far from adequate.

The German reparations to the Jews were profound, but what were the factors behind the success?

After the establishment of the state in 1948, Israel was forced to contact Germany under domestic economic pressure to discuss negotiations. Germany had slung a heavy moral yoke in the aftermath of the war and attached great importance to the needs of Jews and Israel in order to regain the trust of the international community. Federal German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer said he recognized Germany's moral responsibility to Jews and was determined to make amends.

In March 1952, the two sides began negotiations on compensation in Wassenaar. After nearly six months, the two sides signed the Luxembourg Agreement, which consisted of two main aspects: individual compensation and 450 million Deutsche marks for the "Conference on Material Claims of Jews against Germans" ("Jewish Claims Congress"). The Luxembourg Agreement became the basis for Germany's subsequent legislation on the payment of reparations to individual Jews and provided a legal basis for subsequent reparations sought by Nazi victims.

The German reparations to the Jews were profound, but what were the factors behind the success?

The conclusion of the Luxembourg Agreement was epochal, setting a precedent in which international law on individual financial reparation did not exist until then. In addition, it has led to a consensual agreement on reparations between two sovereign States, Israel and Germany, as well as Jewish organizations. The successful claims of German Jews largely provided inspiration, reference, and even experience for black Americans seeking compensation for injuries in the era of slavery.

First, the successful signing of the Luxembourg Treaty shows that compensation does not necessarily have to be obtained through existing legal proceedings, but can be achieved through negotiation and negotiation and the signing of legally binding documents. Second, Jewish organizations have played an important role in the claims, such as the World Jewish Congress, the Palestinian Jewish Organization, the Joint Distribution Committee of American Jews, etc. These groups played an important role in helping refugees, protecting Jewish interests, receiving restitution property, facilitating reparations negotiations, and distributing reparations funds.

The German reparations to the Jews were profound, but what were the factors behind the success?

Although these organizations were dedicated to helping Jews, they also represented different interests and even conflicting ideologies, but their common goals led them to converge while reserving their differences. Due to the variety of Jewish organizational factions and the lack of top-level design for reparations, the "Jewish Claims Conference" was born. During the negotiations, the Israeli government and the "Jewish Claims Conference" did not fully agree on their demands, but the two sides reached an agreement in 1952 to set aside their differences in order to concentrate their firepower on winning the claim.

Nahum Goldman promotes the claim

This strategy has proven successful. Finally, the success of Jewish claims could not be separated from the impetus of certain important people, as exemplified by Nahum Goldman, founder of the World Jewish Congress. Nahum Goldman was Chairman of the World Zionist Organization from 1956 to 1968 and also enjoys a high reputation and status in Israeli politics. He was fluent in many Chinese languages and had a wide influence throughout the Jewish world and international diplomacy.

The German reparations to the Jews were profound, but what were the factors behind the success?

He played the role of glue in getting Israel and Jews to agree to negotiations with Germany. At the same time, he also dominated the contacts between the Israelis and Germans before the negotiations. The process of resolving the issue of black compensation in the United States also benefited from this inspiration, and some important black leaders ran between various black organizations and governments to coordinate positions and mediate. Fourth, non-State claims against enterprises are also an important aspect of reparation.

In the 90s, the public noticed that the bank accounts of Holocaust victims without heirs had been hidden and filed claims against Swiss banks and the government. Attention then turned to insurance companies, alleging that they had benefited greatly from unfulfilled policies for Holocaust victims. In February 2000, the International Commission for Holocaust Age Insurance Claims announced that it would begin a two-year claims process to locate and pay Holocaust insurance policies.

The German reparations to the Jews were profound, but what were the factors behind the success?

In the case of slavery reparations in the United States, a similar situation was involved, where companies that insured and profited from slaves were held liable. Finally, the success of the Jewish claim was also due to the involvement of the international community. The attitude of the United States and allies to reparations affected the progress of Jewish claims.

In the process, the attitude of the United States put pressure on all sides and pushed for reparations for the Jews.

In particular, the Clinton administration opened up official archives that have been kept secret since World War II, providing new evidence for reparations. These lessons also provided a reference for the later claims of black Americans, that is, relying on the power of the international community to achieve their demands.

The German reparations to the Jews were profound, but what were the factors behind the success?

brief summary

The Jewish claim is a landmark event in the international effort to reparate historical injustices. Reparations for the Holocaust in Germany prompted a major shift in the form of international reparations, giving rise to the form of direct state reparations to individuals and society. The success stories of Jewish claims have also contributed to the strengthening of international law in respect for and protection of human rights, held human rights violators accountable for their crimes, and provided impetus and lessons for black American claims.

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