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Add to FavoritesAt the end of the cataclysm in Europe called World War II, the victorious Allies had previously agreed to exact reparations from Germany. Reparations took the form of payments to the victorious Allies and to other countries terrorized and ravaged by the Nazis. I propose that modern Germans are and should be held responsible for these reparations.
Disagree ment about reparations
Philosoph er George Santayana wrote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." His words are used by some as proof that war reparations do not work. Many historians agree that the reparations demanded of the German people by the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I was one of the causes of World War II. They say that the monetary reparations caused resentment and economic hardships to include mass hyperinflation. This was taken advantage of by Adolf Hitler who used the resentment and upheaval to gain power and later motivate the German people into going to war. Since the end of World War II, there is fear that the reparations imposed will cause the same problems in Germany again.(1)
This argument is specious and flawed for several reasons. Santayana was right but one must remember accurately. Instead of holding Germany to her commitment to the reparations of the Treaty of Versailles, European countries, especially England and France, followed the path of appeasement. During the First World War, Germany did not pursue a policy of genocide with the extermination of over 6.5 million innocent people as was done during the Second World War. Opponents to the policy of German reparations say that the German populace did not have knowledge of the "true" extent of the actions of their government. However, it is one thing for a nation to be resentful and another to pursue a doctrine of world domination through military might and genocide by the extermination of Jews and other undesirables.
The total estimated human loss of life caused by World War II was roughly 72 million people, making it the deadliest, and most destructive war in human history. The civilian toll was around 47 million, including 20 million deaths due to war related famine and disease. The military toll was about 25 million, including the deaths of about 4 million prisoners of war in captivity. The Allies lost approximately 61 million people, and the Axis powers lost approximately 11 million(3). The Holocaust, the result of the policies of the Nazi government, was alone responsible for 6.5 million civilian deaths.
Treaty of Versailles and Adolph Hitler (1),(2)
There is no argument that the economic implications of war reparations from the Treaty of Versailles was a key contributor to German nationalism, as did resentment by the German people of the injury to their pride, and therefore led to rise of Adolf Hitler. World War II was nothing more than a continuation of the First World War. Although the Treaty of Versailles called for a demilitarized Germany and for monetary reparations because of the destruction of the industrial infrastructure of France and Belgium as the German army retreated, Adolf Hitler following his playbook, Mein Kampf,openly defied the conventions of the treaty by a rapid military buildup. He also began the gradual, step by step implementation of his anti-Jewish policies, of which all German citizens were aware. Hitler was able to carry out his program because of the weakness of the other European countries, most notably France and England. "Society" did not create the monster Adolf Hitler. Appeasement did.
Appeasement (2)
Appeasement is defined in Wikipedia as calming, reconciling, or acquiring peace by way of concessions or gifts. Most commonly, appeasement is used for the policy of accepting the imposed conditions of an aggressor in lieu of all armed resistance, usually at the sacrifice of principles. Usually it means giving in to the demands of an aggressor to avoid war.
If the countries of Europe had held Germany to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and not tried to placate a megalomaniac, then Germany could not have rebuilt her military power. To quote British PM Neville Chamberlain in 1939, "Does the experience of the great war and the years that followed it give us reasonable hope that, if some new war started, that would end war anymore than the last one did?" And "It was a hard decision for anyone who loved his country to take, but to accuse us of having by that advice betrayed the Czechoslovakian State is simply preposterous. What we did was to save her from annihilation and give her a chance of new life as a new State..." He also said, "Therefore, I think the Government deserve the approval of this House for their conduct of affairs in this recent crisis which has saved Czechoslovakia from destruction and Europe from Armageddon." Mr. Chamberlain made these remarks as German troops and tanks began to roll into Czechoslovakia . And finally, "As long as war has not begun, there is always hope that it may be prevented, and you know that I am going to work for peace to the last moment. Good night. . . ." Yet nothing was done about the rearming and aggressiveness of Germany on the European continent, about the violations of the Treaty of Versailles. He worked for a peace that could not be.
German Genocidal Policies (1),(4)
The severity of the atrocities committed by ordinary Germans is hard to fathom. Such large numbers of people murdered, families torn apart and destroyed, whole neighborhoods and even cities uprooted is beyond our minds' comprehension. Eva Kor lives in my town in western Indiana. She is alive because she is a twin and was selected at Auschwitz at the age of 10 to be used in experiments conducted by Dr. Josef Mingele, the Angel of Death. Mingele and fellow doctors performed gruesome genetic experiments on thousands of twins. The experiments did not contribute to greater scientific progress. Most historians record his treatment of the twins nearly as an exercise in cruelty and was a manifestation of Nazi eugenics, the belief of a superior race.
Eva Kor. like millions under Nazi domination, lost most of her family to the extermination camps. Decades after Auschwitz's liberation, Eva Kor is still healing - in part by erecting a museum called CANDLES, which stands for Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors in Terre Haute, Indiana. Kor was forced to rebuild it after anti-Semites burned it down in 2003. Remarkably, Kor says she has forgiven the arsonists - and forgiven Mengele for the experiments and a lifetime of ill health. "Here I was, that nobody, that guinea pig that had no value in Mengele's eyes, and yet I had the power to forgive the God of Auschwitz," Kor says."Forgiveness is nothing more, nothing less than an act of self-healing, an act of reclaiming your life." But even though she has forgiven, she has not forgotten and does not want the world to forget.
The German People Knew (5)
The idea that the German people did not know of the genocidal policies of Hitler's government is ridiculous. These are excerpts from a series of essays written and distributed in Nazi Germany by Hans and Sophie Scholl and other German students in 1942 and 1943. They were caught by the Gestapo, tried for treason, and executed in 1943. The essays refute the notion that the German populace did not have knowledge of the " true" extent of the actions of their government.
"Why do the German people behave so apathetically in the face of all these abominable crimes, crimes so unworthy of the human race? Hardly anyone thinks about that. It Is accepted as fact and put out of mind. The German people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals; they give them the opportunity to carry on their depredations; and of course they do so."
"Is this a sign that the Germans are brutalized in their simplest human feelings, that no chord within them cries out at the sight of such deeds, that they have sunk into a fatal consciencelessness from which they will never, never awake? It seems to be so, and will certainly be so, if the German does not at last start up out of his stupor, if he does not protest wherever and whenever he can against this clique of criminals, if he shows no sympathy for the hundreds of thousands of victims. He must evidence not only sympathy; no, much more: a sense of complicity in guilt. For through his apathetic behavior he gives these evil men the opportunity to act as they do; he tolerates this "government" which has taken upon itself such an infinitely great burden of guilt; indeed, he himself is to blame for the fact that it came about at all!"
"Each man wants to be exonerated of a guilt of this kind, each one continues on his way with the most placid, the calmest conscience. But he cannot be exonerated; he is guilty, guilty, guilty! It is not too late, however, to do away with this most reprehensible of all miscarriages of government, so as to avoid being burdened with even greater guilt. Now, when in recent years our eyes have been opened, when we know exactly who our adversary is, it is high time to root out this brown horde. Up until the outbreak of the war the larger part of the German people was blinded; the Nazis did not show themselves in their true aspect. But now, now that we have recognized them for what they are, it must be the sole and first duty, the holiest duty of every German to destroy these beasts."
Hans and Sophie Scholl and the other German students spoke the truth in their writings and prove that as early as 1942 the atrocities of the Nazi's were common knowledge among the populace.
Modern Denial of the Holocaust and Neo-Nazis (1),(6),(7)
There are those in society who would deny the reality of the holocaust, the genocide, and the pervasive evil present in the philosophy of Nazism. One need look no further than the Internet to find such examples. White supremacists, Neo-Nazi organizations, and eugenics proponents abound.
Mark Weber,an articulate, media-savvy propagandist for Holocaust denial has written Did Six Million Really Die? Truth at Last-Exposed. Weber, who holds a master's degree in history from Indiana University, says, "I believe that the thesis of the booklet is accurate ... that there was no German policy or program to exterminate the Jews during the Second World War." Mark Weber gave testimony at the 1988 trial of Ernst Zundel,a leading Holocaust denier and Neo-Nazi propagandist. "The reparations being paid out by the West German government today, said Weber, were paid out by people who were either not born or were just small children during the Hitler era. Yet they were being held responsible for what happened during that time. Thus, the German people were held as a people to be guilty for what happened during the war."
On Zundelsite,Ernst Zundel's web site, the"Holocaust Reparations Racket" is discussed. Zundel writes, "Quite simply: No brainwash cycle - no Holocaust. No Holocaust - no Reparations or Guilt money. No money - chances are, no Israel!" .... "Add to that the reparations already paid by Germany - more than $120 billion Deutsche Mark, and no end yet in sight! - and you can see how valuable a tool the Holocaust has become to Israel." He views the Holocaust as a tool used by Israel, not as a genocidal atrocity,
Speaking of the Nuremberg Trials, Ernst Zundel says,"Let's see now how it all began-and evolved!-this matter of the "Nuremberg Trials" resulting in such guilt and such enormous sums of reparations squeezed out of a defeated country, Germany over the last 50 years." Without enforced reparations payment as a visible admission of guilt and remorse by the German people, Neo-Nazis and other white supremacists could gain credibility.
Yalta Agreements(1),(7)
All ied leaders also believed in the need for war reparations to be paid by Germany upon its defeat in World War II. There were hard feelings held against Germany by these leaders. Churchill wanted a vengeful peace. According to his private secretary, already in September 1940, Churchill had called for taking German males and "castrating the lot." Stalin was adamant that unless the Allies dealt forcefully with Germany, in fifteen or twenty years, the Germans would start another war. Under Stalin's insistence, therefore, the Yalta agreements contained a secret protocol on reparations. The Yalta Conferees foresaw that which is described in the two preceding paragraphs.
German Repayment has been good for Germany (1)
Modern Germany is to be congratulated on the payment of their war reparations debts. An international conference in 1953 decided that Germany would pay the remaining debt only after the country was reunited. West Germany, in a show of good faith and wanting to be a member in good standing of the world community, paid off the principal by 1980. In 1995, the newly reunified German government announced it would resume payments of the reparations. Germany will finish paying off the Americans in 2010.
War reparations should and must be paid by modern Germans. It is important that they remember what their country was capable of doing, that they remember that their forefathers engaged in systematic genocide, and that feeling the economic pain of reparations, they remember the untold pain and suffering caused by their country. Eva Kor has forgiven her captors and torturers. But through her educational museum, she wants the world to never forget. Reparations serve as an admission of injustices and atrocities committed, remorse at committing them, and at least some attempt at self-effacement in the eyes of the world community. Not living up to the terms of surrender and no enforcement by the Allies would be appeasement of the highest magnitude. Since society continues to breed monsters of the caliber of Adolf Hitler generations after such evil was put to pasture, we clearly need to better learn better history's lessons rather than continuing to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Bibliography
1." Germany." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 15 Jul 2008.
2.World War I reparations. (2008, June 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:43, July 3, 2008,
3.World War II casualties. (2008, June 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:46, July 3, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia. org/w/index.php?titl e=World_War_II_casua lties&oldid=22221500 9
4.'I was a guinea pig for Mengele'.By CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. February 1, 2005 Posted: 6:15 AM EST. CNN Online. http://www.cnn.com/2 005/US/01/31/auschwi tz.gupta/index.html
5 .The White Rose. January 1996. The Future of Freedom website. http://www.fff.org/f reedom/0196e.asp
6.Di d Six Million Really Die? Report of the Ev idence in the Canadian "False News" Trial of Ernst Zndel - 1988, Edited by Barbara Kulaszka. http://www.zundelsit e.org/english/repara tions/
7.Ernst Zundel. Update: Zundel convicted, sentenced to five years in prison. Extremism in America. Anti-Defamation League. http://www.adl.org/l earn/Ext_US/zundel.a sp?xpicked=2&item=zu ndel
8.Covering the Map of the World The Half-Century Legacy of the Yalta Conference, Part 5. by Richard M. Ebeling, July 1995. The Future of Freedom website. http://www.fff.org/f reedom/0795b.asp
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Yes
German Reparations for the Holocaust. Is there now an unethical element to it as it places a burden on the wrong generation?
The Holocaust simply must be viewed through the lenses of moral realism. There is universal acceptance that Nazi Germany was responsible for the most appalling act of genocide in contemporary history if not arguably human history itself. Not only in scale but in methodology. The organised, scientific and bureaucratic method in which Nazi Germany attempted to annihilate a race (and other groups they deemed to be undesirable) involved the complicity of virtually every strata of that society in the process. The global recognition of the moral repugnance of the horror, equates with the notion of the existence of a universal core of morality.
The fact that Germany has had to pay Reparations to Israel as a means of atonement and in an attempt to amend an historical injustice would clearly indicate the existence of a cross cultural, shared global ethic. It is unreasonable to suggest that Germany's actions in the Holocaust were a by-product of German culture or any facets of it. Therefore, the assertion of truth being relative to each society is inapplicable in relation to this exact example. Germany had committed a dreadful deed and virtually everyone on both sides of that injustice knew it. Interestingly what does pertain culturally is the fact that in the immediate aftermath and right up to the 1980s, Germany was very much focused on the suffering its citizens endured under the advancing Allied armies and the numerous incidents of rape, forcible expulsion, looting and terror.
Through the Nuremberg Trials many of those responsible for implementing the horror of the Holocaust faced justice. Simultaneously there was a process of denazification' in an attempt to cleanse the population at large. Leading Nazis were accused of, and found guilty of, crimes against peace and humanity. The notion of accountability entered the lexicon. Holocaust survivors and European Jewish communities took little solace in the emerging verdicts. Having emerged from one incomprehensible nightmare they stumbled into another. Families were gone. Homes and businesses occupied or destroyed. Financial records erased. Focal points of communal life such as the Synagogue razed. The ties that had bound whole communities together were shredded to insignificance. Reclaiming and rebuilding was going to be a mountainous task. The World Jewish Congress, Zionists and other Jewish groups in Palestine, Europe and the U.S.A. had been preparing for the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany and potential reclamation of that which had been forcibly stolen from the Jewish population in Nazi occupied Europe. Initially these claims went unheeded by the Allies. They had no great desire to become embroiled in intricate legal matters between private citizenry. However with the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the West German state in 1949, the issue took on an entirely different perspective. It was now a matter between two states. Under the Luxembourg Agreement of 1952 reparations to Israel became a fact of life for the fledgling states.
Reparations agreed between the two took on a variety of approaches including: the construction of German funded power plants by German engineers significantly increasing Israel's power generating capacity, provision of trains and ships, the laying of pipelines for irrigation schemes, the supply of modern agricultural and industrial machinery, construction of infrastructure and enhancement and expansion of modes of communication. Finally there was actual financial recompense to both Israel and survivors now living in other states.
From an ethical viewpoint German Reparations were characterised by three distinguishing features. Firstly, the moral repugnance of the Holocaust was recognised universally. By making Reparations, Germany although set to benefit in the way it was perceived internationally, initially had no clear objective. It is only with the benefit of hindsight that we can acknowledge Reparations had the desired outcome of moral rehabilitation internationally. It is important to remember that what had been negotiated between Germany and Israel was unprecedented. Although Adenauer hoped it would lead to re-entry into the international arena as an acceptable actor, he had no concrete evidence that this would be the outcome. I would argue therefore that Reparations on Germany's part was not a cold calculated Realist plan for self-advancement. Adenauer stated that,
the German people are deeply aware of the immeasurable suffering endured by the Jews of Germany andof the occupied territories ... unspeakable crimes have been committed and they demand restitution, both moral and material'
Secondly, from an ethical perspective Germany's readiness to pay Reparations could also be categorised, to a certain degree, as a Kantian rules based action. There was a deontological approach on their part to amending the injustice of the Holocaust. Germany was paying Reparations because it was their duty to do so. Thirdly they were self enforcing as Germany extended high scale industrial, agricultural and commercial Reparations to Israel. They did not offload below par commodities on Israel and provided highly qualified personnel for the various engineering and construction projects. For Israel they were initially a source of great stability as the state attempted to establish itself. For Holocaust survivors small comfort but atonement nonetheless. Interestingly it was from within Israel itself that moral opposition arose as a significant proportion of the population opposed Reparations viewing acceptance of them as a betrayal of the concentration camp victims'
I feel that Reparations were justified and ethically correct in the immediate aftermath of the war and for a considerable period of time after that. The direct source was the people, whether by fault or design, responsible for the past wrong. It was therefore comparable to domestic law where the criminal is punished for the crime. As the majority of the taxpaying generation of 1950s Germany were the same generation who had participated (knowingly or unknowingly) in the Holocaust, the question of an undue burden does not arise. However for the present generation there is, I would argue, a question of an undue burden.
Since 1953 Germany has paid out more than $104 billion to Israel, individual Holocaust survivors and other victims of Nazism. These Reparations continue to the present. Sixty years have lapsed since the conclusion of World War II and with it a whole generation of Germans have been born, educated, worked and retired. For the present generation of Germans it is conceivable that many would feel slightly aggrieved at the ongoing payments of Reparations. Even since the 1960s it would have been understandable for Germany to question the ethical principles of certain aspects of Reparations.
The Federal Indemnification Law or BEG allowed for compensation to be made to anyone who had suffered under National Socialism. This covered a wide and easily
interpretable range of classifications, including political, ideological or racial reasons,
payments for people who had been arrested or spent any period of time in a concentration camp. On the surface this seemed entirely reasonable when compared to the trauma of the Holocaust and the mental and emotional scars that the survivors were forced to carry. However on closer inspection there were elements of it that were unethical and placed an undue burden on the wrong people, wrong generation and arguably the wrong nation. For example, the definition of a concentration camp also encompassed concentration camps in China. Although the individual who spent time in said camp was entitled to recompense for their ordeal, was it Germany who was directly responsible for placing them in a camp on a different continent? Consider too that any Jewish person who had been arrested for a criminal act was entitled to recompense. Their arrest for an act of theft was classified as a loss of freedom. However the non-Jew arrested for the same act could not claim - he or she was simply a thief. Jews from Romania and Hungary were entitled to claim from Germany for the horrors they endured, even though their own governments had acted against them a substantial period prior to the Nazis. Whilst it could be argued that Nazi Germany asserted undue pressure on the governments of these countries and other neighbouring states; pointing to Denmark's defiant and heroic actions in attempting to protect its Jewish population in the face of Nazi occupation can also counterbalance this argument.
The benefit for the German generations of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s was that Reparations allowed an alleviation of the guilt many of them may have felt at the actions of their predecessors. Carrying guilt for a crime of a previous generation is in itself an undue burden. The Holocaust was characterised by such evil that the following generation could not be but affected psychologically by the legacy of history.
events whose corrupting character travels deep into the population. The successors to societies who have been consumed by mass violence cannot escape the legacy; they remain overburdened by the past, precisely because of the participatory nature of genocides in the modern era'
Paradoxically, Reparations has also had the effect of passing on this undue burden of guilt. Ongoing Reparation payments would indicate that the German nation collectively is still guilty of a terrible deed, including those born long after the war's conclusion. I would argue that this in turn has had the effect of placing an undue psychological burden on the present generation rather than an undue financial one. Holocaust survivors and their offspring need and justly deserve compensation for their experiences. The unethical aspect in this case is the sole focus on Germany as the single guilty party. The willing participation of non-German peoples coupled with the inability of other states to act morally has meant that Germany alone, right up to the present generation, has shouldered the tremendous psychological burden of guilt. It must be noted that even within countries that greeted the Allies warmly (France and the Low Countries) on liberation, there had been collaboration and occasionally enthusiastic participation in aiding the Nazis to eliminate the local Jewish population. Simultaneously neutral states such as Ireland whether through indifference or bigotry, were reluctant to alleviate Jewish suffering .
The last decade has seen attempts to shed light on the complicity of other groups in the Holocaust. Switzerland and Hungary have begun the difficult journey of examining their past and acknowledging their role in the Holocaust. Although Reparations as a principle for attempting to amend a past wrong is completely ethical in this case and remains so, permitting the present German generation to remain the sole focus of the source of those Reparations is unethical. Among nations there is a masterly capability for the construction of historical myth. Germany is an exception and it could be commended as the country that has succeeded best at dealing with the least savoury part of its past.' There remain other organisations, groups and individuals who have a moral duty to proclaim their culpability and attempt some form of amendment. This will contribute to alleviating the undue psychological burden that is on the wrong German generation.
Bibliogra phy
http://www.german y-info.org/relaunch/ info/archives/backgr ound/ns_crimes.html
E lazar Barkan, The Guilt of Nations', Norton & Co. Inc., 2000, p.9
Eric D Weitz, A Century of Genocide', Princeton University Press, 2003, p. 252
http://www.tau.ac .il/Anti-Semitism/as w2003-4/ireland.htm. The Stephen Roth Institute, Tel Aviv University
John Torpey, (ed), Politics and the Past', Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2003 p. 7
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