10. Chapter German Reparations to the Jews after World War II: A Turning Point in the History of Reparations

Moral Vulnerability and the Task of Reparations

“…(17) On German reparations, see Colonomos and Armstrong (2006). On Argentina, see Guembe (2006), and on Chile, see Lira (2006).…”

The GiftRevisited: Marcel Mauss on War, Debt, and the Politics of Reparations

“…For authors such as Torpey, the modern meaning of reparations emerged after World War II in response to the Holocaust. Modern reparations found their legal expression in the provisions of the German‐Israeli Treaty (1952), by which the West Germans committed to pay reparations to the state of Israel and the Jewish victims in the Diaspora for the crimes committed against the Jews by the Third Reich (Colonomos and Armstrong 2006; Torpey 2003:43). After the settlement of the Jewish reparation claims, other groups (Japanese Americans or Canadians interned during WW II, black South Africans during the Apartheid regime, etc.)…”

“…38 38 For this reason, some Jewish politicians such as Menachem Begin opposed the West German reparations paid to Jews by the 1952 Luxembourg Agreement, as they preferred instead to quarantine Germany (Colonomos and Armstrong 2006:397). …”

“…39 39 In that sense, it was not a coincidence if the reparations that West Germany agreed to pay to Jews after WW II included only Western Jews and excluded Eastern European Jews, as they had remained in nations that were not allied with West Germany (Colonomos and Armstrong 2006:406). …”