Wiedergutmachung

Wiedergutmachung after World War II refers to the reparations that the German government agreed to pay in 1953 to the direct survivors of the Holocaust, and to those who were made to work at forced labour camps or who otherwise became victims of the Nazis. The sum would amount, through the years, to over 100 billion Deutsche Mark. Historian Tony Judt writes about Wiedergutmachung:
The noun is the general term for "restitution" or "reparation". The noun is made up of ("again"), ("good" or "well"), and , a verbal noun of ("to make"). The verb means literally "to make good again" or to compensate. Wiedergutmachungsgeld means "Wiedergutmachung money."
In the former East Germany, Wiedergutmachung was mostly directed to Poland and the former USSR.
The German federal office currently in charge of this issue is the Bundesamt für zentrale Dienste und offene Vermögensfragen (BADV) (Federal Office for Central Services and Unresolved Property Issues). It applies the "Federal Compensation Laws" and took these responsibilities over from the Verwaltungsamt für innere Restitutionen, which, in its charter, states:
Only people who were directly victimised are eligible for Wiedergutmachung, and not, for example, offspring born after the war or grandchildren. Statistics concerning Wiedergutmachung payments were released by the BEG through the mid-1980s, but have not since been publicly released. As of the mid-1980s, over four million claims had been filed and paid. Approximately 40% of the claims were from Israel, where many Holocaust survivors live, 20% were from Germany, and 40% were from other countries.
The process in Germany was often extremely difficult. According to a report commissioned by the German government on the "Fate of Jewish Clothiers in the Nazi Dictatorship": "For those who applied, the euphemistic-sounding terms “compensation” and “reparations” often meant a bitter fight which sometimes lasted for decades and over generations, and whose result was uncertain. Restitution of the assets confiscated unlawfully during those days has still not been fully completed."
An unusual compensation was to the Republic of Ireland, a neutral country, for bombings in 1941.
On 3 December 1998, Germany was a signer of the "Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art". Adherence to these principles is strictly voluntary and not a legal requirement. The Washington Principles cover only items in the possession of public institutions, and not items in the possession of private individuals. Germany has no law in effect which actively requires institutions to have their possessions searched for Nazi-looted goods, unlike the 1998 restitution law in Austria.
Unlike the Nuremberg trials in which Fritz Sauckel received a death sentence for his organization of mass forced labor, Wiedergutmachung aimed to compensate the "victims of Nazi persecution" while presenting mass forced labor as a normal part of war rather than a crime.
See also
Germany-Israel relations
Claims Conference
Nazi plunder
Reich Flight Tax
Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany
References
Notes
Bibliography
External links
Electronic Index to Bundesentschädigungsgesetz, in german language.
Kriegsfolgen und Wiedergutmachung, Ministry of Finance (Germany), Portal Site, in German language.
Holocaust charities and reparations
Vergangenheitsbewältigung
German words and phrases
Treaties of West Germany
Treaties of East Germany