Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Meaning of Monetary Reparations after a Genocide:

The German—Jewish Case in the Early 1950s

  • Chapter
Genocide, Risk and Resilience

Part of the book series: Rethinking Political Violence Series ((RPV))

Abstract

Genocide, ‘the crime of crimes’ (Schabas, 2009: 1), is usually regarded as the epitome of the irreparable. Nevertheless redress has been fully integrated in genocide studies since this field emerged. Raphael Lemkin (1944: xii) already mentioned it in his seminal work. He believed that Nazi crimes should be remedied after the war ‘as much as possible on behalf of the dispossessed and the mistreated’. He even proposed ‘an administrative—judicial machinery for the restoration of property to dispossessed persons of occupied countries’. Lemkin’s point of view is shared by many genocide scholars: redress, understood as all punitive and corrective measures, is crucial since a return to an earlier, unharmed situation is impossible in the case of genocide.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Authers, J. (2006) ‘Making Good Again: German Compensation for Forced and Slave Laborers’, in P. de Greiff (ed.), The Handbook of Reparations (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press)

    Google Scholar 

  • Barkan, E. (2002) Vödlker klagen an. Eine neue internationale Moral (Düsseldorf: Patmos)

    Google Scholar 

  • Barzel, N. (1994) ‘Dignity, Hatred and Memory — Reparations from Germany: The Debates in the 1950s’, Yad Vashem Studies, 22, 247-80

    Google Scholar 

  • de Greiff, P., (ed.) (2006) The Handbook of Reparations (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press)

    Google Scholar 

  • Eizenstat, S. E. (2003) Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slaved Labor and the Unfinished Business of World War II (New York: Public Affairs)

    Google Scholar 

  • Fanon, F. (2002) Les Damnés de la terre (Paris: La Découverte)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferstman, C., Goetz, M. and Stephens, A. (2009) Reparations for Victims of Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity: Systems in Place and Systems in the Making (Leiden and Boston, MA: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers)

    Google Scholar 

  • Finkelstein, N. (2000) The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (London and New York: Verso)

    Google Scholar 

  • Frei, N., Brunner, J. and Goschler, C. (2010) Die Praxis der Wiedergutmachung. Geschichte, Erfahrung und Wirkung in Deutschland und Israel (Bonn: Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung)

    Google Scholar 

  • Garapon, A. (2008) Peut-on réparer l’histoire? Colonisation, esclavage, Shoah (Paris: O. Jacob)

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldmann, N. (1983) Mein Leben als deutscher Jude (Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna: Ullstein)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, N. (2002) Aus dem Schatten der Katastrophe. Die deutsch-israelische Beziehungen in der Ära Konrad Adenauer und David Ben-Gurion (Düsseldorf: Droste)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hénaff, M. (2002) Le Prix de la vérité. Le don, l’argent, la philosophie (Paris: Seuil)

    Google Scholar 

  • Honneth, A. (2010) ‘Vom Gabentausch zur sozialen Anerkennung. Unstimmigkeiten in der Sozialtheorie von Marcel Hénaff, West End. Neue Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung, 1, 99-110

    Google Scholar 

  • Honneth, A. (2011) Das Recht der Freiheit. Grundriβ einer demokratischen Sittlichkeit (Berlin: Suhrkamp)

    Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz, G. (1953) The Spirit of Jewish Law: A Brief Account of Biblical and Rabbinical Jurisprudence with a Special Note on Jewish Law and the State of Israel (New York: Central Book Co.)

    Google Scholar 

  • Jelinek, Y. (1990) ‘Political Acumen, Altruism, Foreign Pressure or Moral Debt — Konrad Adenauer and the “Shilumim”‘, Tel Aviver Jahrbuch für Deutsche Geschichte, 19, 77-102

    Google Scholar 

  • Jelinek, Y. (1997) Zwischen Moral und Realpolitik. Deutsch-israelische Beziehungen 1945-1965. Eine Dokumentensammlung (Gerlingen: Bleicher)

    Google Scholar 

  • Jelinek, Y. (2004) Deutschland und Israel 1945-1965. Ein neurotisches Verhältnis (Munich: Oldenburg Verlag)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, A. (2006) Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction (Oxford and New York: Routledge)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Küpper, H. (2004) Kollektive Rechte in der Wiedergutmachung von Systemunrecht. Teil II (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kymlicka, W. (2003) Les Théories de la justice: une introduction (Paris: La Découverte)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lefranc, S. (2002) Politiques du pardon (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemkin, R. (1944) Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation — Analysis of Government — Proposals for Redress (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lévinas, E. (2005) Quatre lectures talmudiques (Paris:Éditions de Minuit)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorch, N. (1993) Major Knesset Debates, 1948-1951 (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)

    Google Scholar 

  • Odio-Benito, E. (2009) ‘Foreword’, in C. Ferstman, M. Goetz and A. Stephens (eds), Reparations for Victims of Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity: Systems in Place and Systems in the Making (Leiden and Boston, MA: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers)

    Google Scholar 

  • Pross, C. (1998) Paying for the Past: The Struggle over Reparations for Surviving Victims of the Nazi Terror (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (1971) A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press)

    Google Scholar 

  • Renault, E. (2004) L’Expérience de l’injustice: Reconnaissance et clinique de l’injustice (Paris: La découverte)

    Google Scholar 

  • Reyntjens, F. (2004) ‘Rwanda, Ten Years on: From Genocide to Dictatorship’, African Affairs, 103, 177-210

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ricoeur, P. (2004) Parcours de la reconnaissance: Trois études (Paris: Seuil)

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarkin, J. (2009) Colonial Genocide and Reparations Claims in the 21st Century: The Socio-Legal Context of Claims under International Law by the Herero against Germany for the Genocide in Namibia, 1904-1908 (Westport, CT, and London: Praeger Security International)

    Google Scholar 

  • Schabas, W. (2009) Genocide in International Law: The Crime of Crimes, 2nd edn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Simmel, G. (2004) The Philosophy of Money (London: Routledge)

    Google Scholar 

  • Surmann, R. (2005) Abgegoltene Schuld? Über den Widerspruch zwischen entschädigungspolitischem Schlussstrich und interventionistischer Menschenrechtspolitik (Hamburg and Münster: Unrast)

    Google Scholar 

  • Teitelbaum, R. (2008) Die biologische Lösung. Wie die Schoah ‘wiedergutgemacht’ wurde (Springe: zu Klampen)

    Google Scholar 

  • The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) (2012) Available at: http://https://acces-distant.sciences-po.fr:443/http://http/www.oed.com/view/Entry/139172?rskey=V8Y13h& result=7&isAdvanced=true (accessed 15 May 2012)

    Google Scholar 

  • Torpey, J. (2006) Making Whole What Has Been Smashed: On Reparations Politics (Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press)

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (UN) (2005) ‘Resolution Adopted by the General Assembly 60/147: Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law’, available at: http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/60/147 (accessed 7 May 2012)

    Google Scholar 

  • Vogel, R. (ed.) (1967) Deutschlands Weg nach Israel. Eine Dokumentation mit einem Geleitwort von Konrad Adenauer (Stuttgart: Seewald Verlag)

    Google Scholar 

  • Zweig, R. W. (2001) German Reparations and the Jewish World: A History of the Claims Conference (London: Frank Cass)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Joëlle Hecker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Development Policy and Management (IOB), University of Antwerp, Belgium

    Bert Ingelaere (Researcher) (Researcher)

  2. Centre for Research on Peace and Development (CRPD), KU Leuven, Belgium

    Bert Ingelaere (Researcher) (Researcher)

  3. Law and Human Rights, KU Leuven, Belgium

    Stephan Parmentier (Professor of Sociology of Crime) (Professor of Sociology of Crime)

  4. University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp, Belgium

    S J Jacques Haers (Academic Director) (Academic Director)

  5. University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp, Belgium

    Barbara Segaert (Scientific Coordinator) (Scientific Coordinator)

Copyright information

© 2013 Joëlle Hecker

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Hecker, J. (2013). The Meaning of Monetary Reparations after a Genocide:. In: Ingelaere, B., Parmentier, S., Jacques Haers, S.J., Segaert, B. (eds) Genocide, Risk and Resilience. Rethinking Political Violence Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137332431_13

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation