No, Germany Shouldn’t Pay Holocaust Reparations in Military Hardware for Israel

Nov 2021

The Jerusalem Post has proposed that Germany pay off its remaining Holocaust reparations in military hardware for Israel. No financial compensation can make up for history's greatest crimes — but it shouldn’t be used against Palestinians in the present.

In 1952, the West German government in Bonn began payments to the State of Israel. Eventually totaling 3 billion Deutschmarks, the reparations were conceived as material compensation for Nazi Germany’s crimes against European Jews during the Holocaust.

Even at the time, the payments met with fierce opposition. Many early Israelis understandably loathed the idea that German reparations might be thought to equate to moral atonement, while others — including the new state’s founder David Ben-Gurion — saw this as an essential prop in building an industrialized Israel. A little-known detail of the arrangement, however, is that payment is yet to be completed, and an outstanding amount — $19 billion in today’s money — is still owed.

Because Germany was divided at that time, West Germany only paid two-thirds of its compensation — asserting, reasonably enough, that it saw no reason why it should make payment on behalf of East Germany; an entirely different country separated by walls, fences, watchtowers, and hostile relations.

Though Germany is now reunified, the debt repayment remains incomplete. And while knowledge of the missing payments is hardly widespread, it has not been forgotten.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/11/germany-holocaust-reparations-military-hardware-israel-palestine