Reparation Agreement Between Israel and Germany

Reparation Agreement Between Israel and Germany

The challenges of reparation that engulfed war-time, which was against humanity, led to material losses and human rights abuse. This issue dominates the political environment for the past decade, especially at the international fronts. There are countries like Greece and Poland who have rechecked their demands for war-concerns of reparation from Germany. The negotiations and settlements were remarkable, considering the memory and depth of physical and psychological challenges the victims had to experience. During the talks, the Israeli delegation led by Felix Shinnar considered this treaty a remarkable aspect in the history of their international relations. This paper will focus on the Reparation agreement that was established in 1952 between Israel and Germany.

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Reparation is an act of making corrections for the wrongs that an individual has committed; it is characterized by providing payments or other forms of assistance to carter for the evils to those members of the community who have been wronged (Dumberry, 2007). The discussion that arose from the two countries represented by their delegation was never easy; this was because the second world war had just ended in less than seven years and the damages were still evident (Sharett, 2011). The majority of the population in West Germany was against the reparation. The Germans’ general population refused the enormous amount of money that Chancellor Adenauer was planning to give to Israel’s government. Some four billion marks were set aside to start the negotiations, Adenauer realized that there was no option to actualizing a compromise from the Israeli side (Dumberry, 2007). This was the Germans’ price to pay in restoring West Germany to a proper standing amidst the other nations in the world. It is contrasting that every claim made against the East German Government remained unattended or answered, which is since the communist regime.

Even before commencing the negotiations between the two countries’ representatives, there were already claims that were submitted, and they were against various entities in Germany (Dumberry, 2007). This negotiation between the two countries remained long and challenging. Many discussions were convened, and others conducted in secrecy because there was fear that the representatives could be physically harmed by the angry mob (Samy, 2010). Come May 1952, a severe crisis ensued, and both sides left the discussion table, which resulted from a hatred debate concerning the amount that was to be paid for reparation. Towards the end of 1952, there was an ultimate agreement by the representatives from the two countries. According to this agreement, “West Germany agreed to supplying the state of Israel with goods and services that supplied 3.5 billion marks for 12 years.” (Dumberry, 2007) German agreed to personal reparation as one of the aspects of the treaty, and they decided to return the properties to their legal owners. To properly follow up on this agenda, an additional sum of 450 million marks was added to enhance the follow-up process (Samy, 2010). When the negotiations between the two sides were undergoing, mass demonstrations were against the concept of reparation. The demonstrators were the holocaust victims who had not agreed to this contact.

The disagreement was witnessed on both sides because, on one side, the Germans had reservations concerning the nature of the agreement, which was in due process. On the other hand, a considerable population of the Israeli community was unprepared to accept the idea of negotiations with the Germans or even the money they would receive from “the land of murderers.” (Sharett, 2011). The Israelis considered this money as blood money. This journey enhanced rapprochement among the Israeli and West Germany.

 

 

 

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