Challenging “Wiedergutmachung”. The Slave Labor Negotiations of 1998–2001

In July 2000, Germany and German corporations agreed to pay out 10 billion marks to 1.7 million foreign nationals that had been enslaved and exploited by the Nazi government. As the first English language publication on this subject, this book presents the Slave Labor Negotiations of 1998–2001 as a challenge to Western German “Wiedergutmachung” – the legal and political mechanisms that were used to define “victims of Nazi persecution” and compensate them for their losses and suff ering. Readers will find an overview on the creation of “Wiedergutmachung”, followed by a discussion of the talks and a section on the open-ended future of German compensation efforts in dialogue with the Jewish Claims Conference. The book also examines the effects of the slave labor settlement on international law and the further exploits of some of the American negotiators.

The book shows that Czech survivors and diplomats played a crucial role in these historic talks.
The author has covered efforts to obtain compensation for Nazi crimes as a reporter since 1997 and was invited to observe meetings of the Eastern and Central European delegations during the negotiations.