Karl Heinz Roth

Abstract

Over the past five years, I have been grappling with the fallout from the predatory wars of annihilation waged by the Germans during the Second World War. The history of the Nazi dictatorship and of German-controlled Europe has been one of my most important research topics for decades. But the true extent of the enormous material destruction and humanitarian devastation caused by these wars has only now become apparent to me. Whoever addresses this issue from a contemporary perspective inevitably also comes across the related issue of reparations and compensation that arose from these wars and that still affects Europe today. At the same time, studying this topic involves entering a risky ‘No Go Area’ of historical research, because reparations discourse has certainly not been confined to history: the as-of-yet unpaid debts of the Second World War are grouped together like in a concave mirror. The research findings we have presented so far therefore only represent a beginning. In what follows, I will first present the results of my case studies of Poland and Greece, since they cover the historical framework of German occupation policy during World War II and the current conflicts over reparations. This will be followed by reflections on the economic-historical context of the Cold War and the failure of Allied reparations policy. Finally, I will critically engage with the latest arguments against a final settlement of the reparations problem and present in detail the ambivalence at the heart of the German culture of remembrance.

Keywords

Germany, War, Reparations, Cold War, Remembrance

From: Critique 2020 48 (2-3)

Editor: Wang Yi