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WIEDERGUTMACHUNG” the SLAVE LABOR NEGOTIATIONS of 1998–2001 Andreas Mink

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WIEDERGUTMACHUNG” the SLAVE LABOR NEGOTIATIONS of 1998–2001 Andreas Mink CHALLENGING “WIEDERGUTMACHUNG” THE SLAVE LABOR NEGOTIATIONS OF 1998–2001 Andreas Mink Challenging “Wiedergutmachung” The Slave Labor Negotiations of 1998–2001 Prague 2012 The Editorial Board of the Institute of International Relations Publishing: Prof. PhDr. Pavel Barša, M.A., Ph.D. (Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague), Mgr. Table of Contents Ing. Radka Druláková, Ph.D. (Faculty of International Relations, University of Econom- ics, Prague), Doc. PhDr. Jan Eichler, CSc. (Institute of International Relations, Prague), JUDr. PhDr. Tomáš Karásek, Ph.D. (Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Praha), Prof. PhDr. Michal Klíma, M.A., CSc. (Metropolitan University, Prague), PhDr. Michal Kořan, Ph.D. (Institute of International Relations, Prague), Doc. Mgr. Ing. Petr Kratoch- víl, Ph.D. (Institute of International Relations, Prague), PhDr. Pavel Pšeja, Ph.D. (Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno), Mgr. Dan Marek, PhD., M.A. (Faculty of Introduction 7 Arts, Palacký University, Olomouc), Prof. PhDr. Lenka Rovná, CSc. (Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Praha). Part One: The Creation of Wiedergutmachung 15 The publication is an output that was developed according to the time schedule of the re- The Slave Labor Negotiations of 1998–2001: An Overview 17 search activities of the IIR, which is based on the text The Long-Term Conceptual Devel- The Jewish Claims Conference and “There are No Claims” 26 opment of the IIR, a Public Research Institution, for the Years 2012–2018. Wiedergutmachung as an Open-ended Proposition 34 The Struggle for Compensation of Slave Labor 39 The Czech Position after the German Reunifi cation 42 Peer reviewed by Henning Borggräfe, M.A. Eagle Glassheim, Ph.D. Part Two: The Challenge to Wiedergutmachung 45 The Swiss Bank Settlement 47 From Swiss Banks to German Ones 52 From Kohl to Schröder: Germany Tackles Slave Labor 59 Eizenstat Tries to Take Charge 65 The “Forgotten Victims” Force Their Way to the Table 68 Shaping the Negotiations 81 From Stalemate to Resolution 88 Beyond the 10 Billion Marks 94 Part Three: The Future of Wiedergutmachung 101 Aftermath 103 Looking Back and Looking Ahead 112 Andreas Mink Challenging “Wiedergutmachung” Notes 115 The Slave Labor Negotiations of 1998–2001 Published by the Institute of International Relations, Prague 2012 Bibliography 123 Research editor-in-chief PhDr. Vladimír Trojánek Cover, graphic design and layout Jan Šavrda Acknowledgements 127 Printed by Petr Dvořák – Tiskárna, Dobříš ISBN 978-80-87558-07-2 Introduction After I had covered the fi ghts over the compensation of Nazi victims that started in the mid-1990s as a reporter, I was deeply grateful when the Czech- German Fund for the Future asked me to turn my observations into an essay in 2006. The resulting text focussed on the Czech role in the international ne- gotiations for the compensation of former slave laborers of Nazi Germany. In the summer of 2010 the Institute of International Relations in Prague offered me the opportunity to extend that essay into this short book, which I was happy to accept. I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to Petr Kratochvíl, Mats Braun and their colleagues at the institute for their patience and encour- agement while I again dove into the complexities of these talks. While I will further explore the Czech role in the slave labor negotiations of 1998–2001, the ten year distance from the talks made me better under- stand that their key aspect was the challenge the Czechs and the other Cen- tral and Eastern Europeans had posed to Wiedergutmachung – the legal and political mechanisms that were used to defi ne “victims of Nazi persecution” and compensate them for their suffering. That challenge raises the fundamen- tal question of why the vast majority of Eastern Europeans never received any material compensation for or acknowledgement of the crimes Germany had perpetrated on them. And it seems even more astonishing that the Cen- tral and Eastern Europeans – and the American class action lawyers involved – actually managed to force Germany and German corporations to pay out 10 billion marks to some 1.7 million surviving victims 55 years after Hit- ler’s death. This success stands in sharp contrast with the original concept of Wiedergutmachung, which was supposed to be fi nite in funds, as well as lim- 7 Challenging “Wiedergutmachung”. The Slave Labor Negotiations of 1998–2001 Introduction ited in recipients and duration – it was supposed to end in the mid-1960s, to Stuart Eizenstat in early 1999. As these developments unfolded, it was un- be exact. I will therefore pay more attention to the inner workings of Wieder- certain whether Central and Eastern European Nazi victims could participate gutmachung and the “Jewish Conference on Material Claims Against Ger- in the talks. Part Two therefore also analyses the victims’ successful push for many” (usually called the Jewish Claims Conference or JCC for short) as the participation in the talks and the complicated negotiations leading to the es- co-creator of German compensation policies and the most effective represen- tablishment of a 10 billion mark fund for them in July 2000. tative of Nazi victims. The third and fi nal part of this work looks beyond the negotiations and fol- Wiedergutmachung has been explored by German academics such as Con- lows the issues raised by the Nazi victims and their representatives: What did stantin Goschler, Ulrich Herbert and Hans Günter Hockerts since the late the challenge to Wiedergutmachung achieve beyond the slave labor fund? Be- 1980s. Their work has been crucial for my reporting and this text. Up to now, cause of their success in the negotiations, a number of the American lawyers however, English translations of this German research have been available involved felt encouraged to launch new efforts of a similar type on behalf of only to a small extent. I therefore hope that this short book will be of help other victims of mass violations of human right, such as the victims of apart- for English readers by serving as an introduction to Wiedergutmachung from heid in South Africa, hoping to expand the slave labor settlement into a wider a reporter’s point of view. Working from New York, I was also able to observe campaign that might fundamentally change international law. I will describe that the slave labor negotiations opened the way for new efforts to achieve their efforts and their ultimate failure in this respect. I will also briefl y discuss compensation for other victims of mass crimes against humanity in the US. the successful work of the JCC in the last ten years. This leads to the diffi cult Part One of this book will look at the creation of Wiedergutmachung, issues surrounding the “uniqueness of the holocaust” and the reasons for why starting with a brief overview of the slave labor negotiations of 1998–2001 it came about that the compensation efforts for other victims of mass crimes to establish the key issues as they relate to German compensation for Nazi foundered. It also seems worthwhile to briefl y note the fates of a number of victims. This will lead to an examination of the Jewish Claims Conference American players in the fi ght for “holocaust reparations” after the end of the as the most successful pursuer of Wiedergutmachung until the present time negotiations, as they stumbled into legal problems of their own as a result of – although the organisation had originally planned to wind down its activi- some corruption scandals that were mostly unconnected to slave labor or the ties in the late 1960s. As the JCC had to give up its claims for slave labor in heirless assets of Jewish Nazi victims in Swiss banks. the early 1950s, Part One will also look at the struggle for compensation of slave laborers and the Czech efforts for Wiedergutmachung up to the nego- * * * tiations of 1998–2001. Part Two discusses the challenges to Wiedergutmachung that led up to This book has some obvious weaknesses. Given restrictions of time, space the slave labor negotiations, as well as the related talks. These developments and language, I did not conduct any research in Czech or other archives, al- reached a turning point with the Swiss Bank Settlement of August 1998. The though diplomats and lawyers gave me free access to their papers after the fi ght over “Nazi gold” and “heirless assets” in Swiss banks had drawn Amer- negotiations. As mentioned above, though, work of this kind is already under- ican class action lawyers into the arena of Wiedergutmachung and brought way in Germany. By all accounts Czech academics and political scientists are these complex issues before US courts for the fi rst time. The narrative then also very active in exploring their nation’s history between 1938 and 1948, follows those lawyers and JCC offi cials such as Israel Singer in their com- coming to new understandings of issues that were to play such a crucial role peting efforts to pressure German corporations to make material amends for during the slave labor negotiations, such as the eviction of the “Sudeten”- their actions during the Third Reich and the holocaust. Backed by the Clin- Germans after the end of World War Two.1 Yet I do hope that I can make ton administration, these efforts brought German companies and the newly a contribution to this research by sharing my insights into the efforts for “ho- elected government of Gerhard Schröder to the table set by Undersecretary locaust reparations”. I am sharing these insights as a reporter and not as an 8 9 Challenging “Wiedergutmachung”. The Slave Labor Negotiations of 1998–2001 Introduction academic, although I had studied history in Hamburg and read the academic ography from the present, but many of my future interests go back to those literature on Wiedergutmachung in order to understand the negotiations.
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