Bilateral Compensation Agreements for Victims of the Nazi Regime

The Bilateral Compensation Agreements for Victims of the Nazi Regime (German: Globalabkommen) between the Federal Republic of Germany, colloquially referred to as West Germany, which the West German government concluded between 1959 and 1964 with twelve Western European countries, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, to compensate victims of Nazi prosecution. In the bilateral agreements Germany settled on paying DM 876 million in what Germany considered voluntary compensation, without any legal obligation.[1][2]

No agreements were concluded with any of the Eastern European countries which had suffered from Nazi occupation because of the political situation during the Cold War. East Germany did not participate in any of these bilateral agreements as it did not consider itself a successor state of the German Reich but it did, in the 1980s, conduct settlement agreements with Austria, Finland and Sweden.[1][2]

Agreements

Germany concluded agreements with the following countries:[1][2]

Country Year Compensation
Austria 1961 DM 95 million
Belgium 1960 DM 80 million
Denmark 1959 DM 16 million
France 1960 DM 400 million
Greece 1960 DM 116 million
Italy 1961 DM 40 million
Luxembourg 1959 DM 18 million
The Netherlands 1960 DM 125 million
Norway 1959 DM 60 million
Sweden 1964 DM 1 million
Switzerland 1961 DM 10 million
United Kingdom 1964 DM 11 million

Aftermath

Because of these agreements Germany denied any financial liability for subsequent compensation claims by war crime victims and their family members in subsequent court cases.[3] It also eliminated, in its view, Germany's legal obligation to extradite war criminals to countries like Italy.[4] After repeated cases of Germany being ordered to pay compensation by Italian courts, Germany took the matter to the International Court of Justice, claiming immunity. In 2012 the ICJ ruled in Germany's favour.

In 1990 the reunified Germany conducted a similar agreement with the United States.[5]

See also

References
  1. "Bilateral Agreements and the Cold War (1956 - 1974)". German Federal Archives. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  2. "Claims Agreements with other Countries". Institute for Jewish Policy Research. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  3. Squires, Nick (26 May 2011). "Three former Nazi soldiers found guilty of Tuscan massacre". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  4. "Three ex-Nazis get life for WWII massacre". Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata. 26 May 2011. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  5. "Compensation for National Socialist injustice". Federal Foreign Office. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
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