← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · londo
Thread ID: 7941 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2003-07-07
2003-07-07 04:14 | User Profile
Berlin, January 2000
State payments made by the Federal Republic of Germany in the area of indemnification Since the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany the efforts to atone for injustice suffered during the period of National Socialism have been one of the main tasks of German politics. For all the Federal Governments to date it has been clear that no amount of money, however large, could compensate for the crimes perpetrated by the Nazi state. No indemnification agreement, no matter how comprehensive it might be, could do justice to the demands for indemnification for the suffering of people persecuted by the Nazi regime. It should, however, be attempted by means of the compensation payments to relieve the injustice at least in material terms. Hence a comprehensive indemnification system has been built up in the Federal Republic of Germany since 1951, which has been continued and extended by the unified state of Germany since 1990.
The undertaking to make indemnification payments became an integral component part of the Transference Convention which was ratified in 1952 and put into force in 1955. The determination of certain regulations relating to indemnification was made out in the agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany, the state of Israel and various Jewish organisations which was signed in Luxembourg on 10 September 1952. The Federal Republic of Germany committed itself therein to the payment of DM 3 billion to the state of Israel as well as a further DM 450 million to the Jewish Claims Conference.
In the following years the German Bundestag passed a large number of additional laws and the Federal Government concluded an agreement on the payment of indemnification. The most important statutory fundamentals relating to indemnification regulate the respective individual claims. Here, it deals on the one hand with:
Compensation
1 October 1953: Supplementary Federal Law for the Compensation of the Victims of National Socialist Persecution (BEG) 29 June 1956: Federal Law for the Compensation of the Victims of National Socialist Persecution 14 September 1965: The Final Federal Compensation Law and on the other hand with: Restitution 19 July 1957: Federal Restitution Law (BRüG) The BEG regulates the claims of persons who were persecuted on account of their political convictions, for reasons of race, belief or due to their philosophy of life and as a result suffered physical injury or material loss, in particular loss of life, bodily harm or harm to their health, loss of property and assets as well as the hindering of their professional and financial advancement. In the case of BRüG it concerns the return of individual, ascertainable assets which were taken away from them by the National Socialist persecution measures (for reasons of race, religion, life philosophy, nationality or political opposition) or, in the event that these no longer exist, in the form of compensation for the value of the property or compensation for damages.
In addition, the Federal Republic of Germany concluded overall agreements bilaterally with 12 European states between 1959 and 1964 which benefited nationals from these states and made a sum of almost DM 1 billion available, which should be distributed to the injured parties by the corresponding states themselves.
In the Unification Treaty of 31 August 1990 the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic pledged themselves to the continuation of the Federal Republic's policy of indemnification. Moreover, an additional fund was set up for such victims of Nazi persecution who had not received any or only limited indemnification up to that point in time. In this way the unified state of Germany paid attention to the fact that the German Democratic Republic, for economic and ideological reasons, had not consistently paid out compensation for the injustice perpetrated by the Nazi regime.
The details were laid down in a treaty with the Jewish Claims Conference in October 1992, which extended the catalogue of payments for claimants, to include those from the former communist states, who now were living in different states.
The Federal Government made out indemnification payments to Nazi victims in east European countries via special foundations for those living in the former Warsaw Pact states who had been persecuted. The Federal Republic of Germany provided funds to a value of DM 1.5 billion for the foundations in White Russia, the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Poland. Supplementing the foundation agreements, a sum of DM 80 million was approved for victims at the hands of the Nazis in the east European states who were not reached by the above mentioned foundations. Both the one-off payments granted by the foundations and the DM 80 million in individual payments which were granted amount to an average payment of DM 1,000 per individual case. To date the foundations have granted payments to a value of approximately DM 1 billion to 1.4 million entitled persons.
In the "German-Czech Declaration Regarding Mutual relations and their Future Development" of 21 January 1997 the Federal Government approved DM 140 million for the German-Czech future fund, towards which the Czech side donated DM 25 million. The foundation fund should particularly benefit victims of National Socialist violence.
On 12 January 1998 the Federal Government and the Jewish Claims Conference agreed upon the foundation of a fund which will support Jews persecuted in East Europe by the Nazis, who are needy and have not received any indemnification thus far (with the exception of the DM 1,000 mentioned above). The Federal Government will pay out a financial contribution of DM 200 million, spread over 4 years, from 1999 to the year 2002. The terms of agreement relating to the payments will be determined by the legally and economically responsible body of the new fund itself. In particular regular monthly pensions of up to DM 500 are to be paid out of this fund. The appraisal of the payments being made in an individual case and the administration of the funds is the sole responsibility of the Jewish Claims Conference.
The German payments in the area of indemnification amounted to more than DM 100 billion by 1 January 1999. In addition a further sum of far more than DM 20 billion in public sector indemnification payments is planned for the following years.
The total payments from public sector funds based on the various law regulations can be seen from the following overview.
Amount in billion Deutschmarks
I. Payments to date
1. Federal Indemnification Law (BEG) 79.648
2. Federal Restitution Law (BRüG) 3.955
3. Compensatory Pension Law (ERG) 0.987
4. Israel treaty 3.450
5. Overall agreements with individual states (and similar) 2.563
6. Other payments (payments not covered by I.1 to I.3) 8.800
7. Payments by German federal states not included in BEG 2.546
8. Settlement of hardship cases (without federal states) 1.991
total 103.940
II. Future payments
BEG 15.352
BrüG 0.045
ERG 0.613
Overall agreements (and similar) 0.357
Other payments 1.200
Payments by the federal states not included in BEG 0.954
Settlement of hardship cases (without federal states) 4.539
total 23.060
III. Probable total payments
BEG 95.000
BRüG 4.000
ERG 1.600
Israel treaty 3.450
Overall agreements (and similar) 2.920
Other payments 10.000
Payments by federal states not included in BEG 3.500
Settlement of hardship cases (without federal states) 6.530
total 127.000
Status: 1 January 1999
The payments in accordance with the Federal Indemnification Law (BEG) and the Federal Restitution Law (BRüG) are broken down into 20% domestic payments, 40% payments to Israel and the remainder for the rest of the world.
As regards the pension payments in accordance with the BEG, 15% remain in and an 85% share is sent abroad.
In the period from 1 October 1953 to 31 December 1987 4,384,138 claims for indemnification in accordance with the Federal Amending Law for the indemnification of victims of National Socialist persecution (BErgG) of 18 September 1953 (BGBI (Federal Law Gazette).I page 1387), in accordance with the Federal Law to Indemnify Victims of National Socialist Persecution (Federal Indemnification Law - BEG) of 29 June 1956 (BGBI.I page 559) and in accordance with the Second Law on the Amendment of the Federal Indemnification Law (BEG-Final Law) of 14 September 1965 (BGBI.I page 1315), were made and resolved in the following way:
Granted: 2,014,142 Rejections 1,246,571 Other settlements (e.g. retractions) 1,123,425
The number of claimants has not been statistically recorded. It is not identical with the number of claims made, as according to a statement made by the respective federal states responsible for the implementation of the Federal Indemnification Law (BEG), each rightful claimant makes more than one claim on average. The exact number of valid claims made by each claimant cannot be deduced.
The number of claims and settlements made between 1 January 1988 and the present day is so slight that it is longer statistically recorded by the states.
The proceedings in accordance with the BRüG have been concluded all bar an insignificant remainder.
Not included in the overview are sundry payments which cannot be quantified which amount to billions of marks in accordance with other regulations, such as the "Law on the Treatment of Victims of National Socialist Persecution in the Area of Social Security", the "Federal Law on the Reparation for National Socialist Injustice in the Area of War Victims' Relief) and in accordance with the General War Consequences Law.
Payments by federal states not included in BEG up to 31 December 1998
Amounts in DM '000s Baden-Württemberg 70,982 Bavaria 99,885 Berlin 911,075 Bremen 19,305 Hamburg 139,271 Hesse 109,387 Lower Saxony 152,567 North Rhine-Westphalia 939,314 Rhineland-Palatinate 56,467 Saarland 1,690 Schleswig-Holstein 46,426 total 2,546,369
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