1st Edition
Redefining Reparations Wassenaar 1952 and the Global Politics of Repair
Introduction: Wassenaar, 1952: Redefining Reparations
Lorena De Vita and Constantin Goschler
Part I: Actors and Agency
1. German Reparations and the Jewish World: Creating the Claims Conference
Ronald W. Zweig
2. Who Was (Not) Invited to Wassenaar?: The Delegations to the 1952 German-Jewish Reparations Negotiations
Gideon Reuveni
3. The International Side of the Story: Why West Germany Came to Pay Reparations to Israel in 1952
Kathrin Bachleitner
4. Wiedergutmachung as a Claim to the Rehabilitation of Political Subjectivity and Social Agency
Ido de Haan
Part II: Meanings and Practices
5. The Factory That Wiped Out the Past: Chorzów and the Reparative Imagination
Linda Kinstler
6. 1952 as a Turning Point in the History of the Restitution of Property Rights in Western Europe
Wouter Veraart
7. The Forgotten Lessons of Negotiated Redress: Wassenaar, the Struggle for Reparations, and Human Rights
Luke Moffett
8. Three Generations, One Wiedergutmachung
Susan Slyomovics
Part III: Echoes and Resonances
9. Holocaust Reparations: Scrutinizing “the Model” in Transitional Justice
Nicole L. Immler
10. Considering Compensation for Palestinian Refugees: Arab and International Efforts in the 1950s
Michael R. Fischbach
11. The History and Current Status of German Reparations to Namibia
Henning Melber
12. Holocaust Redress: Its Effect on Slave Redress and Post-Conflict Justice
Roy L. Brooks
Biography
Lorena De Vita is Associate Professor of International Relations in Historical Perspective at Utrecht University, where she leads the Wording Repair research project, funded by the Dutch National Research Council (NWO) and the Alfred Landecker Foundation Lecturer Programme. De Vita is the author of Israelpolitik: German-Israeli Relations 1949–69 (2020).
Constantin Goschler is Professor of Modern History at the Ruhr University Bochum. His publications include Schuld und Schulden: Die Politik der Wiedergutmachung für NS-Verfolgte seit 1945 (2008) and Compensation in Practice: The Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" and the Legacy of Forced Labour during the Third Reich (ed.) (2017).
"What was Wassenaar? This collection of papers by a diverse array of scholars shows that the gathering of representatives of the Federal Republic of Germany, Israel, and the Jewish Claims Conference gave new meaning to the idea of 'reparations.' Varied views are brought to bear on the innovation that took place during the negotiations in the Dutch town that led to an unprecedented agreement compensating for the wrongs done to Jews by the Third Reich. This volume is indispensable for anyone who wants to experience being 'present at the creation' of post-Holocaust reparations politics."
John Torpey, Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA
