Holocaust-Era Reparations Morality, History and Money

Abstract

Holocaust-era reparations are truly the place where morality meets money. Yet Holocaust-era compensation and restitution is about much more than money. It is also about justice, history, law, politics and social work. It is about those who are entitled and about those who need help. It is about responsibility and about fairness. At the Claims Conference, we deal with one of the greatest moral challenges to humanity in the last centuries, the Holocaust, and seek to translate the quest for justice into one of the most basic forms of human interchange-money. Perhaps the reality is that Holocaust compensation and restitution is not about the money. At the end of day, it has helped many hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors around the world to live out the remainder of their lives with a little more dignity than they might otherwise have had. Keywords: Claims Conference; compensation; history; Holocaust-era reparations; justice; money; morality; survivors