Paying for the past

the long version

In Paying for the Past, physician and historian Christian Pross untangles the complicated history of reparations in West Germany, from the American military government's 1947 Law Number 59 (Restitution of Property Stolen in the Course of the "Aryanization of the Economy") to West Germany's Federal Restitution Law of 1957 and into the 1970s. When first published in German in 1988, Pross's landmark research caused a furor because it exposed the hostility of the West German people and the bitter political opposition within the government toward reparations legislation and the Holocaust victims seeking restitution. Paying for the Past uncovers the inconsistencies, distortions, and veiled anti-Semitic attitudes in West Germany's official version of its reparations history. Now available in English for the first time, this edition of Paying for the Past contains a new preface by the author and an afterword by medical ethicist Erich Loewy, which provides an international context for the ethical issues raised by the West German experiences with reparations.