A VIEW OF US POLICY TOWARD JEWISH RESTITUTION¹

Abstract

In 1952, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer met with world Jewish leaders and representatives of the State of Israel to formalize a program of restitution to be paid to Jewish victims of Nazism. German researchers have traced the origins of the reparations agreement to the intentions of German state legislators to introduce a law on the subject even during the period of military occupation, before 1949. Jewish researchers have credited the sustained efforts of various Jewish organizations with bringing about a restitution program. This paper argues that the United States played a significant role in helping realize a restitution program. The available sources on this aspect of US–German relations in that period reveal a determined course by the United States to push the emergent West German state toward a resolution of the Jewish restitution problem.