The Diplomacy of Wiedergutmachung : Memory, the Cold War, and the Western European Victims of Nazism, 1956-1964

In 1956 a number of Western European states demanded from the Federal Republic of Germany compensation for victims of National Socialist persecution. West Germany eventually concluded eleven bilateral compensation agreements between 1959 and 1964. The long, acrimonious negotiations were conducted with the Federal Republic's key allies at a time when their support was crucial for West Germany's international rehabilitation, the process of European integration, and the Cold War struggle. This article analyzes to what extent the day-to-day politics of the Cold War were intertwined with the politics of the past. It examines German negotiations with France and with Britain in more detail to illustrate that the eleven agreements were far from uniform.