The Special Relationship Between West Germany and Israel,
by Lily Gardner Feldman. 1984
Reviewed by Jan Peczkis
The Israeli-German Symbiosis at Poland’s Expanse: Practical Issues
This book describes in detail the post-WWII German-Israeli rapprochement. I focus on lasting issues.
YES, VIRGINIA. THE GERMANS HAVE BOUGHT JEWISH FAVOR
German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer is credited with “breaking the ice” in Jewish-German relations and initiating the process that culminated in German reparations to Israel. (pp. 39-41). Author Feldman makes these eye-opening statements about the consequences, “The Third Reich certainly had given Israel cause to denounce Germany, and before the Luxembourg Reparations Agreement Israeli officials freely made very damaging statements. But Israel did not bite the feeding hand; after 1952, condemnations became little more than chiding, playing on the past more for advantage than for vengeance.” (p. 177. Emphasis added).
This is elementary psychology. You do not bite the hand that feeds you. No wonder that the Holocaust is increasingly blamed upon Christianity and upon Poland. No Jewish-German conspiracy is needed to make it so!
The symbiosis was no fluke, “Israeli sympathy for Germany has grown steadily since the mid-1960s.” (p. 231). Moreover, this has expanded far beyond the question of Holocaust-related reparations. Feldman notes, “Since 1960 the Federal Republic consistently has been one of Israel’s three most important trading partners, both as an importer of Israeli goods and as an exporter to Israel.” (p. 112).
GERMAN REPARATIONS PRIVILEGE ISRAEL OVER POLAND: THE FACTS
Feldman is candid about the fact that Poland got far fewer reparations monies, from Germany, than did Israel. She writes, “The non-Jewish civilian populations of Poland and Russia experienced great loss of life, forced labor and internment. Poland repeatedly had demanded such compensation, and in August 1975 the Federal Republic agreed to compensate Poland $500 million to satisfy its claims and $400 million in trade credits at low interest in exchange for allowing some 120,000 ethnic Germans to migrate to the Federal Republic (International Herald Tribune, August 4, 1975). In real money terms (1975 vs 1952) the Polish compensation was much smaller than the compensation to Israel. Moreover, Germany refused to call these payments to Poland ‘reparations’…” (p. 93. Emphasis added).
GERMAN REPARATIONS TO JEWS WERE NO BIG DEAL TO GERMANY
Nowadays, Germany is often presented as a model of repentance for Nazism. To begin with, as we have seen, this “repentance” was largely only in terms of the Jews. From a financial standpoint, even the pro-Jewish act was more symbol than substance. It did not even “hurt”. Feldman comments, “In the period of the fulfillment of the Luxembourg Agreement (1953-65) the total payments to Israel did not represent a significant financial burden to the Federal Republic. In most years less than 2 percent of the Federal budget went to Israel: only in 1960 did total payment reach 2.36 percent of Federal outlays. Lander expenditure for compensation to individuals exceeded 0.5 percent of overall Lander expenditure only twice during 1954-65 (0.78 percent in 1960, 0.55 percent in 1961).” (p. 90. Emphasis added).
GERMANY UNAMBIGUOUSLY DISCRIMINATES AGAINST THE POLES
Feldman adds that, “However, even if Israel and Jews did not receive any apparent preference over West Germans in terms of budget priorities, they do appear to have been extended preference over other countries in the form and the content of both reparations and compensation” (p. 90). Moreover, this discriminatory German practice was long term, “The preference shown Israel over other creditors through negotiations and over the Arabs through ratification was sustained during the development of bilateral relations.” (p. 92).
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THE HOLOCAUST INDUSTRY NOW EXPLOITS THE EXTRALEGAL SETTLEMENT WITH GERMANY
Feldman writes, “Germany had no legal obligation to pay reparations to Israel. Under international law Israel had no claim, for it did not exist as a state when war crimes for which it claimed compensation were committed…Treatment of the claim, and the priority it received over other national claims (from states that had existed), displayed a preference logically consistent with the general uniqueness of the reparations and the enormity of the crimes.” (pp. 90-91. Emphasis added).
Holocaust uniqueness? How many times have we heard that line ever since?
Surprise. The Israeli-German symbiosis is a gift that keeps on giving. The Holocaust Industry is now trying to use the Luxembourg Agreement as some sort of precedent, in order to force other nations to pay it–as if they were just as guilty as Germany–moreover even though, like Germany, they are under no legal obligation to do so!
HOLOCAUST INDUSTRY GOES AFTER POLAND FOR JEWISH PROPERTY THAT WAS ALREADY PAID FOR BY GERMANY
Feldman makes this clear, “The Federal Indemnification Law of July 1957 was to compensate for the seizure of property by the National Socialists.” (p. 90). In addition, Feldman remarks, “One should note, too, that from the Israeli perspective restitution payments are unlike other contributions; Germany was transferring merely what it had expropriated, not what it owned.” (p. 97). The Germans, of course, had seized the Jewish property in all the nations they had conquered, and not only in Germany itself.
THE HOLOCAUST INDUSTRY FRAUD ABOUT DESTITUTE HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS
Nowadays, the emotional appeal of restituting Holocaust survivors is used as a club against Poland. This is cynical. As shown above (2 percent vs. 0.5 percent), most of the Holocaust restitution money that Israel got from Germany, via the Israeli-German symbiosis, did not go to Holocaust survivors! And now the Holocaust Industry has the audacity to shake down Poland under completely false pretenses, trying to make the public think that Poles are the bad guys that won’t pay those poor Holocaust survivors.
