Portal on Forced Labour in the National Socialist State

After the Second World War the reconstruction of the destroyed cities and infrastructure was not only in Germany a top priority this was also in the interest of the victorious powers. In order to turn the future (West)German state into a strong economy partner, a standstill of the economic power by imposing additional burdens was definitely undesirable. Bearing this in mind everyone was quite hesitant in approaching the issue of reparation of war damages.

The legal foundations, which were then laid down for the entire compensation field, significantly contributed to a blurred vision of the terrible wrong of forced labour and the suffered harm of those affected for decades. Only in the last months of the 20th century it became possible that former forced labourers received a one-time-payment as a symbolic compensation representing at least a personal recognition as a victim of the NS regime.

The Federal Ministry of Finance has published a sound legal and statistical presentation of German compensation payments up to 2012 on their website: