Jewish Claims Against East Germany

This is a history of Jewish negotiations with East Germany regarding restitution and reparations for Nazi war crimes. The author analyzes the politics of old and new antisemitism and the context in which they grew under the officially propagated idealogy of antifascism. Investigating the mass of unpublished archival data, and using more than forty personal interviews, Timm examins the role of the Holocaust and the image of the Jews in the historical consciousness and political culture of East Germany, and chronicles the efforts of Jewish organizations to negotiate reparations with the East German state. The unique relationship between ideology and Realpolitik defined the manner in which East Germany confronted the crimes of its past and allowed antisemitism to re-emerge.