The dock. ©National Archives, Washington / Stadtarchiv Nürnberg
In the London treaty, the Federal Republic of Germany was able to postpone negotiations on the majority of reparations claims until the signing of a final peace treaty, despite the existence of other reparations agreements. However, with Germany divided and the Cold War underway, a final peace treaty appeared a distant prospect at the time.
In August 1953, the Soviet Union relinquished all further claims for reparations and compensation against East Germany.
©Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes, Berlin
At the Nuremberg Trials of major war criminals, forced labor was prosecuted as a "crime against humanity." However, it hardly played a role in later trials.
The Allies handed down severe sentences to ten of the 24 primary defendants for their responsibility in organizing forced labor.
Like the accused, the majority of the German population considered the judgements, not the crimes, unfair. In the subsequent Nuremberg trials, sentences were much milder, and after a brief period they were often commuted.
German courts did not recognize the employment of forced laborers as a criminal offence. As a result, only concrete instances of abuse were prosecuted. The demands of former forced laborers for indemnification were categorically rejected with references to bilateral global agreements.
