The Great Repair: Emotions, Memory, and the German-Jewish Settlement After the Holocaust

The Great Repair explores how Jews and Germans began reparations discussions fewer than seven years after the Holocaust - a momentous achievement relegated to the margins of Holocaust scholarship and memory - and the complexities that emerged from the resulting settlement.Gideon Reuveni illuminates the swift transition and extraordinary chapter in postwar history from the horrors of the Holocaust to a negotiating table where Germans and Jews discussed reparations.Both sides faced the monumental challenge of addressing the injustices of National Socialism through complex deliberations on compensation for collective and individual losses, restitution of property, support for survivors, and formal acknowledgment of Nazi crimes.These negotiations marked a crucial step toward acknowledging historical responsibility and pursuing meaningful redress.The Great Repair reveals the events, actors, and decisions that led to the signing of the agreement on September 10, 1952, by West Germany, Israel