HOLOCAUST-ERA COMPENSATION AND THE CASE OF THE ROMA
HOLOCAUST-ERA COMPENSATION AND THE CASE OF THE ROMA

Summary/Abstract: Sixty years after the close of the Second World War, claims were still being processed for atrocities committed by the Nazi regime. Since 1995, two large claim processes have emerged: one against the perpetrators, the German government and industry, for using slave and forced labor during the war; and the other against their collaborators, the Swiss banks, for laundering Nazi gold and concealing heirless assets. Two smaller programs offering humanitarian assistance to former victims were also functioning, one from the German government and the other from Swiss banks, both attempts to ward off large class action lawsuits. The funds were allocated not only for Jewish survivors, but also for other groups which were victimized by the Nazis – Roma, Poles, Czechs, homosexuals, the disabled, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. In this paper I focus on the compensation policy to Roma, who alongside Jews, were persecuted based on racial criteria.

• Details
• Contents