55 years after the end of World War II and after long and difficult negotiations with victims' organizations, the German Parliament passed the ‘Act Establishing the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future”’ on 2 August 2000 which provides compensation payments for persons who were subjected to forced labour in the German war economy between 1939 and 1945. With this new legislation, a long debate that began at the end of World War II, is finally coming to an end. This article outlines the different steps in the compensation debate and analyzes the new German compensation legislation of 2 August 2000.
International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations