Debunking Viral Claim About the Talmud and Minors
7 min read
A documentary unearths the explosive controversy over Holocaust reparations—fierce protests, political clashes, and a moral reckoning that split survivors, Israel, and postwar Germany apart.
In 1951, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer surprised the world by proposing what he called Wiedergutmachung. The phrase, which means “making good again,” is the name he coined for an offer to compensate victims of Nazi crimes. To make it happen, Adenauer, who had been an anti-Nazi and counted Jews among his friends, issued an invitation to the State of Israel and the leaders of world Jewry.
It wasn’t easy.
From the start, the plan was embroiled in controversy.
Adenauer’s West German compatriots were not on board. According to a poll taken at the time, only 11 percent of West Germans were onboard. (Communist block East Germany, though complicit in the crimes, played no role in this story.) Amazingly, most West Germans saw themselves, not the Jews, as the war’s primary victims.
The survivors also had their doubts.
West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer
While most were penniless, nearly 250,000 were still living in Displaced Persons camps, some eerily located on the sites of former concentration camps. At the time, many regarded Adenauer’s as-of-yet undefined offer as blood money.
In Israel, there were massive street demonstrations in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv led by the then-opposition leader Menachem Begin, whose parents and brother were murdered in the Holocaust. One demonstration became so rowdy that angry mobs stormed the Knesset throwing rocks and breaking windows. Several dozen people got hurt and the army had to be called in to restore order.
One man who was unequivocally interested was Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion. Arguing that the newfound state was the legitimate heir to the six million, Ben Gurion wanted the infusion of funds to save the fledgling state from looming bankruptcy. Following the 1948 War of Independence and the absorption of 700,000 new immigrants, government coffers were nearly bare.
Even for Ben Gurion, convincing Israelis to sit down with the successors to the Nazis was a hard sell, but he made his case. Following three days of nonstop debates, the Knesset narrowly agreed to negotiate.
The next step was bringing diaspora Jewry to the table. While the Israelis assumed that the Jewish state represented all Jews, the diaspora organizations disagreed. The question remained, though—who would speak for diaspora Jewry?
The original Claims Conference negotiating team and Israeli delegation at the Hague. Front row, from left: Alexander Easterman, Felix Shinnar, Moses Leavitt, Giora Josephthal. Second row: Seymour Rubin, Benjamin Ferencz, Eli Nathan, Morris Boukstein, Jacob Robinson, Gershon Avner. Third Row: Jerome Jackson and Nehemiah Robinson.
Zionist leader Nahum Goldmann, called together the leaders of the 23 largest Diaspora organizations. They formed what they called the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, or the Claims Conference, the organization which would sit down with the West Germans.
Only one major Jewish organization objected—the Orthodox and Rabbinically led Agudas Yisrael denounced the forthcoming negotiations as “moral suicide” and refused to participate.
It is the talks and the resulting agreement that are the focus of Roberta Grossman’s documentary Reckonings – The First Reparations. Produced in partnership with the Claims Conference and the German Federal Ministry of Finance, Reckonings skillfully combines interviews, archival footage, and dramatic reenactments to tell this little-known but important chapter of Holocaust history.
As the film highlights, the negotiations were a risky gamble. Goldmann, who became the key player, feared that the West Germans might treat the discussions as just a business deal. To prevent this, he told them that the starting point must be the West Germans accepting moral responsibility.
Adenauer agreed.
Still these were talks like no other. Memories of Nazi era atrocities were still fresh in the minds of the Jews. These were the years when no self-respecting Jew would buy a German product or visit Germany. At the talks, which took place in a villa in Holland, the Jewish and Israeli negotiators and West Germans, some of whom were ex-Nazis, avoided anything even vaguely resembling camaraderie. There was no socializing, no joking not even handshakes.
Even with Adenauer’s offer, the Jews recognized that they faced an uphill battle to get what they wanted.
Holocaust survivors demonstrate against reparations, 1952
“There was no precedent in international law for what they were trying to do,” recalls Ben Ferencz, the former Nuremberg Trials lead prosecutor who served as one of the Claims Conference’s lawyers.
The film demonstrates that the negotiations nearly collapsed more than once. Interestingly, Adenauer’s most formidable opponent was his own foreign minister Fritz Shaeffer and the ex-Nazis in his cabinet, who insisted that his country could not afford to pay the Jews. Adenauer eventually got them to see that paying reparations to the Jews would restore West Germany’s badly battered international reputation, which indeed it did.
Even at the moment of signing, the tension was palpable. The signatories Adenauer, Goldmann, and Moshe Sharett, who had replaced Ben Gurion as Prime Minister, entered the room from two different doors. After that, everyone sat in silence for twelve and a half minutes. Following the signing, Adenauer, who was a deeply religious Catholic, went directly to church.
German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signing the Luxembourg Agreements on September 10, 1952
Many of the Jews felt shortchanged.
Despite their promises to Goldmann, the Germans bargained. Instead of the requested one billion dollars, the Israelis received $750 million paid in installments in oil, industrial equipment, and ships for the navy.
In the film, Israeli President Isaac Herzog insists that the payments rescued the state from economic collapse and even increased the standard of living.
The film also describes the impact the payments had on survivors’ lives. In an interview clip, an Israeli survivor recalls that the money she received allowed her to pay for a psychiatrist and get her life back together. Another woman says that she used it to fund her education. Other survivors were less pleased. “It was a very small price to pay for murdering my whole family,” says survivor Serena Neuman in the film.
The film also points out that even when “making good,” the West Germans could be cruel.
Goldmann, Adenauer, and Ben-Gurion, with Moshe Dayan in the background
(c) Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-P092350 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en
Neuman relates the story of her sister, whose health was severely compromised, but her claim was denied by a doctor who refused to believe that her ailments were the product of her concentration camp experience.
As the film points out, the reparations weren't inclusive. Those who spent the war years in hiding or behind the Iron Curtain were initially denied reparations. Over the years, the Claims Conference has fought hard to expand the categories of eligibility.
Since 1952, the Germans have paid out 90 billion dollars to 270,000 survivors. Money was also sent to Yad Vashem and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
My mother was among the 270,000 beneficiaries. Though she spent a year in camps, my mother had to present her case before a German psychiatrist, an experience which was unpleasant to put it mildly. Like Ben Gurion, she was a pragmatist. If the West Germans were offering, what would be gained by refusing, she reasoned. She used the money to pay for rent, kosher food, and her children's yeshiva tuition.
My father, also a victim of the Nazis, refused to subject himself to this indignity. To him, the money was tainted and useless. It wouldn't bring back his mother, brother, nieces, nephews, and two sisters, who the Nazis had drowned. To my father, reparations was a giant lie. There was no way that these monsters could ever “make good” for anything they had done.
After seeing Reckonings, I have a better insight into both their points of view.
My parents Moshe-Chaiyem Eisenberg and Fayga Dena Slomovitch Eisenberg (of blessed memory) were holocaust survivors from Warsaw Poland, they strongly refused to engage in the reparation process stating; that it would never ever justify cold murderous acts of their parents, siblings, baby cousins and nieces. Accepting the offered reparation funds was equivalent to SECOND cold blooded murderous act of their loved ones.
It's easy to miss that in 1952, no one, esp. any Jews, thought Germany would ultimately wind up more/less resembling its neighbors, for whatever that is worth given the enabling of Islamic jihad against us. It's safer to be a Jew in modern Germany than Pakistan, Qatar, Iran, etc.
If the reparations had not happened, we wouldn't have receipts. Germany very well could've denied the entire Holocaust, esp. as details got out. Today, Holocaust denial is fringe. But picture if it were mainstream, which it would be if the perpetrator nation, which had many collaborators, denied it, esp. given the Cold War at the time? Thank G9d for the reparations, the receipts.
To forgive....,to forget????..... how???
My in laws were both hidden children in France. My father in law and his brother were hidden by nuns in a Catholic orphanage who gave the identities of dead French children so that they could get rations and keep the children safe. When his widowed mother returned to get them after the war, they were returned with no question.
My mother in law and her siblings were hidden on a farm. The couple who took them in saved their lives but also were physically abusive. My mother in law was able to receive very belated reparations beginning in the 1990’s and lasting until her death in 2023.
The only way that the modern world has developed to compensate victims is via money. To those who would not accept it, I would ask what they would have preferred instead?
My father never received a penny. He lost his wife who was pregnant and 3 children.
I never got a penny.
Actually, there were Romas ( some people call them Gypsies) in concentration camps too, which they could of originated from India, I hope what America did to the American indigenous people the world doesn't do the Jewish people the indigenous people of Israel
When Jews were slaves in Egypt that got reparations when they left. so why can't Jews that did slave labor get money for doing the work, but this " blood money" doesn't bring back my mother's( obm) relatives, and other Holocaust Survivors( obm) that lost family in the Holocaust, most Nazis( may their name be erased) got away with their crimes but running to South America, Central America, and even came to the United States under false circumstances without admitting they were Nazi( may their name be erased) war criminals, some Jews try not to buy German products, but in Israel the taxis and buses are Mercedes Benz because Ben Gurion made a deal with the German government, and real Holocaust Survivors( obm) didn't get what was owed them by the Germans, this happened unfortunately
Leon Rogath, my only surviving relative, refused to take the money....after his release from Gross Rosen the J Joint helped him reach my grandpa, get to NY, where his other relatives set him up as a furrier
I remember as a child a group of survivors were sitting around our table discussing what to do. There were 3 types of reparations as I recall. the 1st was for people in the family who were murdered. That was categorically rejected. The second was for work/slave labor for the Germans and the last was for health related issues. The offer was a lump sum and a pension. So on the whole people thought that if you worked for an American company you would get a pension. In this case many of the survivors were in need, and the idea was that there was no reason not to take a pension for work or health reasons. In the end some took the reparations and some did not. There was also the idea that Israel needed the funds badly and that took precedence, both in arms and funds. Bankrupting Germany was good
it has nothing to do with Germany being forgiven at all. If some people didn't want the money they didn't have to use it. They could however take the money and flush it down the toilet. There was no reason to leave the money to Germans.
No need to flush it down the toilet: give it to your favorite charity
Most Holocaust Survivors( obm) really needed the money
At least Germany acknowledged that reparations were due to Jews. My country, Poland, which suffered the most in terms of percentage of population loss (20%) and often complete infrastructure destruction, still waits for any kind of compensation for World War II. My grandfather (on my father's side) was murdered by the Germans, and many families were similarly traumatized. It is very painful to hear when Israel or Jews sometimes accuse Poles of what the Germans did... as if there were some agreement to shift the blame onto Poland—a forgotten victim and scapegoat. Many Jews lived in Poland because it was a good, if not the best, place to live for them at that time, when antisemitism was strong and widespread worldwide
Right, because the poles never jumped on the chance to become Sondercommandos to murder Jews. Give me a break. I have no sympathy for any of you.
I agree with you, after some Holocaust Survivors went back to a Police town they murdered the Jews in Pogrom, my mom( obm) was from Poland they were very anti Semitic, that is why the most notorious concentration camps were build in Poland, for instance Auschwitz-Birneau in Polish it was called something else,
This is ignorance. Free Poland did not exist in 1939-1989 because it was occupied by the Soviets, who incited and allowed pogroms like this to stir hatred between Jews and Poles — a standard practice of the Kremlin until now. Stop spreading Polonophobia and accusing Poland, which suffered the highest population losses in percentage terms. Camps were built in occupied Poland due to logistical reasons — the largest number of Jews lived in Poland because it was still one of the best countries for Jews at that time. Were there any mass murderings of Jews in Poland before WW2 in 1918-1939, when it was free? No. Coincidence? No — Poland was still the safest place where Jews were protected by the state. Stop spreading anti-Polonism and blaming victimized Poland for Germany's or Soviet's crimes.
Give me a break, are you Polish and not Jewish, my mom( obm) a Holocaust Survivor( obm) from Poland who was Jewish told me how anti Jewish Poles were, you are ignorant not me, did the Poles go to Auschwitz-Birneau concentration camp and get selected by Dr. Joseph Mengele( may his name be erased) for death or experiments, are you a anti semite that is writing in a Jewish site, most Poles help the Nazis( may their name be erased) kill Jews, take their possession and property, and told who was a Jew, so don't tell me bologna I no better, how bad Poles were to the Jews the majority
Before World War II, relations between ethnic Poles and Jews were complex, with social and political tensions, but serious physical violence was rare. Poland was home to the largest and most culturally active Jewish community in Europe, with synagogues, schools, newspapers, and political organizations. Jews had full civil rights under the interwar Polish constitution, and while antisemitism existed—as it did in many European countries—Jewish life in Poland was more free and vibrant than in places like Germany or Romania.
During the war, about 2 million ethnic Poles were killed by Nazi Germany. Over 200 000 were imprisoned in camps such as Auschwitz, where political prisoners, clergy, and civilians were murdered or used in experiments, including those by Dr. Mengele.
The Poles still didn't give back anything they stole from the Jews, while other European countries gave back things or at least gave money to their heirs but not Poland, and still Jews go to Poland even they they ripped off Jews and was in cohorts with the Nazis ( may their name be erased) , why is a Polish robot or anti Jewish anti semite in a Jewish site, this is the example of Polish people trying g to white wash their involvement in World War 2 crimes, I am not in Poland I can't go to jail for the truth the Poles want to hide their evil history, who were more evil than the Germans( may their name be erased)
May you merit to learn that you have a twisted version of the truth.
I have no doubt that you will get what you deserve.
omg you have zero shame do you to post here? ALL but I mean ALL Jewish survivors from Poland said that Poles were worse than the Nazis it is a known fact. To this very day!! they sell horrible key chains representing Jews with long noses and gold coins etc..... while nothing is black and white yes some Poles helped Jews like count them on the hand very few. You Rafal have zero shame the article is about reparations to Jews and you go with Poland. Poles moved in to my father's home in 1941 and the house is still there but YOUR country wouldn't give it to me.
Mostly it was pure Greed as the Poles were allowed to keep the possessions of the Jews they murdered. That is a horrible thing all in itself.
The same was true in France.
This is ignorance. Free Poland did not exist in 1939-1989 because it was occupied by the Soviets, who incited and allowed antisemitism like this to stir hatred between Jews and Poles — a standard practice of the Kremlin until now. Stop spreading Polonophobia and accusing Poland, which suffered the highest population losses in percentage terms. Camps were built in occupied Poland due to logistical reasons — the largest number of Jews lived in Poland because it was still one of the best countries for Jews at that time. Were there any mass murderings of Jews in Poland before WW2 in 1918-1939, when it was free? No. Coincidence? No — Poland was still the safest place where Jews were protected by the state. Stop spreading anti-Polonism and blaming victimized Poland for Germany's or Soviet's crim
You are right unfortunately, and the Poles want to white wash their crimes against the Jews at that time, if a Jew says something about Poles were involved in murdering Jews or giving Jews up to the Nazis( may their name be erased) you go to jail, but the irony is Jews still go to Poland to see the concentration camps and other holy sites, etc but I don't understand why Jews would go to Poland for any reason, it is ironic a lot of Europe have Muslims but not in Poland
It is not true that Poland as a state supported crimes against Jews. Before World War II, although there were social and political tensions between some ethnic Poles and Jews, physical violence against Jews was extremely rare compared to many other countries. Poland had the largest and most culturally vibrant Jewish community in Europe, with hundreds of schools, synagogues, newspapers, political parties, and full religious freedom. The Polish state legally protected Jews, and many Jews saw Poland as their homeland. The Nazi death camps were built in occupied Poland by Germany, not by Poles, and blaming Poland ignores that Poles themselves suffered massive losses and never collaborated as a nation or a government, and were punished by death by Nazi Germany for helping Jews !!!
I know what are you saying is true, my mom( obm) was from Poland , a Holocaust Survivor( obm) that was in Auschwitz-Birneau
I agree with you 109%
The Poles even sold Jewish people's Shabbat candle sticks and a Haunkah menorah which was actual stolen Jewish property
Some but not all of the Polish people participated in the murder of Jews, that is a fact. Their motive, the Germans agreed that could keep the belongings of the Jews they murdered. Was this all of the people? Of course not. Anti Semitism was not worldwide even at that time. For the most part the people living in North and South America had no problems with Jews. Neither did the people in CHINA hate Jews. The hatred of Jews is a European issue, but with the establishment of Israel it is less in Europe and more in the Middle East.
Well a lot of Nazis( may their name be erased) escaped to South America and some Nazis( may their name be erased) came to North America under false pertains not saying they were war criminals, alot of these war criminals got away and there was no justice done, like some were judged in the Nuranburg Trials
Most of Poles gave up Jews and did other bad and evil things to Jews, only a handful of Polish people saved Jews they were in the minority not in the majority unfortunately
This comment is unfair and not true.
Before the war, Poland had the largest Jewish population in Europe because Jews found more freedom and support there than elsewhere. While there were some tensions, violence was rare, and the Polish state gave Jews legal rights and protection.
During the German occupation, helping Jews meant certain death, yet thousands of Poles risked their lives to do so — more than in any other country. Poland as a nation was not the enemy, and blaming all Poles ignores both history and the reality of Nazi terror.
there actually was a ton of antisemitism in the world before 1945, including the Islamic world. (Andrew Bostom has a great book about how Islamic antisemitism began millennia before Hitler.) There was Henry Ford, and pro-Nazi groups all around both of the Americas. Truth is truth.
Kielce Radom post war pogroms, among others
Quite pathetic that you raise the point in defense of Polish attitude towards the Jews:Were there any mass murders against the Jews before WWII?
You are trying to deceive everyone.
There are, literally, tens of thousands of examples of Polish anti-semitism.
You make yourself look silly trying to deny it.
Also the fact that you have repeated the same answer over and over again shows everyone that you are a troll.
Between 1918 and 1939, Poland was one of the safest places in Europe for Jews, with over 3 million living there—the largest Jewish population on the continent. There were tensions between some ethnic Poles and Polish Jews, especially in the 1930s, but physical violence was rare and not state policy. The Polish state gave Jews full legal rights, allowed Jewish schools, parties, newspapers, and religious life to flourish. Poland as a country supported Jewish life more than many others, and it was Nazi Germany—not Poland—that built extermination camps during the occupation.
Actually, in Poland the Polish government are white washing their crimes during the Holocaust, and replacing it with the bologna that the character so called Rafal is spreading, if you mention the truth about Poles during the Holocaust then that person will be jailed,they are denying all their crimes, instead of admitting the truth, so Poland is full of lies instead of admitting the real truth, at least Germany admitted their crimes, unfortunately the anti Semitic Poles have no Muslims to give them trouble, but I don't understand why Jews ho to Poland to see the concentration camps and other sites in Poland if they deny their share of committing crimes during the Holocaust
Poland actually did pass up real reparations from Germany in the decades after the war. Sure, Soviet influence was heavy in Poland from 1945-1989, but there were Polish communists and leftists. The communists in Poland weren't all Russian, or the "Jewish bolsheviks" too many Polish nationals helped Germans hunt from 1939-1945. So Poland does have to kind of suck up that they missed their shot for reparations from Germany. Also, Poland got prime European real estate w/ sea access - Pomerania & Silesia.
These facts are all just as true as there were many legit Polish heroes who saved Jews & valiantly resisted Hitler. But against 6 million dead, you're not winning a narrative war.
Can the Germans ever be forgiven?
I don't think they can.
I know one Jewish family who threw their daughter out after she married a -German.
Forgiveness must come, whether they ask it or not - that is what G-d demands of us. However, Germans can never be trusted or believed. I currently have no interest or desire to step foot into Germany, ever. But I do find some morbid pleasure in witnessing their current troubles with being overrun by Moslems. Karma, man.
what about France they collaborated with the Nazis and what about Japan? you boycott those countries too? what about Americans with their American president who refused to let Jews in...??
The people of France saved thousands of Jews, they hid them in their attics and basements or pretended they were their own children. My French teacher born as a Jew in France was saved by her Christian neighbors who took her in and told the authorities that she was Their own flesh and blood. The Poles cooperated with the German Third Reich and killed most of their Jews. The Lithuanians also. BUT THE FRENCH WERE DIFFERENT. Sure there were exceptions but the proof is in the pudding as they say. AFTER WORLD WAR II THE COUNTRY WITH THE LARGEST JEWISH POPULATION IN EUROPE OTHER THAN RUSSIA (which was never conquered by the third Reich) was FRANCE!!!!
My Mother was hidden in a Catholic Orphanage in Belgium. 3000 Jewish children were saved by Righteous Gentiles in Belgium. Tragically, 25,000 Belgian Jews were sent to death in AUSCHWITZ. My Mother's Father was one of them.
Poland was the only Nazi-occupied country where the Germans imposed an automatic death penalty — not only for those who helped Jews, but also for their entire families. This policy was introduced by the German authorities specifically in occupied Poland to suppress the significant support many Jews received from the local population. Saying that "the Poles cooperated with Nazi Germany" is a serious exaggeration and shows a lack of understanding of the brutal reality Poles faced under occupation — they had to choose between certain death or trying to survive under Nazi terror. Poland as a state never collaborated with the Nazi Germany at all as a rare exception in WW2. Instead free Poland as a state (outside occupation in 1939-1989) was protecting Jews.
Japan did not kill Jews, they did not have any. They could not understand why the Germans hated Jews, after all they all looked the same didn't they??? Japan had a plan to rescue Jews and have them live in Japan, of course this would come with a large fee to the JAPAN government Unfortunately it was never actually implemented.
Yes Roosevelt refused to let refugee Jews from Eastern Europe to escape to the US due to pressure from certain of his Christian supporters, even though he was not ant semetic, he was a politician first and hummanitarin last. However, Mexico did let refugee Jews into their country during World War II as long as they could prove that they could support themselves. I personally have relatives living in Mexico right now who can trace their ancestors to Eastern Europe who first were refused entry into the USA and so went to Mexico. The current President of Mexico has Jewish ancestors, though I do not know if they came to Mexico during World War II, there have always been Jews in Mexico, some came during the inquisition to escape the then prejudice in Spain against Jews.
France was no bargain but Japan allowed Jews in and generally was ok, but Roosevelt should be pilloried for not allowing Jews in
FDR might have lost future presidential elections had he admitted all the Jews who wanted to immigrate. It’s highly doubtful that another American president would have done differently.
Furthermore, the consensus of the US military (as well as Churchill and the British coalition government) was that the most important goal was to fight a world war on 3 continents and win. Every country is obligated to put its own people and land first. The Russians lost more military fighters than any other country and they were our allies.
As far as I can tell, there is NO "obligation" to "forgive" Germany. However, one must carefully think how to come to terms with individual GERMANS. Not long ago, Aish has an article about the daughter of a Nazi who *converted* and is a "giyores tzedek". I do not believe that she has to be "forgiven" and she most certainly must not be made to feel ashamed of her parents. There are -- to this day -- individual Germans who have sought to help and assist the State of Israel and Israelis. They do this out of a sense of shame for what their country did. I do not think that they should be further shamed. Konrad Adenauer was an anti-Nazi. How do you relate to him? Even if one thinks that "reparations" were a "bad idea" or morally repugnant, that does not make Adenauer a "bad person".
I
some young German students volunteer to work in Israel..there was one in the nursing home where I worked years ago
The only one that can forgive are the ones that were tortured, starved, experienced on, murdered by the Germans not but else can forgive them only the victims the men,women, and children that had no years and lives, besides Jews they were non Jews that were murdered too, like the Romas( better known as Gypsies) some Jewish Holocaust Survivors( obm) had interactions with the Romas( Gypsies) they were murdered too
No one would forgive a German individual that took part, but how about ones who didn't? Sins of the father & visiting them? There's a lotta better countries than Germany, yes. But just as even the pogrom king that was Russia isn't what it once was, Germany isn't either. Plus, there are G0d-fearing, kosher Jews in Germany. Why would you want them to have to deal with Moslem jihad?
I should like to think that every Jewish family would throw out their son/daughter if they married a German.
Why is marrying a "German" worse than marrying any other non-Jew? I assume that no Jewish family would "throw out" their son or daughter for marrying a German Ger Tzedek. Doing so would explicitly violate (in one of the worst ways) the Torah's commandment to "love the Ger".
Jewish law is very specific: you are a Jew if your mother is legally Jewish. The Nazis used more inclusive standards.
Incidentally, if being Jewish is sufficiently important to you/your family a conversion can be arranged.
evokes the story of how a few of Haman's descendants studied Torah in Israel.
forgive but not forget..my son in laws grandparents came from Germany in 1920 ish, his grandpa enlisted in the Army and was assigned to interrogate captured German soldiers......for many years I wouldnt buy German products, still wouldnt go there but I've given up thinking, 'the only good German is a dead German'
There is an ancient German tradition of “weregilt” (not sure of spelling, this is phonetic), which is a payment in reparation for an accidental death. It may be that this tradition influenced Adenauer’s decision. Though in this case the deaths were far from “accidental”.
I think that though he was an anti-Nazi, Adenauer felt ashamed of the atrocities of the Nazis and felt that he had to do "something"... It is interesting that an "Anti-Nazi" felt the obligation to "do something".