For the past few months, I’ve been reading stories about German companies making reparation payments to the people they used as slave laborers during World War II.
About 10 million people were forced to work in Nazi-era factories, often under deplorable conditions. The list of corporations which used slave labor reads like a German Fortune 500: Daimler-Benz, Volkswagen, Opel – a subsidiary of General Motors, even then – BMW, Siemans, Krupp, IG Farben and its subsidiaries Hoechst, BASF and Bayer – that’s right, the aspirin people. Much of this was financed and managed by Deutsche and Dresdener Banks.
This discussion about reparations is part of widening circle of responsibility for what happened during the Nazi era. It’s easy, and perhaps comforting, to say, “Hitler was a madman,” but madmen like Hitler don’t appear in a vacuum. Nazism occurred in a context and that context was very profitable for many German corporations.
At the same time, people are asking, “What did the average German citizen know about all this?” It’s a good question. What should the average citizen have known? Does a citizen have a moral or ethical obligation to find out what his or her government is doing? Are you liable for what your government does? Are you liable for your ignorance?
High-ranking military officers and government officials of the Third Reich were tried in Nuremberg in 1946. Only now, 55 years after the end of the war, are we getting around to asking questions about complicity of corporations and culpability of citizens. Why is that?
Aside from being the central event of the 20th century, World War II brought into being many of the patterns of the modern era. In one case, the Nazi government made industry a partner in war crime – “privatization of war crime” you might call it. Industry seems to have gotten the better end of the partnership; the government was destroyed, its leaders were executed. The corporations got a free ride for 50 years and then walked away with nothing but a financial settlement.
So what do you know about the worst excesses of your government? I’m sure it was easy for Americans, returning home from the war in Europe in 1946 to feel superior to the vanquished Germans, but how many returned a land of Jim Crow laws and segregation? And how many felt personally responsible for it?
Today, national governments, working alone or in concert through the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank are the great privatizers of human rights abuses. Oh, the window dressing is more attractive and there’s not as much goose-stepping. Now much of the dirty work of repression is carried out by client nations in the southern hemisphere, so there’s another level of insulation for the corporate partners. It will be at least 50 years before any reparations are paid, if ever.
The survivors of Nazi-era forced labor will get between four and five billion dollars. Four to five billion dollars for the slave labor of 10 million people. Works out to something less than $500 per person. It’s far too little and far too late.
So what about you? What do you know about your government? What are you morally obligated to know?
What Do You Know?
For the past few months, I’ve been reading stories about German companies making reparation payments to the people they used as slave laborers during World War II.
About 10 million people were forced to work in Nazi-era factories, often under deplorable conditions. The list of corporations which used slave labor reads like a German Fortune 500: Daimler-Benz, Volkswagen, Opel – a subsidiary of General Motors, even then – BMW, Siemans, Krupp, IG Farben and its subsidiaries Hoechst, BASF and Bayer – that’s right, the aspirin people. Much of this was financed and managed by Deutsche and Dresdener Banks.
This discussion about reparations is part of widening circle of responsibility for what happened during the Nazi era. It’s easy, and perhaps comforting, to say, “Hitler was a madman,” but madmen like Hitler don’t appear in a vacuum. Nazism occurred in a context and that context was very profitable for many German corporations.
At the same time, people are asking, “What did the average German citizen know about all this?” It’s a good question. What should the average citizen have known? Does a citizen have a moral or ethical obligation to find out what his or her government is doing? Are you liable for what your government does? Are you liable for your ignorance?
High-ranking military officers and government officials of the Third Reich were tried in Nuremberg in 1946. Only now, 55 years after the end of the war, are we getting around to asking questions about complicity of corporations and culpability of citizens. Why is that?
Aside from being the central event of the 20th century, World War II brought into being many of the patterns of the modern era. In one case, the Nazi government made industry a partner in war crime – “privatization of war crime” you might call it. Industry seems to have gotten the better end of the partnership; the government was destroyed, its leaders were executed. The corporations got a free ride for 50 years and then walked away with nothing but a financial settlement.
So what do you know about the worst excesses of your government? I’m sure it was easy for Americans, returning home from the war in Europe in 1946 to feel superior to the vanquished Germans, but how many returned a land of Jim Crow laws and segregation? And how many felt personally responsible for it?
Today, national governments, working alone or in concert through the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank are the great privatizers of human rights abuses. Oh, the window dressing is more attractive and there’s not as much goose-stepping. Now much of the dirty work of repression is carried out by client nations in the southern hemisphere, so there’s another level of insulation for the corporate partners. It will be at least 50 years before any reparations are paid, if ever.
The survivors of Nazi-era forced labor will get between four and five billion dollars. Four to five billion dollars for the slave labor of 10 million people. Works out to something less than $500 per person. It’s far too little and far too late.
So what about you? What do you know about your government? What are you morally obligated to know?