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Compensations began more than five decades after World War II and reached only a portion of the victims subjected to Nazi exploitation
About 26 million people were forced to work for the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945. The exploitation reached factories, agricultural properties, churches, private residences, and companies.
The first specific compensations began only on June 13, 2001, more than 55 years after the end of World War II.
The Foundation Memory, Responsibility and Future, known by the acronym EVZ, distributed € 4.4 billion between 2001 and 2007.
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The resources reached 1.66 million former forced laborers and legal successors, spread across approximately one hundred countries.
The extent of the payments, however, fell far below the estimated number of people exploited during the Nazi regime.
Studies estimate damage of up to € 112 billion
Historical studies indicate that full compensation would require a fund between € 90 billion and € 112 billion.
The amount actually distributed represented, therefore, only a portion of the estimated damages.
Andrea Despot, director of the EVZ, acknowledges that practically no sector of German society failed to benefit from forced labor.
The leader states that the fund did not even remotely compensate for the damages and exploitation suffered by the victims.
Foundation emerged after decades of demands
The EVZ was created in July 2000 to organize compensations and fund initiatives related to historical memory, democracy, and human rights.
The initial fund gathered 10.1 billion German marks, equivalent to approximately € 5.16 billion.
The German federal government provided half of the amount. An initiative formed by about 6,500 German companies gathered the other half.
Many of these companies used forced labor during Nazism, although not all were directly involved in this practice.
Previous measures left workers out
West Germany approved, in 1953, the Federal Compensation Law for people persecuted for political, racial, or religious reasons.
Forced laborers, however, were excluded from this compensation policy.
Large companies began offering voluntary payments between the 1950s and 1980s, following increased public pressure.
These compensations did not reach a large part of the victims from Eastern Europe.
Constantin Goschler, a historian from Ruhr University, classifies the solution adopted later as essentially symbolic.
The final amount emerged from a negotiation between representatives of the victims and those responsible for the payments, without reflecting the full extent of the damages.
Collective actions increased international pressure
Many German companies resisted, during the 1990s, the creation of the fund and the acknowledgment of their responsibilities.
Victims and Jewish organizations intensified legal pressure, mainly in the United States.
Survivor groups also began preparing class actions against German companies.
Germany opened negotiations with the United States in the face of the increasing risk of lawsuits and sought to ensure legal security for the future.
Andrea Despot highlights that the decision was not made solely for ethical reasons. International pressure also played a decisive role in the agreement.
Cold War delayed payments for decades
The Cold War hindered the transfer of resources to countries located beyond the Iron Curtain.
West Germany avoided sending money to Eastern Europe, especially to Poland.
Many Soviet workers were also treated as collaborators for having served, involuntarily, the Nazi war economy.
The return of these victims was marked by distrust, screening camps, and little support within their own countries.
Historical recognition gained, in this context, importance similar to financial compensation.
The certificate given to survivors officially proved that they were victims, not traitors.
EVZ maintains memory and democracy projects
The EVZ currently funds projects in historical education, human rights, and the defense of democratic values.
The foundation also preserves the memory of the forced labor system that benefited companies and different sectors of German society.
The Kremlin labeled the EVZ as an “undesirable organization” in 2025, after the entity expressed support for Ukraine.
The foundation continues to support Russian and Belarusian organizations that needed to operate in exile.
The difference between the amounts paid and the estimated damages keeps the debate on Germany’s historical responsibility open.
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