Right to Reparations

Reviews / Votes

Right to Reparations: The Claims Conference and Holocaust Survivors, 1951-1964 revises the existing scholarship about the Claims Conference, arguably the most important Diaspora-based Jewish organization in the decades after 1945. Rachel Blumenthal expertly explores the origins, decision-making, and operations of this pivotal transnational agency founded for the benefit of Holocaust survivors. Right to Reparations offers us a clear, balanced understanding of what is still an extremely volatile issue: the plight and rights of Holocaust survivors, refugees, and their descendants. Right to Reparations will soon become part of ongoing debates in the Jewish world today at the intersection of history, equity, practice, and Diaspora-Israel relations. -- Jonathan Dekel-Chen, Hebrew University of Jerusalem The history of the Claims Conference constitutes a major lacuna in our understanding of Israeli and post-Holocaust Jewish history. Based on a careful and critical reading of primary sources, Blumenthal's work makes a novel and persuasive contribution that fills this gap. This book is a welcome addition to the growing library on Jewish communal leadership, diplomacy, and Israel-Diaspora relations after the Holocaust. It is an excellent example of superb scholarship combined with lucid writing that will appeal to a wide audience of readers! -- Csaba Nikolenyi, Concordia University When WWII ended, the world needed healing, justice. . . West Germany agreed to reparations, money was sent to Jewish victims, organizations, the Jewish state. It all seems natural. Blumenthal pulls back the curtains and voila, nothing was natural. Compensation elicited conflict and struggles, but also cooperation and coordination over five continents. The Holocaust's after-history exposes a very human tale about Jewish politics in which power, justice, finance, and memory come together to settle an unsettled past. -- Brian Horowitz, Tulane University To be sure, there is still work to be done. However, this is not meant as a criticism. Right to Reparations is an important study on a major Jewish organization that played a crucial role in the rebuilding of Jewish life after the Holocaust. Blumenthal's book offers a fresh perspective for historical research. It places the history and work of the Claims Conference within a wider context of international law and presents readers with a clear and accessible analysis of a central topic in modern history. * Yad Vashem Studies *