Tag: Germany

If Germany Atoned for the Holocaust, the U.S. Can Pay Reparations for Slavery

August 12, 2021

Calls for reparations in the U.S. are generally met with skepticism: What would reparations achieve? Who should receive them, and under what conditions?

Other countries have tackled these questions. In 1995, South Africa established its Truth and Reconciliation Commission and paid reparations to the victims of apartheid. Eight years before, the United States apologized to 82,000 Japanese Americans unduly imprisoned during World War II and paid them US$20,000 each to compensate for their suffering.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/if-germany-atoned-holocaust-us-can-pay-reparations-slavery-82526

How can nations atone for their sins?

August 11, 2021

What is the ideal approach for a nation confronting its historical crimes? In dealing with historical guilt, are nations better off working to become “normal,” or should they strive to be “exceptional”? 

But is there a way out of this impasse? We will argue that the only way to make peace with a bloody history is through exceptionalism—reckoning with what is exceptional in your own country’s story, and finding, too, a distinct and homegrown way to face up to the truth and its consequences. Those consequences, and their lessons, will after all be different for different peoples. 

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/how-can-nations-atone-for-their-sins-germany-russia-nazism-soviet-union