Framework agreement on thematic portal “Compensation” ceremonially signed

On June 1, 2022, the Federal Ministry of Finance and the archives of the federal and state governments jointly gave the go-ahead for the large-scale project ”Compensation for National Socialist Injustice“. A framework agreement on the topic of reparations was signed by Prof. Dr. Luise Hölscher, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Finance, together with the heads of the archive administrations of the federal and state governments during a ceremony at Petersberg in Bonn. This framework agreement is the basis for the future design and enrichment of the thematic portal and thus forms the prelude to the follow-up tasks of compensation for National Socialist injustice.

FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure develops and operates the thematic portal. The platform is a kind of virtual reading room with extensive research tools and will be expanded as a future point of access to all information related to compensation issues. Primary sources relevant for compensation can provide a promising new and differentiated basis for a wide variety of projects in the context of political and school education. Access to this worldwide unique total stock of examined and verified evidence offers manifold possibilities for preventive educational activities.

The aim is to make the "document heritage" of the compensation files accessible to researchers, the interested public and descendants of persecutees as a whole by means of uniform digital and thus international access. The documents are located in various archives and other places in Germany and abroad and are brought together in the digital thematic portal.

The following example of compensation files shows their relevance reaching into the present and the future. They document applications for compensation that were filed, among others, by professional musicians of the 1920s and 1930s who later lost their livelihood due to persecution.

The press release of the Federal Ministry of Finance  (BMF) is available at https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/DE/Pressemitteilungen/Finanzpolitik/2022/06/2022-06-01-entwicklungsgeschichte-der-wiedergutmachung.html

Link to the thematic portal: https://www.archivportal-d.de/themenportale/wiedergutmachung.