Compensation

The dimension of the crimes that Germany had to answer for and the sheer scale of the suffering inflicted on the millions of victims made just compensation impossible. However, it was hoped that the ethical standards that Nazi society had destroyed through the Shoa could be reinstated.

Thus the Federal Republic of Germany attempted to face up to its historical responsibility, by at least developing offers of material compensation. The underlying idea was to place the claimants in the same position as comparable, unaffected sections of the population by financial, legal and non-material means. However, other foreign-policy interests influenced reparation policy as well. It was, among other things, an instrument for preparing the new German state's path back into the international community of nations as an equal member.

The victims of persecution or their descendants were given the right to apply for the restitution of lost possessions, financial compensation for the deprivation of liberty and property, damage to health, or lost earnings and educational opportunities. This also included compensation for levies on the Jews such as the Reich Flight Tax and the atonement tax.

A total of approximately 4,4 million claims for compensation were filed under those programs. By the end of 2019 the Federal Republic had made material reparation payments of some 78 billion Euros worldwide. Payments are ongoing.

_{Study on Germany’s compensation payments to Jewish victims by Australian-Israeli historian Ronald W. Zweig (1987)}

The attempt to provide material reparation for the victims of the Nazi regime was one of the most pressing tasks facing the new German state.

All sectors of industry, including Allianz, had to come to terms with the claims and demands of the victims of political persecution and economic pillage. Specifically, they addressed the injustices towards former Jewish employees, the treatment of Jewish former owners of "aryanized" property, and Jewish owners of life insurance policies.

Only few claims for reparation were filed against Allianz on the basis of unpaid life insurance policies. The main reason was that most policies of Jewish policyholders had been cancelled by their owners in the 1930s. Allianz had paid the surrender value, and the policies were thus terminated.

Policyholders who had to cancel their contracts because they were persecuted by the Nazis had a right to be compensated by the Federal Republic. Policies that had not been surrendered by 1941 were confiscated by the Nazi state. After confiscation, the insurance companies had to pay the surrender values to the financial authorities.

On the other hand, there were several claims for compensation against Allianz resulting from "Aryanization." For the most part, these claims were clarified in the 1950s and '60s. For example, in 1949, the son of Else and Julius Basch, who was living in New York, claimed the restitution of a residential and commercial property, which Allianz had purchased from Vermögensverwertung München. Allianz and Else und Julius Basch's son agreed on a compromise settlement. Supplementary to the price paid in 1940, the insurer paid him the sum of 1.1 million marks.

_{For restitution procedures Allianz calculated the actual value of a life insurance policy which had been confiscated by the National Socialist state. For this service it received a reimbursement from the state.}