‘Aryanisation’ in Central and Eastern Europe and the Equalisation of Burdens Files: The Case of the Sudetenland

Abstract

Only recently have historians studying the Holocaust recognised the unique value of German compensation files as historical source material. The Federal Republic of Germany created these files after World War II in the context of Wiedergutmachung, that is, compensation for damages inflicted by the Nazis on racial, religious and political grounds. This article draws attention to a different body of compensation records, one that has so far been ignored by historians of Nazi persecution: case files created under the Lastenausgleichsgesetz (Equalisation of Burdens Law [LAG]). This West German law was meant to compensate ethnic Germans for property they lost when they were expelled from Central and Eastern Europe after the war. The article demonstrates that LAG files can be especially illuminating of the interaction between Nazi profiteers and their Jewish victims in Central and Eastern Europe.