In 1953, the German government accepted the so-called "London treaty" vwhich defined the debts of the Federal Republic of Germany to the allied countries since World War I at 14,450 million DM (6,021 million US-$).
 
After World War II, the federal Republic of Germany signed reparation treaties with eleven western European nations and paid them altogether 876 million DM (365 million US-$).
 
These large sums of money were not paid to the actual victims of the Nazi terror but only to the governments of the respective countries. Only former concentration camp prisoners received compensation money.

As the government of Konrad Adenauer, the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany pursued the so-called Hallstein Doctrine. In this Hallstein-Doctrine, the Federal Republic of Germany threatened other countries with severe punishments such as breaking off diplomatic relations if those countries dared to pursue diplomatic relations with the German Democratic Republic. In the course of the Hallstein-Doctrine, the Federal Republic of Germany neglected its eastern European neighbors.

 
 
Slave laborers from the eastern European countries were not able to claim any compensation. The situation changed only little in the late 60s and 70s during the Willy Brandt-era. After his visit to Poland, where he dropped to his knees in front of a memorial in honor of the victims of Nazi-terror, money was paid to some eastern European countries as well. Shockingly, it was not the victims who received the money but former eastern European SS-members and foreign Wehrmacht-soldiers!