This section does not cite any references or sources. (June 2007) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Execution of Russian civilians by a shot in the back of the head, carried out with a certain grim intensity, even relish. German officers felt a contempt for the "sub-human" Slavic people, coupled with a disposition towards anti-Semitism.

Germany's response to its war crimes has been largely lauded by the former Allies. The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany until 1990) offered official apologies for Germany's role in the Holocaust. Additionally, German leaders have continuously expressed repentance, most notably when former Chancellor Willy Brandt fell on his knees in front of a Holocaust memorial in the Warsaw Ghetto, also known as the Warschauer Kniefall in 1970. Germany has also paid extensive reparations, including nearly $70 billion to the state of Israel. It has given $15 billion to Holocaust survivors and will continue to compensate them until 2015. Additionally, the government of Germany coordinated an effort to reach a settlement with German companies that had used slave labor during the war; the companies will pay $1.7 billion to victims. Germany also established a National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Berlin for looted property.^{[citation needed]}

Germany's treatment of war criminals and war crimes has also met with approval. Germany helped track down war criminals for the Nuremberg Trials and opened its wartime archives to researchers and investigators. Additionally, Germany verified over 60,000 names of war criminals for the U.S. Department of Justice to prevent them from entering the United States and provided similar information to Canada and the United Kingdom. On the other hand numerous war criminals were never brought to justice and lived their lives as respected citizens and even state officials, despite numerous pleas for their extradition or trial, stated by countries invaded by Germany. For instance, this was the case of Heinz Reinefarth and Erich von dem Bach, each of them responsible for death of dozens of thousands of civilians in Poland and the Soviet Union.^{[citation needed]}

A member of Einsatzgruppe D murders a Jew who is kneeling before a filled mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, in 1942. The back of the photo is inscribed "The last Jew in Vinnitsa".

The German education system focuses on teaching about the Holocaust and the Third Reich and denounces the crimes committed during World War II. Additionally, German legislation outlaws Nazi works like Mein Kampf and makes Holocaust denial a criminal offence. Furthermore, even other symbols of Nazism, like the Swastika and so-called "Hitler Salute", are illegal in Germany.

However, Germany is still criticized by some regarding its response. The German government never apologized for the invasions or took responsibility for World War II. Poland still insists that Germany must offer an apology for the suffering of its people during the war. Additionally, the emphasis for blame is often placed on individuals like Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party instead of the government itself, so no restitution has been made to any other national government by Germany. Even after German reunification in 1990, Germany rejected claims to reparations made by Britain and France, insisting that all reparations had already been resolved. Additionally, Germany has been criticized for waiting too long to seek out and return looted property, some of which is still missing and possibly hidden within Germany. Germany has also had trouble dealing with stolen property in private hands because of the need to compensate the owners.^{[citation needed]}

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See also

• Bombing of Guernica
• The Holocaust
• Soviet war crimes
• Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles
• List of Axis war criminals
• World War II atrocities in Poland
• Occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany
• Consequences of German Nazism
• Allied war crimes during World War II
• Command responsibility
• Italian war crimes
• Japanese war crimes
• Babi Yar
• Generalplan Ost
• Einsatzgruppen
• List of war crimes
• Nazi Germany
• War crimes of the Wehrmacht
• Occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany
• Pacification operations in German-occupied Poland
• German concentration camps

[

References and notes

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2007)

[

Further reading

• The War Crimes of Dr Josef Mengele
• German War Crimes of World War I

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