In March 1951, the Israeli government sent a request for $1.5 billion in compensation for the survivors and their heirs to the four powers occupying Germany and the two German governments. Neither the Soviet Union nor the German Democratic Republic ever responded to the request. Adenauer, however, responded on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany on September 27, 1951: he cited “unspeakable crimes that require moral and material compensation (Wiedergutmachung)” and had the Bundestag pass a law on war reparations, which would be followed by further reparations. The law was passed on May 18, 1953. The 14 members of the Communist Party voted against it, the Social Democrats voted en bloc in favor, and the CDU partly supported it and partly abstained.
