After World War II, according to the Potsdam conference held between July 17 and August 2, 1945, Germany was to pay the Allies US$23 billion mainly in machinery and manufacturing plants. Dismantling in the West stopped in 1950. Reparations to the Soviet Union stopped in 1953.
Germany didn't ultimately pay off its WWI debts until 2010. Germany was also responsible for paying reparations after World War II. Although the total debt was estimated at over $300 billion, Germany was responsible for paying about $3 billion, according to the London Agreement on German External Debts in 1952.
The Treaty of Versailles didn't just blame Germany for the war—it demanded financial restitution for the whole thing, to the tune of 132 billion gold marks, or more than $500 billion today. How—and when—could Germany possibly pay its debt? Nobody could have dreamed that it would take 92 years.
The Treaty of Versailles (signed in 1919) and the 1921 London Schedule of Payments required Germany to pay 132 billion gold marks (US$33 billion at the time) in reparations to cover civilian damage caused during the war. This figure was divided into three categories of bonds: A, B, and C.
Despite protests from many beneficiaries, the Marshall Plan, although in the less generous form of loans, was in 1949 extended to also include the newly formed West Germany. In the years 1949–1952, West Germany received loans which totaled $1.45 billion, equivalent to around $14.5 billion in 2006.
The U.K. only paid off the last of its World War II debts to the U.S. at the end of 2006.
The case of debts arising from World War II is somewhat less complicated. At this time only four countries, discussed below, owe the U.S. government debts of any size arising from World War II programs to aid our allies. Other countries have paid their debts in full.
On Oct. 3, 2010, Germany finally paid off all its debt from World War One. The total? About 269 billion marks, or around 96,000 tons of gold.
Reparations amounting to US$550 million (198 billion yen) were made to the Philippines, and US$39 million (14.04 billion yen) to Viet Nam. Payment to the International Committee of the Red Cross to compensate prisoners of war (POW) of 4.5 million pounds sterling (approximately 4.54109 billion yen) was made.
Vienna had a large Jewish community that held a lot of gold and diamonds, and the Nazis got all of that. The German war machine was almost out of money when they invaded Austria. Suddenly they had about 90 tons of new gold, and that allowed them to go on invading other countries — Czechoslovakia, Poland, all of those.
From 1946 to early 1948, the United States provided large loans and aid to a number of European countries. In addition to funds from international organizations, these funds enabled Germany and the rest of Europe to pay for the large inflows of imports that were crucial for postwar recovery.
In the meantime, Poland and Germany concluded several treaties and agreements to compensate Polish persons who were victims of German aggression. In 1972, West Germany paid compensation to Poles that had survived pseudo-medical experiments during their imprisonment in various Nazi camps during the Second World War.
In January 1921, the total sum due was decided by an Inter-Allied Reparations Commission and was set at 132 billion gold marks, about £6.6 billion or $33 billion (roughly $393.6 billion US dollars as of 2005). This was a sum that many economists believed to be too much.
Payments of reparations started in 1955, lasted for 23 years and ended in 1977. For countries that renounced any reparations from Japan, it agreed to pay an indemnity and/or grants in accordance with bilateral agreements.
Second World War: fatalities per country 1939-1945. Estimates for the total death count of the Second World War generally range somewhere between 70 and 85 million people. The Soviet Union suffered the highest number of fatalities of any single nation, with estimates mostly falling between 22 and 27 million deaths.
The so-called "war indemnity debt," money that the wartime government borrowed from and promised to repay to its people in the form of orders or contracts, accumulated. By around 1945, the overall government debt amounted to about 200% of Japan's gross domestic product (GDP).
Japan's economic growth after the 1940s was based on unprecedented expansion of industrial production and the development of an enormous domestic market, as well as on an aggressive export trade policy.
Subject. Over the years Japanese political leaders have issued a number of general apologies for the Imperial Army's conduct during World War II. Despite these apologies, the Chinese people and Sino-Japanese relations have yet to be fully normalized, and tensions remain.
After the war ended in 1945, China demanded that Japan pay reparations as a way to compensate for these atrocities. However, due to the Cold War context at the time, Japan refused to provide any form of reparations to China as it was seen as an attempt by the United States and its allies to contain communism in Asia.
A liberal business-friendly market economy made industry prosper, and a liberal tax-financed social security prevented the worst forms of poverty. Since the German economy had collapsed, the Dawes Plan was put into place to save Germany and lessen the impact of the war reparations.
By the end of World War II Britain had amassed an immense debt of £21 billion. Much of this was held in foreign hands, with around £3.4 billion being owed overseas (mainly to creditors in the United States), a sum which represented around one third of annual GDP.
Over the next four years, U.S. banks continued to lend Germany enough money to enable it to meet its reparation payments to countries such as France and the United Kingdom. These countries, in turn, used their reparation payments from Germany to service their war debts to the United States.
Within part of its wartime financial aid, the American government gave China a $500 million credit in 1942 and shipped these funds in the form of gold bullion. This was done to stabilize their currency. Our own State Department records show that China never paid back this debt to the American government either.
The U.K. only paid off the last of its World War II debts to the U.S. at the end of 2006.
In total, other territories hold about $7.4 trillion in U.S. debt. Japan owns the most at $1.1 trillion, followed by China, with $859 billion, and the United Kingdom at $668 billion.