payment of war reparation be abandoned

Reparations can be bad precisely because they do provide a blanket indemnity, shielding individuals and companies from their personal and corporate responsibility for actions during the war. Just as it is unfair that some citizens of the losing side should be regarded as victims of its regime, rather than punished through reparations, it is also unjust that those who committed war crimes or contributed to aggression should escape particular responsibility. For example, many German companies profitted from the use of slave labour in the Second World War, and until recent court cases they managed to evade all responsibility for their actions.