French orphans whose fathers were killed as a result of being conscripted by the Nazis during the Second World War have filed a prosecution order against the German government with the European Court of Human Rights.

The prosecutors claim that the German government should be held accountable for their actions over sixty years ago stating that no satisfactory compensatory measure has ever been concluded.

Speaking to The National Post, their lawyer (who wished to remain nameless) stated –
“The German state has never taken account of, nor listened to, nor compensated the orphans for what they lost”

During the conflict, the Nazis reincorporated the French areas of Alsace and Lorraine into the Reich and as a result over one hundred and thirty thousand French troops were forced to fight for Germany – many of whom died as a result.

In 1981 the German government paid around £50m into an association dedicated to support and compensate over eighty six thousand former conscripts and those families who were left behind. In 2007 it was decided by the German Reichstag that this payment sufficed in ending Berlin’s responsibility.

The case should prove to be intriguing as well as being fraught with dilemmas of morality.