History's Most Heinous Heist and the Moral Imperative for Retroactive Justice

Abstract: My intent is to address the subject of the largest mass theft in history and the moral imperative to re-engage the question of retroactive justice. History, we all understand, is strewn with great acts of courage and compassion. It is also punctuated by eruptions of bigotry and hate. The compass, after all, with which we strive to navigate our lives propelled American troops to wade ashore at Omaha Beach. Yet another direction on the human compass found malevolent totalitarians building crematoriums at Auschwitz and Buchenwald.