Niall Ferguson talked about it in "High Financier: the Life and Times of Siegmund Warburg" and it caught me by surprise. Mr. Ferguson suggests that since reparations were such a small percentage of GDP that the common (at the time as now) perception that they were overwhelming was much more psychological than economic.

https://www.scribd.com/audiobook/237595717/High-Financier-The-Lives-and-Time-of-Siegmund-Warburg

Thanks again for the post!