Greece puts a figure on Nazi reparations claims

07-04-2015

Nazi officers at the Acropolis. [ENetEnglish]

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Greece’s deputy finance minister said yesterday (6 April) Germany owes Greece nearly €279 billion in reparations for the Nazi occupation of the country.

Greek governments and also private citizens have pushed for war damages from Germany for decades, but the Greek government has never officially quantified its reparation claims.

A parliamentary panel set up by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government started work last week, seeking to claim German debts, including war reparations, as well as the repayment of a so-called occupation loan that Nazi Germany forced the Bank of Greece to make and the return of stolen archaeological treasures.

Speaking at parliamentary committee, Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas said Berlin owed Athens €278.7 billion, according to calculations by the country’s General Accounting Office. The occupation loan amounts to €10.3 billion.

The campaign for compensation has gained momentum in the past few years as Greeks have suffered hardship under austerity measures imposed by the European Union and International Monetary Fund in exchange for bailouts totalling €240 billion to save Greece from bankruptcy.

Tsipras has frequently blamed Germany for the hardship stemming from the imposition of austerity. He has angered Berlin by threatening to push for reparations in the middle of talks to unlock aid for Greece.

Germany has repeatedly rejected Greece’s claims and says it has honoured its obligations, including a 115 million deutschmark payment to Greece in 1960.

Preliminary deal with lenders?

In the meantime, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told Greek daily Naftemporiki on Monday that he wants the negotiations with the country’s official lenders to reach a preliminary deal at a 24 April meeting of euro zone finance ministers.

“At the Eurogroup [meeting] of 24 April there must be a preliminary conclusion (of the talks), as per the Eurogroup accord on 20 February,” Varoufakis told the paper.

Greece offered a new package of reforms last week in the hope of unlocking remaining bailout funds, but has yet to win agreement on the proposals with its EU and IMF lenders.

>> Read: Greek reform list fails to impress lenders

“We are not going to condemn the country, as previous governments did, to a long-term asphyxiation,” Varoufakis told the paper, suggesting the EU/IMF lenders had treated the previous conservative-led government more leniently.

“The negotiations will end when we reach an honourable agreement, which will give the Greek economy the prospect of real stabilisation and substantive growth,” Varoufakis said.

Asked whether he had thought of quitting the job, said: “Not for one minute.”

On Sunday Varoufakis said that Greece “intends to meet all obligations to all its creditors, ad infinitum”.

>> Read: Greece pledges to meet all obligations to lenders

Background

On 20 March, the European Commission offered Greece funds to deal with what it called a humanitarian crisis, after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras vowed to clarify bailout reform pledges demanded by creditors.

Following crisis talks between Tsipras and European leaders, EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said he was making available €2.0 billion in unused EU structural funds to Greece.

>> Read: Greece promises to deliver full reform list after three-hour 'mini summit'

Greece secured a four-month extension of its financial rescue on 24 February, when its eurozone partners approved an economic reform plan that backed down on key measures and promised that spending to alleviate social distress would not derail its budget.

>> Read: Eurozone approves Greek reform plan with reservations

Germany's rejection of an initial Greek request for a six-month loan extension forced Athens into a string of politically sensitive concessions, postponing or backing away from campaign promises to reverse austerity, scrap the bailout and end cooperation with the "troika" of EU, ECB and IMF inspectors, which are now called "the institutions".

>> Read: Greece, eurozone agree to four-month loan extension, avert crunch

Comments

0 responses to “Greece puts a figure on Nazi reparations claims”

Iwantout says:
07/04/2015 at 09:22
I provide this simply for information, I have no idea at all whether this is a valid claim or not, however according to an article in Spiegel Online ( http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/greek-study-provides-evidence-of-forced-loans-to-nazis-a-1024762.html) some Germans who have worked closely in this area agree with the Greek view.
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- an european says:
  07/04/2015 at 22:04
  It’s discussable in a point of vieuw !
  I ask me wether this is a solution to ropen all graves from the past one by one for compensation and so should for everyone !?
  The WW2 created so much damage to every EU country involved each other !
  Don’t even mention all the death committed by fat man and little boy !
  So should the japanese claim money for these atrocities to innocent civilians or Italy’s bloody secret by Benito Mussolini ! What about the french state Vichy who colaborated with the enemy . ..count up ! There is a list List of Allied traitors during World War II and some of them were “pardoned” ! Not only Germany ….
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quietoaktree says:
07/04/2015 at 11:21
That much damage and loss of life was caused by Nazi occupation in Greece is beyond question –the problem is putting a Euro value on it. Greek claims have in general been shown to be more than misleading, dream based –instead on reality.
Greek society is still fighting the Greek Civil War and Tsipras et al know the only way to unite Greece is to dangle money before their noses.
Weeks on end we heard about the Nazi ´stolen´ Greek gold and Germany should pay for it.
Bank of Greece
“During the World War II, the Governor of the Bank followed the Greek Government into exile. The Bank’ s gold reserves were transferred first to South Africa and then to London.”
http://www.bankofgreece.gr/Pages/en/Bank/History/historicalreview.aspx
This was much of Greece I knew in the 70´s—
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite6_1_12/10/2012_465899
— What was really the value of property and infrastructure damaged or destroyed in the early 40´s –calculated from the living standard and wages at the time ?
The forced loan can be deducted from what Greece owes the German tax payer.
Putting things into a proper perspective has never been a Greek attribute.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_06/04/2015_548880
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quietoaktree says:
07/04/2015 at 14:01
´Debts to (Greek) state climb to nearly 76 billion euros in February´
“Of these debts, 2.48 billion euros were generated in January and February, the data showed, while older debts, meaning those generated up until the end of 2014, stood at 73.25 billion euros.
The largest portion of the debt, 10.88 billion euros, is owed by businesses that have declared bankruptcy, 6.04 billion is owed by state and municipal entities, and 56.41 billion euros relates to individual debt.”
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_07/04/2015_548893
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quietoaktree says:
07/04/2015 at 23:42
” Greek governments and also private citizens have pushed for war damages from Germany for decades, but the Greek government has never officially quantified its reparation claims.”
Charity begins at home.
http://www.greektravel.com/greekislands/makronisos/
´Now Makronisos is deserted and the torture and cruelty that took place half a century ago is an almost forgotten memory except by those who lived through it. While the Greek Islands usually make us think of summer, sun, swimming and nights in the tavernas, Makronisos shows us there is another side and that man’s inhumanity to his fellow man can turn any heaven into a hell. Like the concentration camps in Poland and Germany the island of Makronisos should be open to the public with photos and descriptions of what went on there in those shameful days, if for no other reason so that they will never be repeated.´
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Greece puts a figure on Nazi reparations claims

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