Greece Steps Up Claims For World War II Reparations From Germany

Greece’s government intends to “exhaust every means available” to claim additional World War II reparations from Germany beyond a 1960 agreement, confirmed its Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos on Wednesday, in a move that could place further strains on its relations with Berlin, who have bore the largest part of Greece’s 240 billion euro rescue.

Greece’s government intends to “exhaust every means available” to claim additional World War II reparations from Germany beyond a 1960 agreement, confirmed its Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos on Wednesday, in a move that could place further strains on its relations with Berlin, who have bore the largest part of Greece’s 240 billion euro rescue.

Last year, the Greek Finance Ministry had set up a “working group” of researchers to go through historical records for damages caused by Germany during World War II; And according to local media reports, the study has since found that Germany may owe up to 162 billion euros ($211 billion) to Greece – 108 billion euros of which was for infrastructure damage, with an additional 54 billion euro compensation for an interest-free loan Germany forcibly took from the Bank of Greece in 1942.

Although Avramopoulos refused to be drawn onto the specific amount Greece might eventually seek, Deputy Finance Minister Christos Staikouras had predicted last year that the claims could go up into the “millions”.

“The matter remains pending…(but) Greece has never resigned its rights,” said Staikouras in September, calling for a “realistic and cool-headed” approach to negotiations.

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Avramopoulos told a parliamentary session on Wednesday: “We are pressing on with all the necessary measures…We will exhaust every means available to arrive to a result.”

[quote]”One can’t compare the times, but also not erase the memories,” he added, as quoted by Reuters.[/quote]

The German finance ministry on the other hand insisted that there was left nothing to discuss. “The [German] Federal Government is of the opinion that the question of reparations is already settled,” told a ministry official to the Wall Street Journal.

In the aftermath of the war, Greece was awarded provisional reparations amounting to a present-day value of about $2.5 billion. Besides the 1945 Paris Conference on Reparations, the 1953 London Debt Agreement also stipulated that Greece would demand no further reparations until the unification of Germany.

But Germany subsequently also agreed to pay Greece some 115 million deutsche marks in 1960 as compensation to individual victims of Nazi crimes on the condition that no further individual claims would be considered. Finally, when East and West Germany reunified in 1990, Greece conceded then that it had no further claims.

Nevertheless, the issue appears to have resurfaced, coincidentally or otherwise, amidst Greece’s debt crisis. Avramopoulos insisted however that it was wrong to link the two cases.

[quote]”This has been an open issue for 60 years, it is too large an issue to fit into the confines of the fiscal crisis,” he said. This is for “the restoration of justice and truth about the suffering of the Greek people during the difficult years of the occupation…a difficult period during which the Greek people suffered, went hungry and were looted like no other country,” he added.[/quote]

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