Apr. 7, 2024

On 6 April, I attended a demonstration outside the German Embassy in Athens, well organised by my long-time friend Ambassador Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos, intended to pressurise Germany into paying Greece the billons that it owes it in wartime reparations. I was surprised to find not even one Greek member of parliament, let alone a minister, at the demonstration, given that the Greek government has been demanding reparations for years. Before I comment on the question, let me specify the damage that Germany did, what it owes to the people of Greece, on the Greek government’s attitude, and on Germany itself.

Damage

The seizure and confiscation of food resulted in 300,000 deaths during the winter of 1941-1942, with a further 300,000 dying by the end of the occupation from starvation, disease, massacres and executions. The population of Greece was reduced by 13.5%. The German armed forces destroyed 1,770 towns and villages, indulging in 131 massacres, for example at Kalavrita, where 1,460 males aged between 12 and 90 were killed, and at Distomo where 117 women,111 men and 53 children were slaughtered. A Swede, Professor Sture Linner, who was in the red Cross delegation that entered the village some days after the massacre, described the scene thus: ‘A village in flames, devoid of life, completely destroyed; genitals cut off and placed in corpses’ mouths and women with breasts cut off and crushed genitals.’

Compensation to victims of war crimes amounts today to one trillion Euros, if one takes interest rates into account, and the 115 million marks paid to victims so far under the terms of the Paris Peace Conference of 1946. As regards war reparations for the destruction of the infrastructure of the country, the Paris Conference decided to award reparations of 6.7 billion USD in 1938 values. This amounts today to 595 billion Euros. Yet Germany has paid Greece only 20 million dollars. Nor has she repaid the occupation loan, which now amounts to 506 billion Euros.

As if the above is not enough, 8,500 archaeological treasures and 460 paintings were stolen by the German armed forces, after the looting of 87 archaeological sites, and handed to the German government. These items were never returned and are being displayed in German museums and private collections. These items must be returned.

Debt

There is no excuse for the continuing refusal of Germany to fulfill its obligations towards Greece. Germany has even invoked the 2+4 Treaty concerning the reunification of the two Germanies (Moscow 1990) by stating that this treaty has totally resolved the issue of reparations. However, the Scientific Committee of the Bundestag in a report published in 2019 admits that Greece has never dropped f its claims. As far as the 2+4 Treaty is concerned, the report states: ‘Reparations are not mentioned in the text of the treaty. Greece, as a third country that did not participate in the negotiations of this treaty, should have agreed in writing on the undesirable consequences that affected it.’ This is specious wriggling.

Greek Impotence and German Attitudes

Although in 2015, Greece’s justice minister, Nikos Paraskevopoulos, said Athens was prepared to approve a court ruling to seize German property, including the Goethe Institute, the German Archaeological Institute, German schools and holiday homes if Berlin refused to pay compensation, Greece’s attitude has now become less robust, weak even, with the government simply stating last year: ‘The government’s position on war reparations and the occupation loan is clear and was expressed in the prime minister’s meeting last year with the German chancellor. We look forward to a discussion and resolution with the German government, recognizing the difficulties and pending legal issues.’

German attitudes have however proved slightly schizophrenic: although the government in Berlin claims that any such claims have long-since ‘lost their justificatory basis,’ there seems to have been a slight change of heart in the German polity. Germany’s Green and Left parties have strongly criticised their government’s refusal to be drawn into negotiations, and at a recent parliamentary in the presence of the Greek Ambassador, they called for a change of course, while the vice president of the Bundestag, the Greens’ Claudia Roth, said she was ashamed at Germany’s attitude, with Left lawmaker Heike Hänsel calling the government’s position ‘neither morally nor legally acceptable.’ Given the damage done to Greece by European Commissioner van der Leyen through the pedantic and extreme economic measures imposed on Greece, it now seems that the Mitsotakis government is pandering to Germany. Insultingly, van der Leyen, currently under investigation for corruption, has just launched her campaign for a second mandate at the European Commission, in Athens, at the 50th anniversary of Greece’s ruling New Democracy party event. She even used the occasion to attack Vladimir Putin and his European allies. And to add insult to injury, the supine Mitsotakis has nominated von der Leyen’s second bid for the EU Commission. Thus we have a new Greek-German partnership, obviously supported by Greece’s puppet-master the US.

To conclude

If there is ever to be any serious movement on the reparations question, it is likely to come from Germany rather than from the slavish Greek government. Up until very recently, Tolstoy’s observation about Germans still held true: ‘Germans are self-confident on the basis of an abstract notion – science, that is, the supposed knowledge of absolute truth. […] The German’s self-assurance is worst of all, stronger and more repulsive than any other, because he imagines that he knows the truth – science – which he himself has invented but which is for him the absolute truth.’ Tolstoy thereby draws attention to another trait, namely an excess of logic and an accompanying lack of flexibility.

But it seems that some Germans are now becoming more critical and less pedantic (see above). Maybe they are slowly getting back to Schiller. It is this that may bode well for the reparations question, provided that Greece votes in a government that wishes to regain at least some of Greece’s non-existent sovereignty.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. Who Were Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers❓
    150,000 Soldiers of the German Army Were Actually Jewish

    1 – In 2024, why don’t the far-right parties in Greece acknowledge this fact?
    2 – Are they remaining silent for a reason, or are they in denial?

    Did Blacks, Jews & Asians fight for the Nazis? – Politics & Social Engineering
    https://forum.davidicke.com/index.php?/topic/28527-did-blacks-jews-asians-fight-for-the-nazis/#comment-440002

    1 – How many of the Jews who fought for Hitler knew what was going on at the concentration camps?
    2 – How many participated and why?

    There’s a BIG difference between Ethnic European Nationalism and National Socialism (Nazism).
    However, that discussion is for another time.

    List of Nazis of non-Germanic descent – Wikipedia
    Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers – Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxp62b0F89U

    Short List of Jews in Hitler’s Military
    1 – Walter Hollaender, colonel, [3] (15 October 1903 – 8 August 1974) was a highly decorated Oberst in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. Walter Hollaender was a half-Jewish (Mischling) officer who received a German Blood Certificate.
    2 – Bernhard Rogge, admiral, Jewish ancestry[3]
    3 – Hans Eppinger, Austrian, SS doctor, half-Jewish[3]
    4 – Emil Maurice,[9] German Nazi, Jewish great-grandfather
    5 – Erhard Milch, German, Wehrmacht Generalfeldmarschall, Jewish father (reclassified as Aryan by Adolf Hitler)
    6 – Werner Goldberg, German, foot soldier, half-Jewish
    7 – Alexander Löhr, Generaloberst in the Luftwaffe, mother with Jewish-Ukrainian roots
    8 – Helmuth Wilberg, German, Luftwaffe general, Jewish mother.

    • One small but crucial point of correction… these people you describe as “Jews” are neither Jews (religiously… they follow forged and falsified retranslations of the Old Testament) Nor Semites. So please stop referring to them with their Zionistically wishful but false name “Jews” and instead call them with their correct name “PseudoJews and/or Pseudosemites”. The majority of participants in this Pseudojewish cult are of course regular hardworking people but their leadership is exploiting them and using them as expendable victims as happened in the Nazi era (with the infamous but conveniently swept under the rug transfer agreement with Himmler) but also now both with COVID when ultraMengele Netanyahu Made an odious agreement with our own Bourla of Pfizer to turn the apartheid State of Israel into a giant petridish of medical experimentation with the bogus COVID jabs (don’t get surprised if Israel in the future will demand reparations from the American Government via Pfizer for the adverse effects of the COVID vaxx on the Israeli population, after all they are still collecting reparations from Germany for non-existent victims of WW2) but also with October 7 when the IDF allowed Hamas to attack the Kibbutzes in order to justify their subsequent genocidal assault against Palestinians mostly in Gaza but also in the West Bank

      • according to Anne Frank House ..Hitler blamed the Jews for everything that was wrong with the world. Germany was weak and in decline due to the ‘Jewish influence’. According to Hitler, the Jews were after world dominance. And they would not hesitate to use all possible means, including capitalism. In this way, Hitler took advantage of the existing prejudice that linked the Jews to monetary power and financial gain. He held that communism was a Jewish conspiracy, too, as the larger part of the communist leaders were Jewish. Nevertheless, only a small proportion of the Jews were communists. This idea of ‘Jewish communism’ was to have awful repercussions in the war with the Soviet Union that started in 1941. The population and prisoners-of-war were treated brutally by the Germans.
        Therefore, were the small percentage of Jews actually Zionist who actions got a lot of innocent Jews killed, and today “Jewish Influence” in the U.S .Government and Congress , are being called out in the Undermining of the U.S government and democracy! And we know that Joe Biden and His regime members are self proclaimed Jewish Zionist , not to mention that fact that 89% of the the congress is reported to be Dual Citizens of Zionist Israel ! So, is it possible that German Jews were mistakenly considered Marxsit undermining the German Government , when in fact they were “Zionist” having a “Negative Influence”, like they are accused of doing now, and may have been responsible for the Hate crimes and genocide of innocent Jews ! You may be on to something! Is history going to repeat itself !

    • Sandy… conquest – This is Zionism, Fascism, White Supremacy, Marxism, Capitalism, ..the core of Israel , Ukraine, England, Germany and the United States,! The Perfect Storm of Satanism and souless Jewish and Evangelical Protestants of the people Temple of Zionism, are nothing less than the “Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ of Pastor Jimmy Jones of California and Guyana Founded by Jim Jones in Indianapolis, Indiana, the Peoples Temple spread a message that combined elements of Christianity with communist and socialist ideology, with an emphasis on racial equality. Pastror Jimmy Jones and Temple is best known for the events of November 18, 1978, in Guyana, when 909 people died in a mass suicide and mass murder at its remote settlement, named “Jonestown”, as well as the murders of U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan and members of his visiting delegation at the nearby Port Kaituma airstrip. The incident at Jonestown resulted in the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a deliberate act prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
      Like the Jewish and Evangelical zionist leaders of America.. Jimmy jones used Religion and political ideologies to convince his followers that the “Oppresson of their “Church” by the U.S. government, and that their only escape from them was to follow him in committing Mass Suicide and murder, by drinking “Arsenic Laced Kool Aid provided by Pastor Jim Jones !
      Because of the killings in Guyana, the Temple is regarded by scholars and by popular view as a destructive cult.
      Today, The Evangelical Pastors of the People Zionist Temple in Washington ,D.C …who use Religion and Political ideologies to convince Christian and Jewish followers .. that their only escape and salvation to the oppression of their Religious and Human rights and freedoms by the governments of America, Israel, Ukraine, England, and those who are alleged enemies of them , like the people of Jonestown, is not committing Mass Suicide and Murder drinking Arsenic laced Kool Aid , but outfitting them with suicide Vests of Nuclear bombs to be detonated by them .. to escape to heaven !
      Because of these mass suicides and Murder .. the Jewish and Evangelical Pastors of the U.S congress will forever in history be just a “Zionist Cult”
      So Sandy.. Who declares to the world .. that America is the leader of the New World Order and only America can lead because we represent the Universal Values of the democracies of the world , and the rules based International order? Self Proclaimed Jewish Zionist Anthony Blinken State Department Head , And Zionist Joe Biden , leader of the U.S government , ruling leaders of the Republican and Democratic Zionist Parties! Who says that Sandy? Who tells the Public of America.. that they are funding a White Supremacist Criminal Enterprises ..the Republican and Democratic Parties , who also tell them ..of course .. “They are literally as the leaders of the countries of the world .. “Foreign Agents of not only Israel and the Ukraine ..but Foreign Agents of all the countries of the world representing not America’s interest, but the interest of foreign leaders of all the countries of the world ! Zionism is America.. and when you rule America .. you rule the World! So stop calling Conquest and Zionism ..the core of Israel .. and get real ..your country is the core of the entire world !

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