| Mar 22, 5:59 AM EDT
Greece fights German bailout demands with Nazi-era claims By FRANK JORDANS
Associated Press |
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BERLIN (AP) -- It was 1943 and the Nazis were deporting Greece's Jews to
death camps in Poland. Hitler's genocidal accountants reserved a chilling
twist: The Jews had to pay their train fare.The bill for 58,585 Jews sent to
Auschwitz and other camps exceeded 2 million Reichsmark - more than 25 million
euros ($27 million) in today's money.For decades, this was a forgotten footnote
among all of the greater horrors of the Holocaust. Today it is returning to the
fore amid the increasingly bitter row between Athens and Berlin over the Greek
financial bailout.Jewish leaders in Thessaloniki, home to Greece's largest
Jewish community, say they are considering how to reclaim the rail fares from
Germany - with seven decades of interest."We will study the law and do our best
to claim," the community's president, David Saltiel, told The Associated
Press.Such a move would suit the new government in Athens, which is trying to
shift the public focus from Greece's current debt crisis to Germany's World War
II debts ahead of Monday's first visit to Berlin by Greece's new Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras.While war reparations have been a staple demand of previous
Greek governments, Tsipras' radical left government has made the issue a
central part of the bailout negotiations with Germany. The Germans have
dismissed such demands, saying compensation issues were settled decades ago in
post-war accords.Billions of euros in rescue loans from other European
countries and the International Monetary Fund have saved Greece from bankruptcy
since 2010. Germany, the largest contributor to the bailout, has been vocal in
pressing Greece to cut back on government spending to bring its finances under
control.But the Greeks point out that, following its wartime defeat, Germany
received one of the biggest bailouts in modern history within a decade of
laying waste to much of Europe. Greece was among 22 countries that agreed to
halve Germany's foreign debt at a 1953 conference in London.Even some German
politicians have called for a change of heart on the reparations issue. They
argue that if Germany doesn't confront its World War II guilt, it cannot expect
other countries to repay their more recent debts. The point has particular
resonance in Germany because, in German, guilt and debt are the same word:
Schuld.Among the claims that Greece, or individual Greeks, might bring against
Germany:- Tens, possibly hundreds, of billions of euros (dollars) in
present-day money as compensation for destroyed infrastructure and goods,
including archaeological treasures, looted by the Nazis from 1941 to 1944.-
Compensation for the estimated 300,000 people who died from famine during the
winter of 1941-1942.- Compensation for the slaughter of civilians as reprisals
for partisan attacks. One of the most infamous massacres took place in the
Greek village of Distomo on June 10, 1944, when Waffen-SS soldiers killed more
than 200 women, children and elderly residents. Another in Kalavryta in
December 1943 involved German troops killing more than 500 civilians, including
virtually all of the town's males aged 14 or over.- Repayment of some 1.9
billion drachmas, around 50 million euros ($55 million) today, that the Jewish
community paid as ransom to occupying authorities in 1942 in return for 10,000
Jewish men being held as slave laborers. The men were released only to be sent
to concentration camps the following year.- Repayment of an interest-free loan
of 568 million Reichsmark (7.1 billion euros or $7.7 billion) that the Nazis
forced Greece to make to Germany in 1942.- Returning the train fares that the
Reichsbahn received for transporting Jews to their deaths. Historians disagree
on whether the tickets were bought directly by Jews or paid by a special Nazi
fund established with money stolen from Jews. They broadly agree that the money
came from Holocaust victims.Previous efforts to bring claims against Germany
have ended in legal quagmires.In 2011 the European Court of Human Rights
dismissed a lawsuit brought by four survivors of the Distomo massacre. The
judges in Strasbourg, France, concluded that a German court hadn't
discriminated against the plaintiffs when it rejected their claim on the basis
that states can't be sued by individuals.Germany insists that the 1942 loan
should be considered part of the overall reparations issue. German Chancellor
Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, says that liability has been
"comprehensively and conclusively resolved."But a confidential legal assessment
provided to the German parliament concluded that Berlin's liability wasn't so
clear-cut. A Munich historian, Hans Guenter Hockerts, says the Greeks shouldn't
be confident of winning any of their claims, but are on firmest ground in
demanding repayment of the 1942 loan.Even the Nazis felt bound by terms of that
loan and paid back two installments before their occupation of Greece ended.
The unpaid 476 million Reichsmark would be equivalent to at least 6 billion
euros ($6.5 billion) today.That figure dwarfs the war reparations actually paid
by Germany since 1945, which include:- $25 million in goods shortly after the
war; Greece says the proper sum should have been nearer $14 billion.- 115
million Deutschmarks - equivalent to about $330 million today - as part of a
1960 treaty with Greece meant to compensate victims of Nazi atrocities,
including Greek Jews.- 13.5 million euros (about $15 million) paid to former
slave laborers from a fund established in 2000 by German companies and the
government.- 1 million euros ($1.1 million) paid annually for a "German-Greek
future foundation" meant to fund remembrance and historical research
projects.Gesine Schwan, who twice ran for president as the candidate of
Germany's center-left Social Democrats, says the government's stance on new
reparations payments is damaging Germany's image in Europe."It's embarrassing
if rich Germany demands that poor Greece ... pay back debt," Schwan wrote in a
newspaper column, "but isn't prepared even to discuss repayment of a forced
loan that Nazi Germany took from Greece during the war."---Associated Press
reporter Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki, Greece, contributed to this
report.---Frank Jordans can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter |
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