German President Sparks Outrage After Greece’s National Day
Dear Member,
This is our weekly round-up from Greece.
This week, we take a deep dive into German President Frank Walter Steinmeier's arrival for a three-day visit to Greece after the country’s National Day - ‘Ohi’ Day. He visited places where the Nazis committed atrocities. However, he triggered strong reactions by stating that the matter of German reparations to Greece is “legally closed.”
Greece is the only country Germany has not compensated for destroying it hugely during the Second World War. During the occupation, Greece’s population was also eliminated by 13.5%. No international court has ever ruled that the issue of reparations is closed.
The country’s sentiment on the issue was expressed the following day when Mr Steinmeier visited the martyred village of Kandanos in Crete, which the Nazis had utterly wiped out. Citizens received him with cries for justice. Co-General Secretary of the National Council for the Claim of German Debts Syngelakis stated: “This is not about revenge, but about vindicating those who fought against fascism.”
“We decided we will never compensate Greece”
“We believe that, legally, this matter is considered closed.": This was German Federal President Frank Walter Steinmeier’s reply (Opens in a new window) to his Greek counterpart Katerina Sakellaropoulou, who raised the issue of Second World War German Reparations to Greece during their meeting in Athens on Wednesday. Mr Steinmeier added that "the German people acknowledge the atrocities committed" in Greece during the war.
PM Mitsotakis also raised the issue (Opens in a new window) during his meeting with the German president on the same day. “For Greece, the issue of reparations, and especially the forced occupation loan, remains very much 'alive,’ and we hope one day they will be addressed,” he stated. Steinmeier just ignored the reference and avoided any further statements on the matter. He also ignored the Greek Prime Minister’s remark that Mr. Steimeier’s (then forthcoming) visit to the martyred Cretan village of Kandanos implied “recognition of the Nazi atrocities that took place on the island.”
The Greek claims for German reparations include reparations for the forced occupation loan, the return of looted archaeological treasures, and compensation for destruction and atrocities committed during the occupation.
The German president’s statements triggered a strong reaction from the National Council for the Claim of German Debts, a Greek organization formed by resistance fighters, survivors, historians, legal experts, and activists dedicated to pursuing justice and reparations for the damages inflicted on Greece by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. “This is an unsubstantiated, baseless, and anti-democratic stance,” the Council’s representatives emphasized (Opens in a new window) in a press conference in Chania, Crete.
The Council says Greece’s stance is proven right also by the fact “that Germany… refuses to provide any evidence to substantiate this assertion, both verbally -as the President of Germany did not do today- and in writing, in response to the verbal note submitted by Greece on June 4, 2019. Germany's response came on October 18, 2019. It was brief, precisely to avoid appearing contradictory to the previous assertions of the Federal Republic of Germany," co-General Secretary of the Council Aristomenis Syngelakis said.
The first verbal note was submitted (Opens in a new window) in 1995 by the Greek embassy in Bonn to the German Foreign Ministry, requesting negotiations on the claims.
The two verbal notes mean Greece does not consider the issue legally closed.
It is worth recalling what the legendary late Manolis Glezos, iconic resistance fighter and war hero, an emblematic figure of the Left and the country, had replied to similar statements by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble in 2015.
The issue of German reparations "has been decided so many times by international courts that reviving this discussion can only create completely unrealistic hopes for the Greeks," Schäuble had said back then.
Manolis Glezos replied (Opens in a new window): "Completely unrealistic are the views of Schäuble himself. Instead of being vague, he should tell us which international courts were used and when these issues were discussed. He knows very well that the only international court ever involved was the Hague, which ruled that it was incompetent to adjudicate because the case was purely political and must be resolved between the two peoples and their governments. This is what we have been saying for a long time. And, finally, if everything is resolved and settled, let Germany come to the table and put its signature on a Peace Treaty between our countries. Enough with the evasion and the smear campaigns against Greece and our people."
Germany never signed a peace treaty with Greece. The 1953 London Conference agreement had exempted Germany from paying reparations imposed by the Paris Conference of 1945 until a peace treaty was signed with the countries involved.
Legally, the treaty constituted (Opens in a new window) a form of “suspensive condition” (lato sensu) regarding Germany’s obligations because it was then deemed that Germany did not possess (the primary reason being its division into East and West) the necessary political status under international law to assume and fulfill related obligations. The capacity to enter a Peace Treaty arose in 1990 when the so-called "2+4 Agreement" was signed between the now reunified Germany and the USA, USSR, France, and the UK. Greece’s Former President of Democracy, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, also a legal scholar, had argued that "it covers, due to its legal nature and generality, also the non-signatory states that were nonetheless harmed by the German occupation, such as Greece."
The official German stance on the issue of Greek claims has consistently been that the matter was legally and politically closed with the 1990 Charter of Paris, which endorsed the 2+4 Agreement concerning German reunification. At that time, the Greek government under Konstantinos Mitsotakis (father of the current PM) did not seize the opportunity to file an objection. However, Greece has submitted two verbal notes since, which means the issue for the country remains open.
Glezos suggested that Greece’s primary demand was to sign a peace treaty between Greece and Germany. "The Germans are always law-abiding. If they sign a peace treaty, they will be obliged to pay their debts to Greece."
There is also a legally prevailing opinion that the 2+4 Agreement corresponds to a peace treaty, and therefore, Germany is obliged to pay reparations.
What is the German Reparations claim about?
"We lost 13.5% of the then Greek population in the Nazi war during the period 1940-1944. According to international conventions, human losses exceeding 10% of the population are defined as a holocaust," Manolis Glezos had said (Opens in a new window) in 2011, in his capacity then as head of the National Council for Claiming the German Debts.
Regarding the payment of reparations from Germany to countries that suffered from Nazism, he noted that while countries like the Soviet Union, which lost 2.8% of its population, Poland, and even the USA, which lost 0.03% of their populations, “have been compensated -often with substantial amounts- through bilateral agreements, Greece has never pressured for its restoration."
"The Allied Conference in Paris [1946] determined that Germany owes Greece $7 billion. Based on the calculations made by the National Bank, this amount today is equivalent to €162 billion, excluding interest. With an interest rate of 3%, the amount would rise to €1 trillion. So why should we owe Germany anything and not vice versa?" he argued.
According to the report submitted on 27 July 2011 to Greece’s Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs by the National Council for Claiming the German Debts, the German debts are detailed as follows:
Reparations to the Greek Government include:
The return of archaeological treasures, recorded by the Directorate of Antiquities and Historical Monuments and the Department of Archaeology of the University of Athens,
Reparations for the destruction of the Greek economy amounting to $7.1 billion (in 1938 purchasing value - €108 billion in today’s value, excluding interest), as decided by the Paris Inter-Allied Committee in 1946, and
The forced loan of $3.5 billion (also in 1938 purchasing value - €54 billion today, excluding interest).
That is a total of €162 billion, excluding interest.
How did the Nazi Occupation destroy the Greek economy? According to this official report, this was done by:
→ Seizing 51% of Public Utility Companies and major private enterprises’ shares.
→ Providing sustenance for the occupying forces, totaling 670,000 troops (German, Italian, Bulgarian), and Rommel’s Africa Corps - exclusively Greece bore this burden. Monthly sustenance costs reached 8 billion drachmas.
→ The use of counterfeit Reichs Kredit Kassenschein currency led to the immediate plundering of Greek businesses and currency. It was exchanged for 530,894 British gold sovereigns in August 1941.
→ The theft of coins: Ten-drachma, twenty-drachma, and five-drachma coins, totaling 37.77 tons, for which Germany paid only 104 gold sovereigns and extracted 18.5 tons of silver. Two-drachma, one-drachma, twenty-pence, and ten-pence coins took 64.5 tons, paying only 5.5 gold sovereigns, extracting 73 tons of copper.
→ The forced loan: Imposed on Greece with a verbal note on March 23, 1942, retroactively effective from January 1, 1942. The outstanding amount is $3.5 billion in 1938 purchasing value.
→ Confiscations: This included 10% of agricultural production and requisition of schools, hospitals, hotels, and buildings.
→ Seizures: Transport and communication means, including railways, ships, vehicles, bicycles, and even animals such as horses, mules, and donkeys.
→ Countless thefts and lootings of homes and stores throughout Greece.
→ There is also a claim for reparation to the victims. This includes 89 officially recognized massacres.
According (Opens in a new window) to economist, journalist, and author Makis Andronopoulos, approximately 130,000 civilians, including women and children, were executed in retaliation for partisan attacks. Of these executions, 56,225 deaths resulted from the massacres of Greek villages, 89 of which have been officially recognized as Holocaust sites. Additionally, 70,000 Greek Jews were sent to concentration camps, and 300,000 people suffered frostbite or died of starvation because the Germans confiscated food and fuel supplies.
“In economic terms, Greece suffered damages equivalent to 170% of its annual GDP, compared to 135% for defeated Germany. A previous analysis by the Tagesspiegel noted that Germany devastated no other occupied country as thoroughly as Greece: 50% of the country’s infrastructure and 75% of its industry were destroyed,” Andronopoulos wrote (Opens in a new window) in his book “The German Syndrome.”
This is not about revenge. It’s about Justice.
It’s about sending the message fascist crimes do not go unpunished
This newsletter was dedicated to the German Reparations issue, not because we wanted to teach a history lesson. But because history defines and highlights in depth the present.
The root causes of much of Greece’s economic hardship, institutional distortions, and corruption are to be traced back to the country’s turbulent history, including the almost destruction of the country in the Second World War.
This is why the German president’s stance was received widely as deeply insulting, more so since the statements came just after Greece’s ‘OHI’ day, celebrating the day the country turned down Moussolini’s ultimatum to surrender - and then built a fierce resistance movement against the fascist and nazi occupation forces, paying a dear price.
It’s also unsubstantiated what the German Deutsche Welle wrote (Opens in a new window), describing Sakelloropoulou’s decision as a “surprising move”: “In her move, Greece's president took advantage of the fact that the journalists who were covering Steinmeier's visit were allowed to attend the opening statements - which was extremely unusual. She wanted to deliberately launch the issue, which currently plays hardly any role in the Greek public. She may also have had her intended re-election next year in mind.”
In fact, Greece’s president did not even respond to her German counterpart’s statement - as she ought to have done by providing facts and figures.
As to whether the issue is “playing any role to the Greek public,” the answer was given the following day of the German president's statements when Steinmeier visited the village of Kandanos, one of the first villages on the island of Crete to be destroyed by Wehrmacht. Under the command of Lieutenant General Kurt Student, on 3 June 1941, the German soldiers killed all 180 residents of the village (Opens in a new window) in retribution for having fought against them during the Battle of Crete.
The Nazis left a sign on the spot in Greek and German saying: “Kandanos was here. It was destroyed in retribution for the killing of 25 German soldiers. The destruction of Kandanos was in retaliation for the ambush of German soldiers by armed civilians, both men and women. On 3 June 1941, Kandanos was razed to the ground as punishment for the brutal killing of German paratroopers, alpine soldiers, and engineers by men, women, children, and priests who dared to resist the Third Reich. The intent was for Kandanos never to be rebuilt.”
During his visit to Kandanos, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the first German head of state to visit Crete, asked for forgiveness for the German crimes committed during the Nazi era on Crete. "I would like to ask you for forgiveness today on behalf of Germany," said Steinmeier. The German President also apologized for the fact that Germany had delayed prosecution of the crimes for decades and "initially looked the other way and remained silent" after the war.
Citizens gathered at Kandanos received Mr. Steinmeier with cries for "justice" and "the fight goes on," referring to the unresolved question of German reparations payments to Greece.
"War crimes do not expire and must be punished. It is unacceptable for German officials to visit and offer us words of sympathy," stated (Opens in a new window) Mr. Christos Oikonomou, president of the Panhellenic Organisation of National Resistance Fighters.
"Every German official who visits Greece apologizes, yet they fail to take responsibility. We seek justice, not charity," emphasized (Opens in a new window) Aristomenis Syngelakis. "We don’t want words of sympathy, nor do we need expressions of sorrow, shame, or grief. We demand Germany's concrete and sincere remorse and its explicit assumption of responsibility for the crimes of the Third Reich in Greece," co-General Secretary of the Council Aristomenis Syngelakis said. He also stressed: "This is not about revenge, but about vindicating those who fought against fascism. Especially today, as fascism reemerges across Europe, it must receive the message that such actions do not go unpunished."
The German president had an exchange with a 93-year-old woman who had lived through the Kandanos holocaust, Ioanna Kandaraki. The old lady later said (Opens in a new window):
“We will offer the Federal Republic of Germany President a smile, but our hearts are heavy. We think of the insults, the torture, the burning of our village, the executions. For what? What did we do wrong? Should we not have defended our land, our homes, and our families? We want justice to be served".
Read
Cover-Up of Predatorgate: The Key Witness Who Was Never Called to Testify (Opens in a new window) (In Greek): The judiciary has known for some time who financed the infected messages sent to former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, PASOK President Nikos Androulakis, active ministers, businessman Theodoros Karypidis, and journalists, but this individual was never summoned to testify. Inside Story revealed this week that “the prosecutors investigating the case of illegal surveillance via the spyware marketed by Intellexa had in their possession since early 2023 the concrete details of an individual who paid, using a prepaid card in his name, for the sending of infected messages to Antonis Samaras, Nikos Androulakis, Thanasis Koukakis, and several other victims”. The prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Georgia Adilini, and the deputy prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Achilleas Zisis, who handled the case when it was unexpectedly removed, did not call this individual to testify, even though—according to inside story information—he was deemed "directly involved" in the case. Before the case file reached Achilleas Zisis, the financial police had unsuccessfully sought him out, following an order from the First Instance Prosecutor's Office. Since then, no one has searched for him again. However, Inside Story managed to find him quite easily, simply by ringing his doorbell.
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That’s all for this week; please forward this email to anyone you think might find it interesting and ask them to join our international community!
The AL team
