Immediately before german president frank-walter steinmeier's state visit to greece, athens' financial claims for german crimes and material damage in the second world war are being discussed again.
The greek president prokopis pavlopoulos was allowed to emphasize the well-known demand for reparation payments in the three-digit billion range at his meeting with steinmeier, it was said in athens. The meeting will also be about the repayment of a forced loan, which is estimated at around ten billion euros.
Steinmeier flew to athens on wednesday afternoon. On thursday he will meet there besides president pavlopoulos also prime minister alexis tsipras and opposition leader kyriakos mitsotakis. The first appointment on the agenda is a visit to the former concentration camp chaidari near athens this morning.
During the second world war greece was occupied by the wehrmacht, among others, from 1941 onwards. During the occupation, many people fell victim to atrocities such as mass deportations. 60,000 to 70,000 jewish greeks alone were murdered.
Left-wing politician gregor gysi, who is accompanying steinmeier on the trip, expressed understanding for the demands for repayment of the bonds. "It weighs on my mind a bit that greece, which was occupied at the time, was obliged by the nazi regime to pay a forced loan," the chairman of the german-greek parliamentary group in the bundestag told the newspapers of the funke mediengruppe (wednesday). "In my opinion, the federal republic is still liable for this loan."
The decisive question is the level of interest, gysi continued. "The federal government should say, for legal, political and moral reasons, we will repay the loan and offer to negotiate on the interest rate."
While repayment of the forced loan collected by nazi germany has not yet been categorically ruled out, the federal government has rejected any claim for reparations for the occupation period. According to german law, this has been finally clarified in an agreement of 1960.
But in greece, where elections will be held next year, the issue remains explosive. Parliamentary president nikos voutsis has announced a list of demands by the end of the year.
In a parliamentary study available since 2015, which was also reported on wednesday by the newspaper "bild", 171.4 billion euros are listed for the destruction of infrastructure, the sinking of merchant ships, and losses due to inflation and the devaluation of gold. Production losses put at 87.75 billion euros. In addition, the report states that there are claims for compensation for deaths, torture and imprisonment, the amount of which is stated to be between 22 and 107 billion euros.
Triantafyllos mitafides, the president of the reparations committee in the greek parliament, told "bild" that steinmeier's visit was a good opportunity to clarify the issue between the two presidents in person. "There is no statute of limitations for us to claim the German repairs."
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