Instead of another loan, why not get the war reparations from Germany?

It is as simple as it sounds. By now, everybody knows that Germany -as the defeated one- owes Greece (Hellas) war reparations from world war II . 
By now, every loss payee got reparation except Greece which -by the way- suffered the most, according to the Nazi minister of Economics and President of Reichsbank Walter Funk who stated: "Greece suffered the pain of war and its consequences like -maybe- no other european country".

What is war reparation? 

War reparation or copensation is the obligation of the defeated nation to pay to the triumphant nation or coalition, a specified amount of money, (1) which cover the expenses of war and (2) the damages that suffered among with its citizens from this war. 

If the above definition of war reparation applies generally for nations that participated a war, it does much more for triumphant nations which during the war were under occupation by the defeated!

Why now?
Many say that Greeks (Hellenes) came up with the idea of war reparations because of their empathy for Germans after the offensive articles in the german media.
The truth is that Greece (Hellas) or better Greeks (Hellenes) never gave up their legitimate rights to these reparations. A chronic arquement of West Germany not to finally adjust the war reperations issue was that, for the crimes that were committed by 3rd Reich was not the only responsibe. The other Germany, the eastern part was also responsible and as long as Germany was divided the issue of war reperations could not be solved and a peace treaty should be made by a unified Germany! 


Well, in 11-9-1989 the Berlin wall fell. That was the first step. The second step was the nomismatic union of the two Germanies. And the third was the unification of the two Germanies in 8-30-1990. 


In September 12th 1990, between the major triumphant nations (as a representatives of all   the triumphant nations) USA, USSR, Britain, and France, and the the two (under unification at that time) Germanies, was signed, in Moscow the "Treaty for the final regulation of the relations with Germany" (known as treaty 4+2 from the number of nations that signer the treaty). Among all in the treaty was stated that the unified Germany as a sovereign and independed nation can decide for its internal and external affairs.
This treaty beyond argument is a peace treaty and as a result any demand fo payment from a state or civilians is legitimate!


It is the corrupted political system of both Greece (Hellas) and Germany which deprived Greeks (Hellenes) from this moral satisfaction for their resistance to Nazis and the destruction of Greece (Hellas). 


Everyone in Greece (Hellas) -and not only- believe that if we' re going to get these reparations, now it is the time! Now that Greece (Hellas) need it more than ever! There are many who say that Germans should stand by Greeks (and many do) not only because it is a legitimate demand but for the moral issue of the case for both countries!


What does Greece (Hellas) is owed

1. War reperations is only the one third of the whole issue. It has to do with the destruction that the 3rd Reich caused to Greece (Hellas). Among with this, Greece (Hellas) and Greeks (Hellenes) also demand:
2. The payback of the loan to Germany (yes Greece lent money to Germany) of March 14th 1942 and,
3. the compensations to the victιms and their relatives for physical and property damages.

The destruction
1. Army:


13676 dead in the Greek Army (13408 in the army corps, 201 in the Navy and 67 in the airforce) and 42485 wounded.


2. Civilians:

• 68000 civilians were executed in 89 Holocausts. 35000 by the Germans, 25000 by the Bulgarians (allies of Germans) and 8,000 by the Italians.
• 190000 were prisoned. 100000 by the Germans, 55000 by the Bulgarians kai 35000 by the Italians.
• 88000 were arrested. 40000 by the Germans, 30000 by the Bulgarians and 18000 by the Italians.
• Incalculable is the number of Greeks who lost their life from starvation and hardship. Estimation: hundrends of thousands.  

3. Greek (Hellenic) economy:

• 409000 buildings were destroyed (about 23% of the country' s)
• 2000 Kms out if the 2769 of Greece' s railroad system. From 7101 rail cars only 607 left. Railroad buildings were destroyed in a percentage of 60%.
• 70% of bridges, tunnels, and telegraphic facilities was destroyed.
• 75-80% of the national road and highway network was destroyed.
• All port facilities and the Corinth Canal were completely destroed.
• 11.658 out of 17.200 vehicles were either destroyed or seized.
• Telephonic and telegraphic networks were destroyed by 70%.
• Incalculable were the damages in the productive hydraulic facilities.
• Agricultural and animal husbandry were reduced by 60%.
• The same reduction suffered the industrial production.
• The Greek (Hellenic) fleet was reduced by 72% losing 1.407.821 tns of its total capacity.
• The inflation was so wide the the bread price raised as followed:

April 1941, 10 drachmas

January 1942, 230 drachmas

July 1943, 2000 drachmas

January 1944, 38000 drachmas

September 1944 153000000 drachmas

Greek loans to Germany
In September 28th 1941 3rd Reich forced the Bank of Greece to pay -monthly- 25 million marks for the expenses of the German Army. Long before the end of the war the amount that Greece lent Germany was 38 million golden UK sovereigns.  At the end of the war the amount reached 45 million golden UK sovereigns or 4050 billions US dollars!


From the amount above, Germany owed 3,5 billion dollars. A simple calculation, with annual interest 3%, the amount that Germany owes is 13 billion dollars (year 1995).


In March 14th 1942 3rd Reich received a loan from Greece which reaches the amount of 54 billions Euros with the interests today.


89 Holocausts
Among these, Greeks (Hellenes) suffered 89 holocausts. In Distomo June the 10th 1944 Germans execute 223 Greeks -civilians-: 20 babies, 45 children and 42 old men and women!


On August 16, on the end of one the greatest holy days of the Eastern Orthodox church, the Dormition of Theotokos, the Mother of Jesus, the Germans, also in Epirus, destroyed the village Kommeno. There had been no incident to incite that massacre. Only a suspicion that there were guerrillas in its vicinity. This particular massacre has been studied by historians in some detail, because there were survivors who managed to escape by swimming the fast waters of Arahthos river on the south end of Epirus, or by hiding in the forested area bordering the village.

In Kommeno, the Germans murdered 145 men, 174 women and 97 children, 414 in all. Twenty families were completely wiped out and 17 people drowned trying to cross the rapid currents of Arahthos. Thomas Kontoyannis was the only survivor of his large family. Twenty nine people bearing the same surname, five of them under 13 years old, were murdered.

Kurt Waldheim, who reported the massacre of Kommeno, reported only the 145 men who were killed, making no mention of the women and children, and falsified facts by citing explosions of large quantities of munitions, which never took place. Eventually Kurt Weidheim became Secretary General of the United Nations and President of Austria.

The massacres continued. More than 80 holocausts have taken place in Greece, in which the majority of the inhabitants were murdered, and a total of between 1,700 and 1,800 villages were burned, many of them totally. The Germans had developed the act of destruction to the level of a fine art: they spread the condemned structures with incendiary powders, which under fire from a gun or a pistol exploded into flames.

They also developed the military vocabulary to match their unparalleled ingenuity of destruction: the elimination of a population, as in Kommeno, was a Clean-Up Operation Undertaking: Weidheim talks about Sauberungsunternrhmen Kommeno , for example.

The troops charged and ordered to supervise the systematic looting of Greek households and farms were also given a name:Aufraumtruppen were the troops specialized in systematically stealing Greek property of value under direct orders from the highest command of the Wehrmacht.

The story of the Greek Holocaust would not be complete without mentioning some of the most notorious massacres. Those of Kalavryta, Distomo, Hortiati and Agios Georgios.

In Kalavryta, 1,100 men 12 to 90 years old were executed on a gently sloping corn field outside the town, while the women of the village were held in the school house, which was set afire. The women broke the doors and escaped death , but the male population was killed in the largest one-day atrocity in a non-Slavic land. The date was 13 December 1943.

That massacre did take place as a revenge for the killing of German prisoners of war by the ELAS andartes. But the Kalavrytan population was certainly not responsible for that act and in fact they had tried hard to safeguard the well-being of German prisoners that the andarteshad kept in their city.

All the villages in the vicinity of Kalaryta suffered enormously at that time. Their inhabitants were massacred if apprehended, and their villages were destroyed. The monks at the Mega Spilaio, famous historic monastery, as well as the monks in Agia Lavra, where the Greek revolution of 1821 was first declared, were also murdered. Even a young child who was living with the monks did not escape death. And the Germans also killed systematically anyone they run across as they moved from one village to the other in search of victims.

The historical Archives at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens are replete with accounts of massacres perpetrated throughout Greece.

Atrocities in which the eager Nazis exceeded the directive of 100 Greeks killed per German death abound. On 2 September 1944, at the village Hortiati, 20 kilometers east of Thessaloniki, the Germans executed 149 civilians of both sexes and all ages for the death of one German who was killed in a skirmish with ELAS. On 15 June, 1944, two German soldiers were wounded in a battle with ELAS near the village Ayios Georgios on the road from Levadia to Thebes. After the andartes left, the Nazis rounded up 26 men women and children from that village, ushered the men into a small house and killed them with machine gun fire while the women, older men and children watched. Then they executed the rest of the group, threw their corpses in the same small house, doused them all with gasoline and set them afire. An infant who had survived was thrown into the pyre alive.

The massacre that took place on 10 June 1944 in Distomo surpasses in sadism virtually all massacres. On that day, the Germans gathered the residents of Distomo in the school building and slaughtered them in the most horrific ways. Two hundred and thirty two men women and children were tortured and killed in ways which we shall not detail here, out of respect for the reader.

source:http://www.greece.org/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=844&Itemid=857


June 2nd 1941: Holocausts in Kontomari and Kandanos (Crete)
August 1st 1941: Holocaust of Skines: The Germans burned down the village, sent the population in exile and placed a sign at the entrance of the village saying "GERMAN PROPERTY"
October 3rd 1943: Holocaust of Ligiades: After the German killed 92 women, children, olden and women, the burned down the village. 
March 15th 1944: Holocaust of Kalogreza (Athens): 22 workers executed and 150 sentenced to death by Germans.
April 5th 1944: Holocaust of Kleisoura (Kastoria): Germans execute 270 villagers.


And many more...


Victory for Distomo
A few days ago the supreme court of Italy did credit to the relatives of Distomo Holocaust victims and opened the way for victims of other holocausts in Greece (Hellas) to follow!


Finally
The amount that Germany owes to Greece is estimated to one trillion euros. According to the international law war reparations do not expire. It is Greece' s choice to claim these reparations. And if german media and german politicians demand from Greeks (Hellenes) to pay for their "laziness", it is also time Germans paid the war reparations for their crimes!
Because in this case i do not thing that "Arbeit macht frei"!