German Politicians Confirm Greece Has Case for Wartime Reparations
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has accused Germany of trying to avoid paying reparations for Nazi crimes committed during World War II—and several German politicians agree.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. (Abode of Chaos / CC BY 2.0)
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has accused Germany of trying to avoid paying reparations for Nazi crimes committed during World War II—and several German politicians agree.
The Guardian reports:
Relations between Germany and Greece have deteriorated as Athens tries to renegotiate its bailout terms and Berlin fears it will ditch previously agreed financial promises.
The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, who is due to meet Merkel in Berlin on Monday, has accused Germany of using tricks to avoid paying reparations. One of his ministers raised the prospect of seizing German property to compensate victims of a Nazi massacre.
… “We should make a financial approach to victims and their families,” said Gesine Schwan, a respected member of the Social Democrat party (SPD), who share power with Merkel’s conservatives.
“It would be good for us Germans to sweep up after ourselves in terms of our history,” she told Spiegel Online. “Victims and descendants have longer memories than perpetrators and descendants,” said Schwan, twice-nominated as a candidate for German president.
Read more here.
— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
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