Greece tells Germany WWII reparations demand is “legally active”

Greece will continue to appeal for reparations for its victims of WWII and repayment for a loan it was forced to make during the Nazi occupation, President Prokopis Pavlopoulos told his visiting German counterpart President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday, during his address at an official dinner.

“We consider Greece’s demands over the occupation loan and war reparations legally active and judicially claimable,” Pavlopoulos said.

Adding the appeal is made in the context of a shared international and European legal culture, on the basis of which every side is free to support its positions before a jurisdictional forum.

Although Germany has acknowledged and apologised for Nazi crimes during the war, they announced they refuse to discuss reparations and also deny owing anything to Greece for WWII since it paid Athens the sum of 115 million deutschmarks in 1960.

Greece was forced to hand over 476 million reichmarks, which Greek officials have estimated at 6-10 billion euros ($6.95-11.5 billion) today.

During WWII tens of thousands of people were killed in reprisals by German troops trying to crush the Greek resistance, which had liberated large areas of the country.

Steinmeier visited the site of a Nazi concentration camp in the Athens suburb of Haidari where hundreds perished. “We honor these dead, and above all, apologise,” the German President said during a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.