We demand: Immediate compensation for all Greek Nazi-victims!
On 10th of June 2004 the residents of the village Distomo celebrate the 60th commemoration dedicated to the 218 inhabitants killed in the year 1944 by German SS-troops. In April 2000 the highest Greek Court of Justice (Areopag) sentenced Germany to pay approx. 28 million Euro as compensation to the survivors of the massacre. Yet Berlin refuses to accept this legally binding sentence – and refuses to pay.
For today’s tourists Greece is a beautiful vacation spot, associated with sun, taverns and the remnants of the Greek Antique – Akropolis, Delphi or Olympia. About recent history, in particular the German occupation of Greece during the Second World War, most people only know a little. Greek villages such as Distomo, Kalavryta, Kommeno and Kessariani for many years were not listed in any travel guide. However, they stand as examples for the National Socialist crimes committed against the Greek civilian population and for the memory of the harm done in those times.
On 6th of April 1941 the German Wehrmacht invaded Greece. The military occupation persisted until 3rd of November 1944. In this time a pervasive terror prevailed against the Greek civilian population. The country was economically plundered under acceptance of thousandfold hunger death. Approx. 15 % of the Greek population died during this time. To the guerilla warfare of the Greek resistance the Germans reacted with indiscriminate atrocities. At least 30,000 Greek civilians became victims of so-called retaliation actions of the German occupation troops, thousands died in prisons and concentration camps, hundreds of villages were destroyed. The Jewish population of Greece was systematically seized, deported and murdered in extermination camps. 58,000 Jewish people, i.e. approx. 83 % of the Greek Jews were killed, the large Jewish Community of Thessaloniki almost completely destroyed, her fortune was robbed.
German courts so far never sentenced any author of all these crimes. The Greek victims of the massacres of Wehrmacht and SS like most survivors of the Holocaust have not received any compensation up to now.
Even if the present German Federal Government now states “mourning and shame” (like Federal President Rau in Kalavryta), the attitude towards compensation claims has not changed. The answer is always the same: We will not pay!
This categorical refusal – even to enter into negotiations – led to a wave of lawsuits against the Federal Republic of Germany, particularly before Greek courts.
Germany is under obligation to pay an appropriate compensation to all victims of the National Socialist crimes. The refusal of the Federal Government is a permanent humiliation of the victims. Nearly 60 years after the end of the German occupation finally justice has to be done to the survivors.