About us
AK Distomo
The thousands of murders and the destruction of Greece under German occupation were never properly compensated. There was hardly any criminal prosecution. For almost 80 years now, Germany owes Greece a sum that Greece’s Supreme Court of Audit calculated in 2016 at around 270 billion euros and which the Greek government has repeatedly claimed. The German government, however, considers the obligation to pay to be settled.
When we heard about the Distomo case in the media, it was clear to us that we wanted to engage in this issue. We informed ourselves about the German war crimes in Greece. Since then, we have been regularly organizing events in Hamburg and other places, among others with Ioannis Stamoulis. Ioannis Stamoulis was the lawyer of the plaintiffs from Distomo, who, in December 2001 for the first time in Germany, held a lecture on the trial and its backgrounds at the University of Economics and Politics in Hamburg.
In 2002 we traveled to Greece as a political travel group for the first time. We met many people in Thessaloniki, Athens, Distomo and Kalavryta who were campaigning for the compensation of the survivors of the German occupation crimes. Since 2004, we have regularly taken part in the commemorations in Distomo, while some of us also took part in the commemorations in Kalavryta or Ano Viannos. Solidarity with the survivors and relatives is an important motivation for us.
We have done a lot of work on the trials in the Distomo case. Thus, we accompanied the trial of the Sfountouris siblings in Germany and were present at the hearing before the German Federal Supreme Court of Justice in Karlsruhe. We are in close contact with Dr. Joachim Lau in Florence, who is still conducting the Distomo trial in Italy, and we were present at the Court of Cassation in Rome in 2008 when the question of the recognition of the judgment of the Levadia District Court was negotiated.
For us, the trials are an important instrument for enforcing compensation claims. However, we also use them as an opportunity to inform the public. When Germany brought an action before the International Court of Justice in The Hague to stop the compensation proceedings in Italy, we organized local events, among others in cooperation with Amnesty International at the University of The Hague.
We took part in the protests against the annual meetings of the mountain troops („Gebirgsjäger“) in Mittenwald, Bavaria. Since 1952, veterans of the Wehrmacht who were involved in many war crimes in Greece have been meeting there at Pentecost. But also today’s active soldiers seem to be committed to this tradition and thus take part in these gatherings. We also raised the issue of compensation in Mittenwald. In 2003, Argyris Sfountouris from Distomo and Aristomenis Syngelakis from the “National Council for the Compensation Claims of Greece against Germany”, among others, spoke at a hearing in Mittenwald.
In addition to information events and press releases, rallies and demonstrations are also an important instrument for drawing attention to the unresolved issue of compensation. We have demonstrated many times with our Greek friends in front of the German embassy in Athens. But we also take to the streets in Germany for this issue. Most recently, on May 8, 2024, Liberation Day, we spoke about the issue of compensation for Nazi crimes at a rally in front of Hamburg City Hall.
The issue of compensation is unresolved not only in Greece; groups of victims from Italy and Slovenia, among others, are also demanding compensation from Germany because they are excluded from all existing regulations. We are currently supporting the claims of Dutch descendants of people (Jews, Sinti and Roma) who were deported to the extermination camps by the German Reichsbahn.
International co-operation and solidarity are important approaches to our political work. We fight for our goals together with many people and organisations in Germany, Greece, Italy and many other countries. Anti-fascism knows no borders. We demand justice and Germany fulfilling its duty towards the victims and survivors of Nazi crimes.
With our work, we contradict the assertion of the German federal governments that the issue of compensation for Nazi war crimes has been legally and politically closed since 1990. We contradict the narrative that Germany has been exemplary in coming to terms with National Socialism. The German invocation of the principle of state immunity for Nazi war crimes, the refusal to compensate those affected by barbarism, promotes the idea that such crimes against humanity could remain without consequences for the aggressor. It is an attitude that feeds nationalism, racism and right-wing violence in Europe. It promotes a policy that once again has inhumanity as its foundation.
Our demands are:
Immediate compensation for all victims of National Socialism!
Nazi crimes must not be forgiven, anti-fascist resistance must not be forgotten! Joint fight against the resurgence of fascism in Europe!