You might think it is partial, but it goes some way to illustrate the depth of feeling Greece about what many see as a German inspired take over of their country,
German indebtedness to Greece from the 2nd World War
I would like to inform you on the Greek financial demands from Germany, as an aftermath to what happened during the 2nd World War.
In April 1941, Germany attacked and occupied Greece. During the German occupation, the conquerors executed the residents of 89 Greek cities and villages. In addition to that, they burnt more than 1800 villages and settlements.
During the war Greece lost 13% of her population. That was not only in the war fields but also due to the famine and the atrocities as well as the plundering of their troops.
On the parallel Germany forced the vicarious Greek government to give a loan of 3,5 billion dollars and they signed the relative contract. After the end of war, the Conference of Paris adjudicated the amount of 7,1 billion dollars to Greece as war reparations. Germany did not pay neither the reparations nor the loan that was owes to Greece.
Italy paid back to Greece a part of the total amount of the loan that was forcefully agreed during the occupation. Italy and Bulgaria paid back war reparations to Greece.
While Germany paid war reparations to Poland (1956) and Yugoslavia (1971), Greece had to demand the paying off of the forced loan on 1945, 1946, 1947, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1974, 1987 and 1995. Nevertheless, Germany denies paying off what owes to my country as an obligation that arise from the "occupation loan" and the war reparations. At 1964, the German Chancellor Erhard promised paying the off the loan after the unification of Germany, which was realized in 1990.
The following is an indication of the actual value of the German reparations towards Greece: Taking as indicative the average rate of the USA bonds between 1944 till 2010, that is about 6%, the actual value of the "occupation loan" is up to 163,8 billion dollars and that of war recuperations is estimated in 332 billion dollars. On the 2nd of July 2011, the French economist and advisor of the French government Jacques Delpla declared that the German indebtedness to Greece because of all that happened during the 2nd World War is up to 575 billion dollars (Les Echos, Saturday, July 2, 2011). The German historian Dr. Albrecht Ritschl advised Germany to follow a more moderate policy during the euro crisis of 2008-2011, because she might have to face justified demands for war recuperations of the 2nd World War (Der Siegel, June 21, 2011, guardian. co.uk).
It has to be mentioned that Germany has profited to the tune of 9 billion euro from the euro zone crisis over the past few years, while the German bonds yields close to zero since the European sovereign debt crisis began some two years ago. Berlin's two-year bond yields currently stand at just 0.3 percent and its 10-year bonds at 1.7 percent. Six-month papers - usually giving the lowest return to investors - stand at just 0.08 percent, down from 0.3 percent just one month ago.
According to Carsten Brzeski a senior economist with the ING bank in Belgium, "Interestingly, this is already more than the recently announced [German] tax relief of around €8 billion for 2013 and 2014. It almost looks as if the Greeks financed the little German tax reform," he added (Valentina Pop, "Germany estimated to have 9 bn euro profit out of crisis", www.euobserver.com).
The old statement of Mussolini is indicative: "Germans have even stolen from Greeks their shoelaces"
I would like to thank you for your attention and to ask for your help and your understanding so to demand what is rightful for my country.
Memories are short, andthe hurt is near the surface.
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