People Die only When We Forget Them

Before the third war for the financial

Wehrmacht (1935 to 1945) = Armed forces of Germany (1935 to 1945) 

Heer, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe) = (Army, Navy, Air Force)

                                                                    

     1. The visit of a German President in Athens (2014)

                                                 

2. The Majority of German Newspapers......

The overwhelming majority of German newspapers have covered the official visit of German President Joachim Gauck to Greece as well as the controversial reparations issues.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that “Gauck rejected Athens’ demand for reparations”, while the Süddeutsche Zeitung claimed that the German President was “Decisively friendly”, indicating Germany’s stance on the subject.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung explained that most Germans are not aware of the brutalities, persecutions and mass executions committed by the German forces during the Nazi Occupation of Greece and argues that the rejection of Greek financial demands are in accordance with international legislation. 

The newspaper however explained that “cold indifference” towards Greece may be overturned by a “voluntary support” of the surviving victims.

While the Die Welt states that “nobody can deny what happened during the German occupation” it adopts a more aggressive stance, claiming that countries “cannot be held responsible perpetually” and that “new demands act like a time bomb in international politics”. 

The newspaper argues that Greek demands could open the floodgates for reparations over colonization or even the US-Vietnam War.

The Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung was more diplomatic in its approach and stated that the German president rejected the Greek demands as he had no jurisdiction on the matter, while admitted the brutalities against innocent civilians. 

The newspaper feels that Mr. Gauck managed to balance his two obligations because “he found the right words”.

    3. The Truth

Spiegel 2014

The facts, unfortunately, often seems to be forgotten.  

Economic historian Albrecht Ritschl

Germany was responsible for what were the biggest national bankruptcies in recent history. It is only thanks to the United States, which sacrificed vast amounts of money after both World War I and World War II, that Germany is financially stable today and holds the status of Europe's headmaster. That fact, unfortunately, often seems to be forgotten.

After World War II America immediately took steps to ensure there wouldn't be a repeat of high reparations demands made on Germany. For Germany, that was a life-saving gesture, and it was the actual financial basis of the economic miracle. But it also meant that the victims of the German occupation in Europe also had to forgot reparations, including the Greeks.

London Agreement on German External Debts of 1953. Under the terms of the agreement, in the event of a reunification, the issue of German reparations payments from World War II would be newly regulated. Germany did not pay any reparations after 1990 -- and neither did it pay off the loans and occupation costs it pressed out of the countries it had occupied during World War II. Not to the Greeks, either.

In the 20th century, Germany started two world wars, the second of which was conducted as a war of annihilation and extermination, and subsequently its enemies waived its reparations payments completely or to a considerable extent. No one in Greece has forgotten that Germany owes its economic prosperity to the grace of other nations.

Anyone who has lent money to Greece would then have to give up a considerable part of what they were owed.

For Germany, this could be expensive, but we will have to pay either way.

  Utopia