Greece's Unsettled WWII German Reparations: A Stain in the
International Legal System
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilias-sourdis/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilias-sourdis/greeces-unsettled-wwii-german-reparations_b_2857143.html?view=print&comm_ref=false>Posted:
03/21/2013 2:53 pm
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Frustrated with the persistent refusal of Germany to settle the
decades long pending WWII German reparation obligations, ordinary
Greek citizens have organized a petition and are collecting
signatures to demand the long delayed settlement.
The ongoing petition
at<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilias-sourdis/http://www.greece.org/blogs/wwii/>www.greece.org/blogs/wwii/
is receiving support and solidarity from people around the world
(over 188,000 signatures by now), which proves the clamor for justice
by the global community.
To preempt skeptics and critics, although presently Greece is
suffering a temporary economic crisis, she should not relinquish her
right to demand settlement and shouldn't be asked to resign from her
obligation to seek justice for her people.
On October 1940, North-west Greece was attacked by Germany's ally,
Italy, which was repelled by the Greek army. In April 1941, Germany
came to Italy's rescue, invaded and occupied Greece for four years
committing massive crimes against the people of Greece and total
destruction of Greece's infrastructure.
At the end of WWII Greece had lost 13 percent of its population, more
than 1700 villages and towns had been burned, most of their
inhabitants had been executed by the German occupiers, and the
country virtually resembled a pile of debris. (Doxiadis p 38,
Illiadakis p 137).
On top of that, while the
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilias-sourdis/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_occupation_of_Greece>occupied
Greeks were dying by the thousands from starvation, Germany forced
Greece to provide an onerous US $3.5 billion loan which still remains
unpaid. Moreover, from the US $14 billion well documented claim for
war damages presented by Greece at the Paris Conference in 1946, only
US $7.1 billion were officially accepted, which remain unsettled
until today. (Blytas p. 344, Doxiadis p.37, Mazower p.23)
Italy's Mussolini complained to his minister of foreign affairs Count
Ciano "The Germans have taken from the Greeks even their shoelaces."
(Ciano p.387)
public hanging in crete
With permission of G. C. Blytas, author, The First Victory, Greece in
the Second World War
Despite the non-stop Greek efforts for settlement in 1945-47,1964-66,
1974, 1987 and 1995, Germany is systematically avoiding
responsibility and delays the settlement. In 1964, German Chancellor
Erhard promised settlement after the unification of Germany, which
took place in 1990, but the settlement is still pending.
In the presence of the indefensible massive evidence, Germany has
never denied or disputed the damages, but is systematically using
artificial legal obstacles to delay settlement. On the other hand,
the international legal system has failed to seal legal loopholes and
has allowed injustice to be perpetuated.
A clear example is the case of
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilias-sourdis/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distomo_massacre>Distomo
(a town in central Greece) where on June 10, 1944 the German
occupiers following their policy of brutal collective punishment,
executed 218 civilians (men, women and children) as retribution for
the killing of three Germans by the local guerrillas, even though the
villagers had no relation with the resistance movements.
Decades later, a Greek court awarded restitution to Greek victims,
but the German government pressed Greece politically to nullify that decision.
To enforce the decision by the Greek court, this case was brought
before an Italian court where the judges awarded to the families of
the victims the Villa Vigoni in Menaggio, Italy, a German
government-sponsored non-profit foundation but the German government
appealed the decision of the Italian supreme civil court at the
International Court of Justice (ICJ) claiming State immunity.
After 15 years of trials, the ICJ slammed the relatives of the 232
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilias-sourdis/http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/1/52976>Distomo
victims in this case with the following catastrophic verdict:
"Distomo victims cannot seize German property in Italy."
Unfortunately, the case of Distomo underscores the very serious
defects in the fairness of the international justice system. With
this verdict, the ICJ has set a scandalous discriminatory precedent
contradicting its own rulings and moral authority when it prosecutes
individuals for crimes they have committed in other countries, proven
by the granting of state immunity to Germany for such massive crimes.
Clearly in the case of Germany the Court has used double standards.
Observing the justifiable eagerness for prosecution of wrongdoers
like Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic, Omar
al-Bashir, Charles Taylor, Uhuru Kenyatta and others, further
demonstrates of how unfairly the Distomo and the rest of the Greek
cases are treated by the international legal system.
Loosening the rigidity of the law and bending it to accommodate
Germany's baseless arguments, it is equivalent to allowing a powerful
nation to remove the blindfold from "Themis," the ancient Greek
goddess, founder of justice, and replace her balanced scales of
justice with a tilted one. In effect, the ICJ converted itself into a
safe harbor for a powerful nation.
hungry greek orphan children
With permission of G. C. Blytas, author, The First Victory, Greece in
the Second World War
Germany, who claims to be a strong advocate of the rule of law, must
accept responsibility, settle her obligations to Greece and close
this dark chapter of her history. Failure to do so will be equivalent
to leaving unattended the bleeding wounds it inflicted on Greece and
will stain forever the history book of global justice.
The just resolution of the case of Distomo presented a legacy-setting
opportunity to the international legal system to demonstrate the
essence of justice by removing Germany's obstructionist
technicalities in her effort to evade her responsibility for the war
crimes committed against the people of Greece.
Only few months ago, three Mau-Mau Kenyan tribesmen, tortured by
their British colonizers during the early 1950's, won a landmark case
for compensations in English courts, while the Greek victims of
Germany, despite the incontestable proofs of the damages, for the
last sixty years are failing to obtain justice not only in the German
courts, but also in the International Court of Justice.
Fundamental questions: Do we allow Germany to invoke immunity for
horrible massive crimes and stain the history books of our global
legal system, or we unite our fight for fairness and justice?
For more information click
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilias-sourdis/http://www.greece.org/blogs/wwii/?page_id=166>here.
Bibliography:
1. Blytas, George C., The First Victory, Greece in the Second World
War. Athens: Cosmos Publishing, 2009.
2. Ciano, Galeazzo, The Ciano Diaries, 1939-1943, Hugh Gibson Editor.
New York: Doubleday & Co, 1946.
3. Doxiadis, Konstantinos, Oi Thysies tis Ellados ston Deftero
Pangosmio Polemo [The Sacrifices of Greece in the Second World War].
Athens: Ministry of Reconstruction, 1946.
4. Iliadakis, Tasos, M., Oi Epanorthosis kai to Germaniko Katohiko
Danio [The Reparations, and te German Occupation Loan]. Athens:
Ekdoseis Detoraki 1997.
5. Mazower, Marc. Inside Hitler's Greece , The Experience of the
Occupation 1941-1944. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993.
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Please consider seriously the reason why these elite institutions are not discussed in the mainstream press despite the immense financial and political power they wield?
There are sick and evil occultists running the Western World. They are power mad lunatics like something from a kids cartoon with their fingers on the nuclear button! Armageddon is closer than you thought. Only God can save our souls from their clutches, at least that's my considered opinion - Tony
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