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Till the Eagle Grins
Many nations suffered in the Second World War, but few suffered as much as Greece, if you can measure suffering per capita. Many Greek people were not only killed in the war by fighting but many starved to death and the Greek Campaign from 1940 to 1941 diverted German military resources from their impending invasion of the Soviet union, much to the benefit of the Allies fight against the Axis. It is difficult to understate the Greek contribution in the War. Churchill said “It is being said that Greeks fought like heroes – but in fact heroes fight like Greeks”.
After the war Germany was not punished with reparations, as it had been after the First World War, but nations set on a path of get some modest reparations from Germany. Israel, which was not a nation during the Second World War, was very successful; Greece after many years of negotiations in 1960 got a modest settlement from Germany – certainly not enough to cover the gold stolen by Germany from the Greek Central Bank, never mind the economic damage and loss of life it suffered.
Now with the crisis affecting Greece more than any other European Nation the siren songs of European Unity, one for all and all for one, and all that jazz, are being drowned by the harsh economic reality. There is a propaganda war mainly between Greece and Germany. Germany castigates Greeks for being lazy and greedy, even though Greeks work (those who have jobs) far longer hours than Germans and have fewer public holidays than Germans enjoy. The only comparator where Greece is “lazy” is that pensions start on average a year earlier in Greece than in Germany, but on all other measures Greeks work longer hours for less reward than Germans and on any objective view Germans are less hard working than Greeks.
The Greek government has explained that if Germany returned the gold it stole Greece could pay off its dents quite comfortably. Of course, the gold was spent by Germany on the machinery of war and has long gone.
Greece has now thought of another claim from Germany, or perhaps I should write that Greece is now concentrating on another claim which it made and which has been unresolved for many years. In 1944 218 civilians were massacred in Distomo and in 2000 a Greek Court ruled that relatives of the killed should be entitled to €28 million from Germany as compensation, which puts each life at around €128,000. The international courts have not been able to resolve this claim and at the moment the Greek Court’s judgment holds good in Greece, but the claim has not been met.
Greece is now threatening to confiscate German property to meet the claim.
As for the much larger claim for reparations which was settled in 1960 it should be noted that then Greece settled the claim with what was West Germany. East Germany, later reunified, has never settled any claim.
I suppose that these events underline just how disunited the European Union is. Germany, when it captures a dollar is now, in the words of the song, squeezing it till the eagle grins. Greece just wants to do what Germany did, and get back on its feet again.
Filed under: climate change Tagged: Distomo, economic crisis, European Unity, Germany, Greece, reparations, stolen gold, work comparisons between Greeks and Germans 
Source: https://robertkyriakides.wordpress.com/2015/03/12/till-the-eagle-grins/
