Germany Won’t Negotiate With Greece Over Compensation for Nazi Atrocities

Athens should focus on tackling current problems, says spokesman

By ANDREA THOMAS

Updated March 11, 2015 2:02 p.m. ET

The Wall Street Journal

BERLIN—Berlin on Wednesday rejected mounting calls from Athens that Germany should pay compensation for Nazi atrocities in Greece, further souring the mood between the eurozone’s main paymaster and Greece’s cash-strapped government.

After a Greek government minister suggested Athens could seize German assets, a German government spokesman dismissed the threat as groundless and urged Athens to focus on a more pressing issue: Fulfilling the conditions for the release of much-needed financial aid.

“The issue [of reparation] has been closed legally and politically and there won’t be any negotiations about this. It has been settled in a comprehensive and conclusive way,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert. “We should focus on today’s issues” and future cooperation of both countries, he said.

Greece’s renewed emphasis on claims which Germany insists are settled comes amid rising tension between the two over the left-wing Greek government’s resistance to implementing the tough economic measures Germany and other eurozone countries insist are necessary to unlock further financial aid.

Athens has relied on international bailout money to cover government expenditures and debt repayments since 2010. But the unpopular measures it had to implement in exchange for this aid shifted the political mood sharply to the left. This culminated in an election victory for the Syriza protest movement in January on a pledge to roll back the overhauls and increase spending.

Syriza’s rise to power also gave new momentum to Greece’s claims for wartime reparations, an issue that came to the fore after the start of Greece’s debt crisis. The claims have tapped into a deep-seated feeling of injustice in Greek society but angered Berlin, which sees them as an unwelcome distraction from the more urgent tasks of fixing the economy and the state’s finances.

German officials have made little secret of their growing frustration at Greece’s new leaders, who it says have made little progress in securing fresh eurozone and International Monetary Fund aid despite fast-approaching debt repayments due this month.

Greek Justice Minister Nikos Paraskevopoulos said on Tuesday he was willing to act on a 15-year old Greek court decision allowing for the confiscation of German assets held in Greece in a bid to compensate for Nazi atrocities during World War II.

In 2000, Greece’s Constitutional Court confirmed a 1997 court decision to allow families of the 218 victims of a World War II massacre in the village of Distomo to seize German assets in Greece. The decision, which must be signed by Greece’s justice minister, was never executed.

Mr. Paraskevopoulos’ comments came as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras also pressed the case in a speech to parliament. He said Tuesday that previous agreements with Germany only provided compensation for the victims of the Nazis in Greece and not for the damages inflicted on the country itself.

“We will work in order to fully honor our obligations. But at the same time, we will also work to resolve the unfulfilled obligations towards Greece and the Greek people…because morality can’t be applied only when convenient,” he told parliament Tuesday.

Germany signed agreements with 12 countries about compensation for Third Reich crimes in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The agreement awarding 115 million deutsche marks to Greece was signed in 1960.

Some Greek legal experts argue that a wartime loan forced on Greece by the occupation forces between 1942 to 1944—now worth about €11 billion according to Greek estimates—may not have been fully covered.

Greece’s new assertiveness has sparked a powerful backlash in Germany. Bild, its biggest selling newspaper, last month launched a strident campaign opposing an extension of Greece’s bailout.

“What the Greek radicals are delivering is madness,” Bild wrote in an editorial Tuesday. “This madness has to stop now. Europe must not let itself be turned into a fool.”

Lawmakers in Ms. Merkel’s center-right parties have echoed the sentiment.

“The reparation claims will certainly not help to improve relations between Greece and Germany,” said lawmaker Wolfgang Bosbach.

—Alkman Granitsas in Athens contributed to this article.

Write to Andrea Thomas at andrea.thomas@wsj.com