Posted on 01/27/2015 5:14:19 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
THE NEW government in Athens may seek billions of dollars from Germany in payment for crimes committed by the Nazi’s in Greece during World War Two.
In his first act as prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras visited the memorial site at the Kaisariani rifle range; where Nazi occupiers executed 200 Greek prisoners in reprisals for the killing of a German general in 1944.
Earlier this month, Tsipras said that if he were to win the election, he would seek war reparations from Germany along with a write-down of Greece’s debt.
"We are going to demand debt reduction, and the money Germany owes us from World War Two," he said.
The Washington Post reports that a study carried out by the previous Greek government of defeated Prime Minister Antonis Samaras in 2013, estimated that Germany owed Greece some $200 billion for damages incurred during the Nazi occupation, the cost of rebuilding destroyed infrastructure as well as loans Nazi authorities forced Greece to pay between 1942 and 1944.
Meanwhile, the chief economics spokesman for the victorious Syriza party has said it is unrealistic to expect Greece to repay its huge debt in full
"Nobody believes that the Greek debt is sustainable," Euclid Tsakalotos told BBC radio.
bttt
No longer the stoic people of old, they are whiney and weak. And without honor. Accepting loan after loan and never seeking to repay, just refinance after extension after extension again.
How sad, really. No heroes. They need heroes.
$200,000,000,000? They want two hundred billion? Their entire economy isn't worth that much.
The sad thing about Greek politics is that the whiniest political party is the one that always gets the most votes. It sells to the electorate, who perennially have their hands outstretched, palms up.
Gimmee, gimmee.
Each political party hires party loyalists, packing them in to government jobs, doling out public money to trade unions in order to perpetuate themselves in power.
The EU itself is squeezing the life out of little Greece; they have culpability, too, but I blame the debtor much more than the lendor.
The Greeks retire at age 57, the Germans at 67. The Germans are aware of this, have commented on it, and are tired of playing the part of creditor--financing bad loan after bad loan so their happy-go-lucky debtors can live carefree lives.
Now if this isn’t the classical definition of “Looters”, I don’t know what is.
Sounds eerily like what we are becoming.
Sounds like reparations. Greek style.
Sounds like reparations. Greek style.
Just wondering if Greece paid any of the $400,000,000 loaned to them via the Marshall Plan back to the US post WWII.
How about all the stuff the Romans stole in 146 B.C.? Surely, they should be forced to pay....
What happened to the Greeks of old? To the Egyptians of old? To the Romans? The same thing that happens to many thriving civilizations.
Their best people left. When a civilization reaches a peak, it gets an oligarchy increasingly controlling the center. The bright and ambitious people leave for frontiers where they can prosper out from under the thumbs of the controlling oligarchy. Greeks left Greece to found colonies elsewhere, like Italy. Romans went to the fringes of the Empire, like Britain. Brits sought their fortunes in America.
The new communist guy doesn’t believe in solving Greece’s problems by hard work. Instead, he wants money from Germany. How about asking for money from the turks instead, in return for years of occupation during which time the Greeks lost their identity?
-because the turks don’t care and don’t feel guilt over the occupation.
Greece - “the Cradle Of Western Civilization”
Germany should just take over Greece again, and change their retirement age to 67. Or maybe they could just re-settle their Turks there...
What about Italy? Bulgaria? The Ottomans?
Greek retirement paid by German workers!
Never should have loaned them the money. Greece is determined to collapse. Why prop them up?
Haiti is leading the charge among Caribbean island countries in trying to extort reparations from their former colonizers; they want reparations for a large settlement they paid to France 200 years ago to prevent them from retaking Haiti after the slave revolt that got them their independence.
If all else fails, stick out your palm and whine “Gibsmedat!”
Yeah, because we all know that Greece’s current economic woes are the residue from German occupation during WWII, not their own short-sighted, rainbow-laced socialist dreams.
Looks like the new Socialist government in Greece has cooked up some novel ways to get more OPM.
They need to ask for another $trillion, or so, as reparations for the Germanic Vandals invading in about 400 AD.
Already done. I think it was in 2010 that Germany “loaned” Greece up to a billion Euros. I explained to the baffled Krauts that the money was gone, would never be repaid, and essentially their retirement money was gone! Now what this new commie is doing is saying they don’t have to repay because of reparations or some such B.S.
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