Recently, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, President of Greece, has reiterated that Germany must pay reparations of damages done by the Nazi military during the occupation of the Balkan country in World War II. Prokopis Pavlopoulos made this statement when he visited the Greek village of Kommeno where Nazi war criminals executed 317 inhabitants and torched the village on August 16, 1943.
The President of Greece honored the memory of the victims of German fascist terror and stated that “our claims [for the reparations] are legally effective and judicially enforceable”. Overall, Germany owes 300 billion euros to Greece.
During the German occupation, much of Greece was subjected to enormous destruction of its industry (80% of which was destroyed), infrastructure (28% destroyed), ports, roads, railroads and bridges (90%), forests and other natural resources (25%) and loss of civilian life (up to 11.17% of its citizens). Reportedly, the occupying Nazi regime forced Greece to pay the cost of the Nazi occupation in the country, as well as requisitioned raw materials and food for the occupation forces, creating the conditions for the Great Famine during which over 300,000 Greeks died from starvation. In 1942, the Greek Central Bank was forced by the occupying Nazi regime to loan 476 million Reich marks at 0% interest to Nazi Germany to fund its North African campaign.
The Greek newspaper Ekathimerini notes that Germany has repeatedly rejected Greece's claims as it allegedly honored its obligations, including a 115 million deutschmark payment to Athens in 1960.
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