Greek leaders tell German president a WWII reparations claim is very much alive

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek leaders on Wednesday revived a long-standing demand for war reparations stemming from Nazi Germany’s World War II occupation of Greece, during a visit by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Steinmeier ruled out German compliance, telling Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou that for his country, from a legal point of view the issue has been long settled.

“But we remain committed to our historic responsibility” over the occupation, said Steinmeier, whose three-day visit to Greece includes stops at sites of Nazi atrocities.

Germany argues that it has already settled its reparations to Greece in post-war agreements.

The matter was also brought up by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during talks with Steinmeier in Athens.

“As you know, for Greece … these issues are very much alive and we hope that at some point we will resolve them,” he said.

The German president started his trip to Greece Tuesday, visiting a Holocaust museum under construction in the northern city of Thessaloniki.

The German government is co-funding the project near an old railway station from which tens of thousands of Greek Jews were transported to Nazi concentration camps, where most were killed.

On Thursday, Steinmeier will travel to the southern island of Crete and visit the village of Kandanos, destroyed in 1941 in reprisal for Cretan civilians’ resistance to advancing German troops.

Germany invaded Greece in April 1941, months after the country repulsed an attack by fellow Axis power Italy. The ensuing occupation lasted until October 1944 and led to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians from starvation, and the destruction of much of Greece’s infrastructure.