WWII hero, academics say Greece can claim reparations
Three academics and Second World War hero Manolis Glezos (photo) pleaded with the government on Tuesday to pursue with Germany the issue of war reparations and an unpaid 1942 loan the Bank of Greece was forced to provide to Berlin by Nazi occupiers.
Glezos told Parliament?s economic affairs committee he had asked Prime Minister Lucas Papademos when he was Bank of Greece governor in the 1990s to provide details about the war loan, the exact size of which is not known.
?Then, he said that only the prime minister could give such instructions,? said Glezos.
?Now that he is the prime minister, he can give us this information.?
Estimates suggest that Germany would owe Greece tens of billions of euros if the loan were recognized.
University of Athens professors Manolis Roukounas and Antonis Bredimas as well as Panteion University professor Stelios Perrakis suggested that there were legal grounds for Greece to claim reparations but proposed that the issue be taken up at a diplomatic level.
