Learning from Athens – but truly.

Karl Heinz Roth speaks about his recently published book »Reparationsschuld. Hypotheken der deutschen Besatzungsherrschaft in Griechenland und Europa« (Reparations debt: burdens of German occupation in Greece and Europe).

The question of reparations is still an explosive and controversial chapter of German postwar history. While the great victorious power were extensively compensated in the first postwar years, to a large extent the smaller countries in Europe and numerous groups of victims came away empty-handed. This also included Greece, which is demanding reparations for the victims of massacres and the plundering of its economy to this day.

The German power elite has refused to pay comprehensive war reparations that include all formerly occupied countries and all groups of victims to this day. In their volume of papers and documents entitled “Reparationsschuld. Hypotheken der deutschen Besatzungsherrschaft in Griechenland und Europa”, Karl Heinz Roth and Hartmut Rübner analyze and document the contexts, strategic options and tactics of the German approach which culminated in the exclusion of the reparations question from the de fact peace treaty of 1990 (»Two Plus Four Treaty«).

Karl Heinz Roth is a historian and physician (PhD and MD) as well as co-founder of the Foundation for Social History of the 20^th Century (SfS).