Frankfurt, Germany, July 11, 2000

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Germany protests Greek entry of Goethe Institute

F.A.Z. FRANKFURT. -- A bilateral dispute over a Greek court's order that Germany pay damages for a Nazi-era crime escalated sharply on Tuesday, when bailiffs forcibly entered the Athens headquarters of the Goethe Institut to measure and appraise the property ahead of a possible court-ordered auction to satisfy the plaintiffs.

Greece's highest court ruled in May that Germany had to compensate surviving relatives of Greeks massacred by the Wehrmacht in the village of Distimo in 1944. Germany has refused. The German government called on Greece to "move with all vigor" to reverse "a dual violation of the law." A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said that facilities owned by the German state were immune from seizure by foreign courts, adding that seizures of a foreign state's property in Greece are illegal even in Greek law without the approval of that country's justice minister.

No such order was made in this case, the spokesman said. The move against the Goethe Institut, a cultural institute, could herald a showdown between the Greek courts and the government, which has said that it will not allow any seizure of German government property. But a lawyer for the massacre victims' survivors, Ioannis Stamoulis, said international law took precedent.

Police were called out to clear the way for the bailiffs after Goethe Institut employees attempted to block their entry. The bailiffs said they would also inspect the premises of the German Archaeological Institute and Athens' German high school.

David Irving comments:

ERNST Zündel once said in his inimitable way that if the Swiss Government had spent a few thousand francs supporting Revisionism, they could have spared themselves several billion francs further down the road. How true, how true: and not just the Swiss.

Ironic too, that even the Greeks are now flocking into the fold of the "survivors and sufferers"; Adolf Hitler had a particularly soft spot for the Greeks, ordered all the Greek prisoners of war released immediately at the end of hostilities in 1941, and refused to allow the Wehrmacht to participate in the gloating victory parade laid on by Benito Mussolini. See my Hitler's War.