No German compensation for Italians interned in World War II

[Jim O]

From Monsters and Critics.com

Europe News
No German compensation for Italians interned in World War II
By DPA
Aug 28, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Berlin - The German government said Monday it saw no reason to pay compensation to Italians held prisoner during the Second World War who were used for forced labour.

Italians soldiers interned by Nazi Germany from 1943 after the Italian government surrendered to the Allies - and held until Nazi Germany capitulated in 1945 - are not eligible for compensation from a fund for slave labourers, said the government.

A compensation package for Nazi era slave labourers, funded half by the German state and half be private industry, only covers civilian slave labourers - not soldiers, said the government.

In a statement to parliament, the government said about 4,150 former Italian prisoners of war have applied for compensation.

The number of Italians held prisoner under the Nazis who are still alive is unclear, said the statement.

Lawyers representing former prisoners said about 150,000 former Italian military slave labourers were still alive in 2004. But a study by Italian historians estimated only 58,000 were still alive back in 1999, the government said.

© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

© Copyright 2003 - 2005 by monstersandcritics.com

Source: No German compensation for Italians interned in World War II

[Klaus]

Would you compensate them?

[Lancer44]

From the legal point of view German government is perfectly right...
They don't need to pay compensation. Anyone want to argue?
You welcome! I'm waiting...

Anyway, how long one country can compensate?
Something like that, may sound strange from a Pole like me, but this is what
I really think!
Looking at history, Europe was almost always at war. Maybe French should look at getting compensation from Russia because when Napoleon was retreating from Moscow in 1912, some bad "muzhiks" shot several thousands French POW's?

Why not?

Poles can demand compensation from Spain because when Napoleon's army fought in Spain, some poor fellows from Polish Kozietulski's cavalry, had their throats cut for slaughtering Spanish peasants.
What a crime! What a miserable act of Spanish cruelty...
Let's go to court! Money are waiting!

I will go even further... Some influential circles in Poland are pursuing compensation claims from Russia, on behalf of descendants of Polish officers killed by NKVD in Katyn, Miednoye, Charkov and other places.
I think it is a complete madness. Same with demanding compensations from descendants of German victims.
There was a war... 61 years ago. People which had something to say about it are dead. Those alive were kids or youngsters when all atrocities happened.

Now in any country money are not growing on trees; they are part of the taxes paid by working people. These working people may accept the burden of increasingly growing army of healthy pensioners which want to go to their annual trips to Canary Island, being on welfare and having their accounts in some "tax heavens" like Jersey.

I would rather see Russian money spent on welfare in Russia than given to any greedy Polish family claiming for "great, great uncle" which they not only never seen but never even thouth of him, before some slaezy lawyer knocked to the door and spit the news in their ears.

Same with German compensations for slave workers, Gypsys, Jehovah Witnesses, homosexuals, officers which had a bad luck and caught veneral diseases, some poor fellows which were shot after Stauffenberg put his briefcase under the table...
Why anyone born after 1945 have take any responsibility for what happened before he was born or even earlier?

Maybe we should stop this idiocy?
Klaus, what you think about it as representative of young European generation?

Cheers,

Lancer44

[Jim O]

Originally Posted by Lancer44

From the legal point of view German government is perfectly right...
They don't need to pay compensation. Anyone want to argue?
You welcome! I'm waiting...

Anyway, how long one country can compensate?
Something like that, may sound strange from a Pole like me, but this is what
I really think!
Looking at history, Europe was almost always at war. Maybe French should look at getting compensation from Russia because when Napoleon was retreating from Moscow in 1912, some bad "muzhiks" shot several thousands French POW's?

Why not?

Poles can demand compensation from Spain because when Napoleon's army fought in Spain, some poor fellows from Polish Kozietulski's cavalry, had their throats cut for slaughtering Spanish peasants.
What a crime! What a miserable act of Spanish cruelty...
Let's go to court! Money are waiting!

I will go even further... Some influential circles in Poland are pursuing compensation claims from Russia, on behalf of descendants of Polish officers killed by NKVD in Katyn, Miednoye, Charkov and other places.
I think it is a complete madness. Same with demanding compensations from descendants of German victims.
There was a war... 61 years ago. People which had something to say about it are dead. Those alive were kids or youngsters when all atrocities happened.

Now in any country money are not growing on trees; they are part of the taxes paid by working people. These working people may accept the burden of increasingly growing army of healthy pensioners which want to go to their annual trips to Canary Island, being on welfare and having their accounts in some "tax heavens" like Jersey.

I would rather see Russian money spent on welfare in Russia than given to any greedy Polish family claiming for "great, great uncle" which they not only never seen but never even thouth of him, before some slaezy lawyer knocked to the door and spit the news in their ears.

Same with German compensations for slave workers, Gypsys, Jehovah Witnesses, homosexuals, officers which had a bad luck and caught veneral diseases, some poor fellows which were shot after Stauffenberg put his briefcase under the table...
Why anyone born after 1945 have take any responsibility for what happened before he was born or even earlier?

Maybe we should stop this idiocy?
Klaus, what you think about it as representative of young European generation?

Cheers,

Lancer44

I really could not have put it better. Living in the country with most of the world's lawyers, it's time they found better things to do.

While I agree in principle that nations should pay their debts, there needs to be a reasonable limit placed on "reparations". In my state, "damage" claims need to be made within three years of becoming aware of the injury, or three years after reaching the age of majority in the case of a minor. I don't mean to compare minor property disputes to allegations of war crimes, but the idea behind it is the same: that is that there ought to be a statute of limitations after which one cannot ask for compensation.

At some point the war should be over. When I was young my parents, as a matter of principle, would not buy Japanese or German cars. Times change. My first car was a Datsun (now Nissan). I have since owned Toyota, Honda, Audi, Mercedes. And I also have owned Jeep, Chrysler, and Dodge (all made by Daimler-Chrysler, a German company). My current vehicle is a Dodge truck (with license plate 'WW2 BUFF' ). Times really need to change.

[Klaus]

I think I'll go to court with the russians. Two of my familymembers came home 1955 from russia. I want compensation! NOW!

Where is this gonna end? And to completly honest: What the f*** are the Italinas crying about? They were part of the Axis. So they shouldn't complain and shut up.

The war ended 61 years ago. I don't think I have to pay an italian grandson.
I think this compensation-thing should stop. I'm not going to pay for things my grandfather did not do. This is what I call Sorry, but this makes me maaaaaad!

It is at least 5 times a year in the newspapers. I'm fed up with this s***.

[Jim O]

Tell how you really feel, Klaus...

Seriouly, the point about Italians seeking compensation from their former allies in Germany makes this even more ridiculous in this case.

At some point this war needs to be over and left for us to simply discuss and learn from, and hopefully in our generations not to repeat.

[Klaus]

That's what we hope. But I have this gut-feeling, that it is gonna take some more years. Around 150. When really nobody has a closer relative who was involved in the war. There will be a new one anyway.