German official report denies forced loan from Greece to Nazi occupiers

The conclusions are briefly presented by Die Welt newspaper in its electronic edition. The new study, drawn up by the Historic Committee of the German Ministry of Finance, focuses on how Germany funded the Second World War. As the article notes, the commission "since 2009, has been investigating the role of the German Treasury in the Third Reich".

Recently, Jürgen Kilian's study "War on Other Costs" was published under the title "Reich Ministry of Finance and the Economic Mobilization of Europe for Hitler's War".

The Berlin newspaper writes that the German historian focuses specifically on the contribution of the occupied nations to the financing of the Nazi war effort, pointing out that the countries under occupation were forced to spend more than two trillion euros between 1939 and 1945 to cover Wermacht expenses.

"The most important conclusion: The occupied countries were largely looted by some 1,200 envoys of the Reich Ministry of Finance in order to finance the continuation of the war. At the same time, Kilian refutes the claim that huge sums flowed from the occupied countries to the Reich in order to finance Hitler's dictatorship.

"Of course this fact does not make the situation better. Because the occupied countries had to pay the cost of their own occupation," the German newspaper said, pointing out :"A highly controversial issue is the alleged "forced loan" of 476 million Reich Marks from Greece.

Kilian, quoting a plethora of data in 24 pages, describes the exact type of economic relations between occupied Greece and the Third Reich. According to these: The alleged loan never was. On the contrary, the aim of the German officials (the Finance Minister of the Reich) was not to let the Greek economy collapse. Of course, in no case with noble motives: Only a functioning state economy could provide the means needed to cover the cost of the occupation."