Word: germanic
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...Germans, for their part, feel they've already paid enough. "A discussion about the past is not helpful at all to solve the problems facing us in Europe today," German Foreign Ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke told Reuters, pointing out that Germany has already paid billions to Greece in the form of official reparations for World War II as well as bilateral and European Union assistance...
Politicians have thundered their outrage too. Greece's deputy prime minister, socialist stalwart Theodoros Pangalos, told the BBC that Germany still owed Greece for stealing its gold during World War II. Parliamentary speaker Filippos Petsalnikos summoned the Germany ambassador to discuss the "offensive" coverage of the crisis in the German press...
...Greece's war dead: "Ms Merkel, you owe us for Kalavryta, you owe us for Distomo, you owe us ?70 billion ($95 billion) for the ruins you left us," he said, referring to two World War II incidents in which hundreds of Greeks were massacred in reprisal attacks by German soldiers. See the top 10 financial-crisis buzzwords...
...spat between the two E.U. members is evidence of the how old enmities in Europe linger. Greek-German relations have been largely friendly in recent decades, the horrors of the war papered over by the benefits of modern European cooperation. Today, 2.5 million Germans flock to Greek beaches and ancient sites each year - more than from any other country except Britain - their euros welcomed by hoteliers and restaurant owners. But beneath the friendly hospitality, for Greeks, bitter memories of the war still linger...
Vassilis Tsimpidis, a Greek dockworker who protested this week against government austerity measures, echoed the sentiments of many Greeks when he said Greece's modern problems could be traced to German's wartime sins. "German people believe bad things about Greeks, but we want to remind the German people that they destroyed Greece in the Second World War," he said. "We haven't had a good life the last 40 or 50 years because of the war." Using a figure widely brandished in Greece as an estimate of Germany's war-related debt to the country, he called for Germany...