Belgian lawmakers want an end to German pensions for Nazi collaborators
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Belgian lawmakers want Germany to stop paying war pensions to Nazi collaborators, saying the payments are a contradiction of the European Union's founding principles.
The Belgian parliament's Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution Tuesday calling on its government to ask Germany to stop providing the tax-free money. It also stressed the "injustice" of such payments because victims of Nazism do not receive similar allowances.
In the aftermath of World War II, around 80,000 Belgians were convicted of collaborating with Adolf Hitler's SS and of committing war crimes while the country was occupied by the Nazis, according to lawmakers.
However, some of these people benefited from a series of Hitler's decrees, including the right to German nationality and a war pension in exchange for their actions.
The committee's resolution said that the pensions were "for collaboration with one of the most murderous regimes in history."
The leader of the DéFI party lodged the original version of the resolution in 2016. A spokeswoman for the party said Wednesday that up to 27 people are still believed to be receiving the payments.
Recipients' names are only known by the German ambassador and had not been shared with the Belgian government, according to lawmakers.
It is not clear how much the convicted collaborators receive each month.
Some people living in Britain were also receiving the payments, the committee said.
Belgium's parliament is due to vote on the resolution next month.
British officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for the German Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs said in a statement that no benefits are paid to former SS members.
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I am not sure how this happens in the first place, but is it time to pay the piper?
A 25 YO Nazi collaborator in 1945 would be about 99 YO in 2019...
Except for small chilldren at end of the war there can't be many left.
That was my immediate reaction. How old must these people be?
This may not be the most popular perspective, but what is the point of ending a war - making treaties, rebuilding and all of that - if you're going to keep trying to punish every last person on the losing side 75 years later?
Wow, a whole two dozen. So, it's not a big problem and these few people are probably going to drop dead of extreme old age at any moment. Why not let it go? It feels like some kind of posturing. Are people looking for a pat on the back by jamming it to some 95 year-old who may or may not have been of some assistance to Germany during WWII? Is that a heroic stance?
Seriously.
If the Belgian government is so incredibly good that this is the biggest problem remaining in Belgium today, they should hire themselves out as consultants to the rest of the world.
And why no complaint when there had to be hundreds if not thousands of such people receiving benefits?
At this late date, low hanging incredibly stupid fruit......
What is that saying? You need to let go of your hate?
Most people who were alive during that period worldwide are dead or getting ready to. This is not about remembering the holocaust, it is exacting revenge for it from people who had only a cursory involvement in it.......
In the next 20 years there will not be anyone alive that served in that war from any side....
Time to let it go.....
I agree that there won't be any payments to anyone past the next decade but I don't believe in "letting go".
The Holocaust must never be forgotten
I'm not saying forget it..... It should be indelibly imprinted on peoples brains.....
I'm saying that exacting retribution for the past holocaust today, when the creators of it are all gone now is pointless revenge.
Leave them be, show our superior attitudes by letting them live out their lives.....
It's the compassionate and reasonable thing to do.....
Should we ostracize/penalize the French for using the Japanese troops in Indochina to maintain law and order using the same brutal tactics they used during their occupation?
Same argument.....
Vindictiveness is not justice....
Dear Friend Trout Giggles: I side with you on this.
I do so for moral reasons.
The blood of innocent victims of national socialism (NAZI) is not cheap.
The damage done to those who survived them continues to this day.
Giving a pass to people, just because they were not caught and punished for acts and collaborating with actors is morally reprehensible to me.
i am not alone in this view.
"Justice justice shall you pursue" says the Torah. (Deuteronomy 16:20) doesn't have an expiration date.
Let's not make it easier for the next genocidal maniacs and their assistants going forward.
As we write in this discussion thread now there are atrocities taking place about the planet.
Locks don't always keep out all criminals.
If they even slow them down, and make some think twice before following a vile herd instinct they serve a purpose.
The same for courts and other legal actions.
Peace and Abundant Blessings Always.
Enoch.
When I hear phrases like "time to let it go" or "why can't people just get over it?" it raises the hair on the back of my neck. There's probably no hurtful intent in those words, but the Holocaust was just so....so....horrific and only because of one man's hate. I still don't understand that hatred and probably never will.
Dear Friend Trout Giggles: We are on the same page once again.
Mrs. E. and I both lost many relatives to the Holocaust, Pograms, Jihads, Intifadas and other hatred in the heart sins.
Too much is enough.
No one gets or should be allowed a pass at killing, or harming in any way anyone just because they are different.
We should be judged by the lives we save, and the quality of lives we improve by not being complicit or docile.
When the righteous don't act, the evil have a window of opportunity.
Here is to nailing such windows shut for good and all.
E.
I have a question brother....
Is a person that lives his life guilty?
Is a person that lives the same life but with a gun to his head guilty also?
The people they are talking about are victims just as those the evil killed.... Some are stronger than others yes, some through unfortunate circumstances didn't get the choice....
Are we to condemn those that didn't get the chance to make that choice among those that did and chose wrong?
Do we know if they made a conscious choice?
I submit that such is between them and their god.
Who are we to judge people who lived their life with a gun to their head.....
I submit the people that perpetrated the evil are long gone. they have given us complete lessons on what to look out for and be vigilant of. that we should NOT let our guard down.....
The remnants of the last victimization should be allowed to pass away without retribution, for their justice is coming to them given their truth as presented before their maker.
Who are we to judge?
Leave them be and accept the compassion that god gives us. The compassion of truth is much more bountiful than happiness of vengeance....
Leave the vengeance to him who knows...... And have faith that it will be all that it needs to be......
Peace Brother....
Dear Friend Nowhere Man: There is an enormous difference between those who did things under penalty of death, and those who collaborated happily because they thought it was and is a good idea to murder, torture, and discriminate against others just because they are not like them.
This is a difference that makes all the difference.
Who are we to judge?
Those among us who lost relatives that never got to live their lives have not only the right, but the moral imperative to judge, and act on that judgement.
We speak for those who cannot because brutally and unjustly they were silenced, for keeps.
Anything less is morally indefensible, and reprehensible.
We get justice for those who cannot do so themselves, for terrible reasons obvious.
"Yesh yavoh yom ha din, Baruch Dayan emet".
"There will come a day of judgement. Blessed be the True Judge".
Eternal judgement goes to the source of eternity.
Temporal justice is rightfully and to be done responsibly in the hands of those harmed.
When necessary to their survivors.
No, those who willingly, with premeditation and often enthusiastically collaborated do not and should not get a pass.
No!
There is a big distinction between bringing to justice those who are guilty and vengeance.
Those unable to make this distinction are not fit to judge.
Peace and Abundant Blessings, Dear Friend.
May you and yours never know what me and mine have for thousands of years.
Rest well and easy in the knowledge that we will not be passive when this rears its ugly head, no matter whose life and limb is at stake.
Brother
I will stand side by side with you when others attempt to perpetrate what was done in those days, Fear not cause I am there....
A willing collaborator has no defense, a person that was forced needs none....
I understand that there were people that collaborated to stay alive and aided the evil, they need to go to the same place as the perps....
Passivity is not an answer, we have that understanding now.
So we are coming to an end, we know the evil, we have looked it in the eye and sent it to hell.
I have no problem dropping the hammer on anyone effectuating that kind of evil having experienced it myself in this freest of nations.
But at this point, how do we know for sure. The people in charge who created it, who ran it, are all dead. I'm sure there are the few that kept the records tallying up the score. 27 people?
When they pass a dark stain will have finally been lifted..... That particular evil is finally gone.....
My days are short and I no longer have the physical health to fight, maybe I should just stop my friend.
And settle into my loss....
Let those stronger continue.
I hope you and yours find final peace my friend....
You certainly have earned it...
Dear Brother and Treasured Friend Nowhere Man: We have, do and will stand side by side for the greater good.
There are many ways to fight.
One of mine is to be there for those who are alive and have suffered.
As a Chaplain, Rabbi and soon a Unversity Professor I see and hear a lot.
Not all of it is pleasant, good or fair.
Together, there is no stopping us.
In Unity, Profound Respect, and Warm Fellowship with You.
Enoch.
My uncle arrived in Auschwitz when he was 11 years old. He is now 91 His number is 127. That means he was the 127th person in the camp. Somehow he made it through in that camp till the end of the war. He still wears the tattoo. Does anyone here think he doesn't have nightmares anymore? How does someone make it right to a person like that?
I don't hold judgment. It is not my place. But for the remaining 100,000 survivors, what do you think they feel like when they read this?
Agreed, I don't either, that doesn't mean that those who suffered don't have that right....
I'm sure for those that didn't know, absolute shock..... (and probably quite a bit of anger)
The resolution is a formality and should proceed. I just wonder why it took the Belgian government 60 or 70 years to get around to it.
95 year olds have bigger problems than losing a small pension. This is obviously a symbolic move and should be approved as such.
Yeah, yada, yada, yada. Where was this thinking decades ago?
Seems like PC CYA move to me.
I say fuck them and they should have been fucked decades ago.
Pardon my French.