German taxpayers’ money to old foreign nazis

This 2012 video says about itself:

Nazi Collaborators – Leon Degrelle – Part 1

The story of the Belgian Waffen-SS, which helped Hitler defend Berlin and fight on the Eastern front.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

Why Belgian nazis still get pensions from Hitler

Belgian collaborators and former members of the Waffen SS still receive pensions from Germany. It concerns 27 very old Belgians or their widows who receive money. The collaborators received the pensions via a decision by Hitler himself and that decision has never been reversed. Belgian politicians want that to change. Today a vote is being taken on a proposal to have further research into these practices.

Belgian collaborators were punished after the war. The time they spent in prison was also counted as working hours [by the post war German authorities]. The longer you were in prison, the higher the pension. That could amount to as much as 1250 euros per month, researcher Alvin de Coninck discovered.

Guilty and innocent

The names of the recipients are known at the German embassy in Brussels, but due to strict German privacy legislation they are not communicated to the Belgian government. “I attach a lot of value to privacy,” says Dirk van der Maelen of the sp.a. political party. “But there are times when moral considerations need to weigh more heavily.” Van der Maelen chairs the committee that votes on the proposal.

“Because it is sensitive, a scientific committee should be set up with Belgians and Germans to present matters as objectively as possible to the governments.” That is also what researcher De Coninck hopes: “The intention is that the fog disappears from this file and that people act transparently.”

This photo shows Belgian SS officer Degrelle, at right, being received by Hitler. According to De Coninck, Degrelle received a pension from the post war German government as well.

It is highly probable that there were also Dutch people who received such a pension, thinks De Coninck. “From parliamentary questions by [Dutch MP] Pieter Omtzigt from a few years ago something identical appears, but I am not concerned with individuals,” he emphasizes. “It’s about the mechanisms that make this possible.”

It also seems to Van der Maelen ‘very plausible’ that this is the case. “The resolution of 78 years ago that the pensions come from, applied to the whole of Europe, so there will also be Dutch men.”

Eg, Spanish fascist veterans of the Blue Division, sent by dictator Franco to help Hitler in the Soviet Union bloodshed, also still get German taxpayers ‘money.

Loyal to Third Reich

The collaborators receive the money through a decision by Hitler himself. He awarded German citizenship to SS people and people in the German-speaking areas in East Belgium. Those people could claim the same rights as the Germans because of their “faithfulness, loyalty and obedience” to the Third Reich.

After the fall of Nazi Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany took over all pension obligations as a successor. Also those of nazi soldiers. Foreigners who had fought also received pensions.

The existence of the nazi pensions was long suspected. In 2016 EU member states were obliged to share information on cross-border pensions. Only then did the size become clear. According to Belgian politicians, the problem also arises in the United Kingdom, where ex-SS men also receive pensions, without these amounts being taxed or communicated to the British government.