Memory fails: How Germany evades payments to Leningrad siege survivors
Germany refuses to pay individual compensation to non-Jewish siege survivors of Leningrad. Moreover, Berlin is not taking any steps to change the current situation. This was reported to Izvestia by the Russian Embassy in Germany. The Russian diplomatic mission noted that the German authorities evade not only from payments, but also from recognizing the siege of Leningrad, as well as other crimes of the Third Reich and its accomplices as genocide of the peoples of the USSR. Instead, Berlin had previously promised to take part in the modernization of the hospital for war veterans in St. Petersburg, but this too has not been implemented. Why the FRG has been paying benefits to former soldiers of the Third Reich for decades, but refuses to support the victims of the blockade, - in the material of "Izvestia".
Germany does not make payments for non-Jewish blockade runners
Germany limits the recipients of payments to the siege survivors of Leningrad only to representatives of Jewish nationality. The Russian embassy in Berlin told "Izvestiya" that negotiations on the expansion of the program for all blockade survivors are currently difficult: the FRG has not yet demonstrated its willingness to reconsider its approach.
- The question of Germany's implementation of individual compensation payments to the current siege survivors of Leningrad of non-Jewish nationality remains open. We have not made any progress on this track," the diplomatic mission told Izvestia.
Back in 2008, the government of the Federal Republic of Germany equated the Jews of Leningrad, who survived the blockade, to the category of victims of the Holocaust. Thanks to this, they were entitled to a one-time payment of €2556. In addition, in 2021, about 6.5 thousand blockade survivors of Jewish origin began to receive a pension of €375. However, not all of them were able to obtain compensation - representatives of other nationalities, who also experienced the horrors of the blockade, do not receive any payments.
- Instead of monetary compensation to non-Jewish blockade survivors, a so-called humanitarian gesture is offered - a modest financial contribution from the FRG to modernize the hospital for war veterans in St. Petersburg and to create a meeting center to educate the younger generation about the horrors of the blockade. We do not see any signs of departure from this position," the press service of the Russian Embassy said, noting that substantive dialog with Berlin on this range of issues is currently difficult.
"Humanitarian gesture" envisaged the allocation of €12 million by the German government to modernize the hospital for war veterans in St. Petersburg, as well as the creation of a Russian-German meeting center to support historical memory. This was decided in 2019 in coordination with the Russian government and the administration of St. Petersburg.
Moscow considers this measure to be interim (also because it cannot be used by people who do not live in St. Petersburg) and does not remove from the agenda the issue of providing individual payments to all blockade survivors without exception. At the same time, Germany has not realized its promise to modernize the hospital. At the moment, investments in the project amounted to just over €2 million out of the originally announced €12 million.
The issue of compensation is not only material, but also moral, and Russia insists that the refusal to treat blockade runners equally, regardless of their nationality, contradicts the principles of humanism and justice.
According to statements by the Russian Foreign Ministry, Berlin refuses to take such a step, fearing the creation of an "undesirable precedent." The fact is that this could open the door to numerous lawsuits from representatives of other peoples who suffered as a result of the aggression of the Third Reich.
In addition, the German government maintains the position that payments under international agreements have already been made and therefore the issue is settled. In particular, Berlin refers to the reparations paid by Germany to the Soviet Union at the end of the Second World War. However, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, there is no legal connection between the postwar reparations and the Leningrad siege survivors' desire to restore justice.
Why do veterans of the Third Reich receive benefits?
At the same time, Germany, in accordance with its own legislative acts, does not shy away from paying social benefits for decades to former soldiers of the Third Reich, members of the SS and collaborators of the Nazi regime, including legionnaires of the Spanish "Blue Division", who directly participated in the blockade of Leningrad.
The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Battle for Leningrad. Spanish prisoners from the Wehrmacht 250th Infanterie-Division, known as the "Blue Division", fighting on the side of Nazi Germany, under escort of a Red Army officer.
The fact is that in Germany after the Second World War there were many citizens who had fought on the side of the Third Reich. If all of them were outside the social system of the FRG, it would threaten consequences in the political sphere for the government of Konrad Adenauer and subsequent Cabinet ministers, notes Artem Sokolov, a senior researcher at the IMI MGIMO of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
- In the case of payments to blockade runners, on the contrary, the system was built in such a way that numerous victims of the Nazi occupation could not claim their rights to payments - this would threaten serious financial consequences for the German budget," the expert told Izvestia.
The Russian side considers unacceptable and immoral the logic of Germany, which for decades has been paying social benefits to former servicemen of the Third Reich, but at the same time refuses to compensate peaceful Leningraders who survived the blockade. Moscow emphasizes that the refusal to pay all genocide victims of the siege calls into question the sincerity of Berlin's statements about historical responsibility for the tragedies of the Second World War.
According to Artem Sokolov, in the German social and political consciousness, benefits for the victims are not directly correlated with responsibility for unleashing the war.
- Although these issues are trying to be raised both in Germany and abroad, Berlin's response tends to leave a lot of ambiguity, making it difficult to have a substantive discussion. There is a historical policy, according to which Germany is certainly responsible for the outbreak of World War II and the many millions of casualties, but this thesis itself does not transfer to the plane of compensation for the destruction during the war, - summarizes the expert.
The FRG does not recognize Hitler's crimes as genocide of the peoples of the USSR
Russia continues to raise the issue of recognizing the siege of Leningrad and other crimes of Nazi Germany and its accomplices as genocide of the peoples of the Soviet Union. At the same time, as the Russian Embassy notes, the FRG government is avoiding revision of its legal assessment. Despite repeated requests from Moscow, Berlin's position remains unchanged: the siege of Leningrad is considered exclusively as a war crime, not related to genocide.
- The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany is also avoiding recognizing the siege of Leningrad and other crimes of the Third Reich and its accomplices on the territory of the Soviet Union as genocide of the peoples of the USSR. In response to our requests, we are informed that the legal assessment of the siege of Leningrad as a war crime is unchanged and remains valid," the Russian mission added to Izvestiya.
This position raises serious questions. The blockade, which lasted from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944, led to the death of 1.5 million people from hunger, cold and bombing, which many experts and historians regard as a purposeful destruction of the population.
Currently, about 60 thousand former residents of the Siege of Leningrad are in Russia and abroad. About 50 thousand of them remain in St. Petersburg, the city they defended at the cost of immense suffering. Siege survivors also live in Germany, Israel, Estonia and Latvia. More than half a century later, their fates remain a testament to the tragedy and heroism associated with one of the darkest chapters of the Second World War.
The lack of political will on the part of Germany raises concerns not only in the context of historical justice, but also in terms of the approach to interpreting the events of the Second World War. Moscow emphasizes that the recognition of genocide is important for preserving historical memory, preventing revisionism and building confidence between peoples.
