Belgium soon to ban the German pension given to Belgian Waffen-SS

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

partial original article (you need to be registered to the website to read the full Flemish article)

https://www.demorgen.be/binnenland/h...oen-b3cf6c1f9/

‘Hoe meer jaren in de cel, hoe hoger de uitkering’: 27 Belgische nazi’s krijgen nog altijd Hitler-pensioen

19-02-19, 06.00u - Douglas De Coninck

75 jaar na de oorlog ontvangen 27 hoogbejaarde Belgen of hun erfgenamen nog altijd een aanvullend pensioen uit Berlijn wegens ‘trouw, loyaliteit en gehoorzaamheid’. Dat is hen in 1941 zo gegarandeerd door Adolf Hitler zelf. De Duitse regering is nooit op die belofte teruggekomen.

Dinsdagmiddag buigt de Kamercommissie Buitenlandse Zaken zich over een resolutie die werd ingediend door Olivier Maingain (DéFi) en twee PS-verkozenen. Daarin wordt de regering opgeroepen “dit probleem dringend diplomatiek aan te pakken”.

Het onwaarschijnlijke kwam in 2016 aan het licht, door het in voege treden van EU-verordening 1368/2014. Die verplichtte de lidstaten tot het uitwisselen van gegevens over over de grenzen heen uitbetaalde pensioenen. Hierbij bleek dat de Duitse Bondsrepubliek na 1949 als volkenrechtelijke opvolger van het Derde Rijk en alle plichten had overgenomen, ook omtrent pensioenrechten.

http://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium...an-war-pension

A number of Belgian collaborators still receive German war pension

Tuesday, 19 February 2019 16:44

Some thirty very elderly Belgians still receive a supplementary pension from Germany for their service with the Waffen SS, a part of the German army, during World War II.
That is what Adolf Hitler himself guaranteed them in 1941, reports De Morgen. Today, the Parliamentary Committee on External Relations is considering a resolution to put an end to this pension.

This pension paid to Belgian soldiers who were members of the Waffen SS is based on a decree made by Adolf Hitler. This 1941 decree was not ended after the war, allowing this small group of collaborators to continue receiving a German military pension.

Today, the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs is considering a resolution tabled by Olivier Maingain (DéFi) and two PS representatives. In it they call on the government "to tackle this problem diplomatically as a matter of urgency.”

Hitler’s decree gave residents of the East Cantons and Alsace, which had been invaded by the Nazis, German nationality. It also gave Belgians, who joined the Waffen SS during the war, the right to receive a German pension.

The resolution under discussion today states: ”The names of these people are known to the German ambassador in our country, but they are not communicated to the federal government, which for many years has been unable to take fiscal initiatives.”

"For almost 70 years, supplementary pensions have been paid out by the German Länder," says researcher Alvin De Coninck of the Group Remembrance in De Morgen. Group Remembrance is an association of survivors and survivors of the Nazi concentration camps.

"I come across supplementary pensions of 425 to 1,275 euros per month," says De Coninck in the newspaper. "Years in a Belgian cell as a result of a penalty for collaboration is considered time worked. While Belgians who had to work in Germany as forced labour during the war received compensation of 50 euro per month after the war.”

Arthur Rubinstein
The Bruusels Times

https://www.dhnet.be/actu/belgique/2...50a60724cd4f68

27 Belges touchent encore une pension de l'Allemagne pour avoir collaboré avec le régime nazi

Belga Publié le mardi 19 février 2019 à 11h24 - Mis à jour le mardi 19 février 2019 à 11h29

75 ans après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, 27 Belges reçoivent encore une pension complémentaire de Berlin pour "fidélité, loyauté et obéissance".

C'est ce qu'Adolf Hitler lui-même leur a garanti en 1941, rapporte De Morgen.

Aujourd'hui, la commission parlementaire des affaires étrangères examine une résolution présentée par Olivier Maingain (DéFi) et deux PS élus. Ils appellent le gouvernement à "s'attaquer d'urgence à ce problème par la voie diplomatique".

"Depuis près de 70 ans, les Länder allemands versent des pensions complémentaires ", explique le chercheur Alvin De Coninck du groupe Remembrance, une association de survivants et de rescapés des camps de concentration nazis. "Les privilégiés étaient les habitants des Cantons de l'Est et d'Alsace, qui ont acquis la nationalité allemande après l'invasion nazie, mais aussi les Belges qui ont rejoint les Waffen SS pendant la guerre."

On estime qu'environ 38000 personnes ont perçu cette pension complémentaire.

"Je trouve des retraites complémentaires de 425 à 1 275 euros par mois ", dit Alvin De Coninck. "Les années passées dans une prison belge à la suite d'une condamnation pour collaboration sont considérées comme du temps de travail. (...) Alors que les Belges qui ont dû travailler en Allemagne pendant la guerre sont considérés comme travailleurs forcés ont reçu une indemnité de 50 euros par mois après la guerre.

https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/blrbi_04186414

Alvin De Coninck brengt Duitse oorlogspensioenen in de kamer

Gisteren om 10:06 door Raymond Billen

oegaarden - Alvin De Coninck sneed in het ochtendprogramma op radio 1 de uitkering van Duitse pensioenen aan Belgen die in de oorlog in Duitse dienst gingen.

Alvin De Coninck (Meldert) vraagt al jaren dat een einde komt aan die uitbetaling: "Belgen die lid waren van de Waffen SSr tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog, kregen door een decreet van Adolf Hitler een oorlogspensioen uitbetaald. Dat decreet werd na de oorlog niet geschrapt, waardoor nu nog zo'n dertig hoogbejaarden in ons land een Duits oorlogspensioen krijgen."

Het gaat om aanvullende pensioenen van 425 tot 1.275 euro per maand. De Coninck stelt dat de jaren in de gevangenis, door een veroordeling na de oorlog, ook tellen als Duiste dienstjaren. Het stoort hem dat Belgen die tijdens de oorlog als dwangarbeider in Duitsland moesten werken na de oorlog een schadevergoeding kregen van slechts 50 euro per maand.

De kamercommissie Buitenlandse Betrekkingen buigt zich vandaag over een resolutie die komaf wil maken met dat oorlogspensioen.

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Some comments :

1) is the journalist Douglas de Coninck who made the original article from the family of Alvin de Coninck, the guy who indirectly wants to forbid the payment of the pensions the old "Wallonien" veterans (and maybe "dox" them) ?
Below are two pictures.
Imo Douglas (presenting one of his books) is the son of Alvin (with the Guernica tee-shirt).

2) Alvin de Coninck, the son of a Resistance warrior, already publicized the "pension story" in 2012. At the time 2500 Belgian nationals were getting pensions from Germany.
https://www.dhnet.be/actu/belgique/q...b0de6db97af90c

3) I was unable to find for whom Alvin de Coninck is working ("Remembrance" group ?).

4) Here is some additional infos on Olivier Maingain who asked to forbid the pensions paid by Germany :
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivier_Maingain

See You

Vince

[VtwinVince]

I guess this is how some countries try to deal with unpopular aspects of their own history.

[Panzer-G-man]

FFS,how long have those old boys got left?Pure pc b.s

[Chris Boonzaier]

Well... it does raise the question as to why Belgians who served the enemy, traitors to their country ...receive much higher pensions than Belgians who were doing forced labor...



Collectors consider the SS "sexy"... and give them a free pass.... but try and consider this as an abstract....


Or.....



If Syrians had their village occupied by ISIS, and some joined and fought on the side of ISIS... and some were captured and were forced to do forced labor for ISIS..... Would we say the ones who joined deserved better pensions?


Why do people judge such things on how sexy the uniforms were?

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

Chris, you are using a fallacious argument here, you compare two different situations, and we are not talking only about "sexy" Waffen-SS soldiers (probably other collaborators - Wehrmacht, Sipo-SD, KM etc are included too).

Here the problem is coming from the political institutions of Belgium after the war, they didn't do what was needed to help the deportees and survivors.
It was the same in France, no matter that you were Jew, partisan, etc.

The problem is not that traitors are getting "higher pension" (be sure that the +1000 euros is probably for an highly disabled veteran), the problem is that all the victims of WW2 were badly and differently compensated due to dozen of different factors.

Also you are forgetting the hundred of thousand of German soldiers/policemen involved in the Holocaust and Einsatzgruppen, reprisals, mass killings of civilians etc, who
- 1) never had any problem after the war and get a full pension,
- 2) kept their work of soldiers/policemen and again get a full pension,
- 3) were the very few hundred of people that were put in trial (most of them were acquitted - which is a massive scandal) who also kept their pension.

In my opinion, this is a biggest scandal that to see a few thousand of soldiers who betrayed their country and fighted in the German Army getting a pension.

Today liberals are using the same argument : "this kind of people is getting a bigger pension then this other category of people, so will will cut it so anyone is having the same lower pension".

The same guy that is trying periodically to have those pensions revoked should try to get pensions to the survivors (maybe he is doing that by the way).

In my opinion, there is a strong political agenda here...

See You

Vince

[chrischa]

There is a political agenda. Logic would dictate these people haven’t got long left to live, actually maybe that’s why they are pushing it, before it’s to late.

[Etienne B.]

This discussion pops up every 10 years or so....nothing new under the sun.Nothing will change ;-)
Let those old man have piece and quiet...I believe they have suffered and are punished enough.

[VtwinVince]

Hear, hear.And why is it that volunteers who go and fight for Israel are treated as heroes by the media here in Canada, whilst those who volunteer to fight for Islamist outfits are vilified? Both qualify as extremist religious outfits. Total media hypocrisy.

[Jean-Loup]

I dont see an issue with former soldiers receiving a pension from the country they decided to fight for. They volunteered for Germany, and Germany is paying them now, what os the issue?
What does seem to be an issue is that people who were deported by that same country receive almost no compensation.

JL

[Don D.]

You would think that if it was such a big thing at the time then they never would have received it. I view it like I view our Civil War. The north and south fought and the north won. The veterans that fought in the war from both sides accepted the result and gave grudging respect to each other. Only now, 170 years later do we have people with their panties in a bunch over statues and place names from the Confederacy.

[101combatvet]

Legally Belgium cannot stop the pensions; only Germany can do that. Will the Germans do it? We will see.

[VtwinVince]

The German government will cave at the slightest hint of controversy, all part of the 'Wiedergutmachung' agenda.

[101combatvet]

The German government will cave at the slightest hint of controversy, all part of the 'Wiedergutmachung' agenda.

Depends on the consequences, it might be better to keep the checks going. Personally, I don't see the Germans caving into this even as stupid as they have been over the last few years.

[Edward]

You would think that if it was such a big thing at the time then they never would have received it. I view it like I view our Civil War. The north and south fought and the north won. The veterans that fought in the war from both sides accepted the result and gave grudging respect to each other. Only now, 170 years later do we have people with their panties in a bunch over statues and place names from the Confederacy.

Don, I get it, but those statues were overwhelmingly pushed for by the UDC. Also, the North may have militarily won the war, but the South politically won the peace. The North simply bailed out of the Reconstruction business and opted for national reconciliation with Southern Democrats over assisting former slaves. For the next 100 years every former Confederate state did everything possible to keep the old status quo that existed in the old antebellum South in place.

[101combatvet]

Don, I get it, but those statues were overwhelmingly pushed for by the UDC. Also, the North may have militarily won the war, but the South politically won the peace. The North simply bailed out of the Reconstruction business and opted for national reconciliation with Southern Democrats over assisting former slaves. For the next 100 years every former Confederate state did everything possible to keep the old status quo that existed in the old antebellum South in place.

All of the statues taken down were to commemorate veterans that served not slavery as the Leftists would like you to believe. On the subject of statues, this one gets my goat, but I wouldn't be childish enough to want it removed.

This statue commemorates Black fatherhood, was their really a need for it? How about a statue that commemorates tieing one's shoes? Oh, wait that will be next.