17 Belgians are among to the 63,159 individuals continuing to benefit from a German state allowance for their service to the Nazi regime, according to figures released by German state secretary for labour Kerstin Griese.
Griese also confirmed that 2,487 Belgians aged 88 and above receive a monthly allowance from the German state, but “it is impossible to determine whether these pensions are related to war periods.” Griese’s discussion of the figures marks the first time that the German authorities have made such data public, months after the Belgian parliament committed to clarity on the subject.
The complementary allowance originates from a Nazi Germany promise made in 1941, committing to recompense those offering “devotion, loyalty, and obedience” to Hitler. Some 38,000 Belgians continued to receive the allowance after the war, which was paid out as compensation for injuries sustained during their time as Nazi collaborators.
The affair received a lot of traction back in February when Belgian MPs submitted a resolution calling for clarity on just how many Belgians continue to benefit from having collaborated with the Belgian regime. In February, MPs discussed 27 Belgians who receive a complementary sum ranging between €425 and €1,275 per month.
However, it is likely that all the countries invaded by Germany during the war could be implicated by these pensions that continue to be paid out to former volunteers of the Third Reich, including France, Luxembourg, and Scandinavian countries. As of 1951, when Germany decided to continue paying out the funds promised by Hitler during WWII, several thousand people have benefited from the collaborator pension. Griese confirmed that a further 61,225 individuals in Germany receive around €1,560 a month.
The pension does stipulate that claimants must fulfil two conditions in order to benefit from the funds: firstly, they must not have been found guilty of war crimes, and secondly, they must have proof of injuries or disability resulting from the war.
Belgian MPs highlighted the disparity in the knowledge of who the claimants are back in February: whilst the German Embassy in Brussels knew the names, the details had not been passed on to the Belgian state and the allowances have “never been taxed.”
A further issue is that those collaborators who spent time behind bars in Belgium for having collaborated had those years of incarceration treated as working years. Consequently, the longer the prison sentence, the higher the allowance. Mostly, those who benefit from the allowance were inhabitants of the areas bordering Germany who acquired German citizenship and Belgians who joined the Waffen SS during the war.
