Belgian Nazis are getting plush retirement payments from Germany for betraying their fellow countrymen during World War II.
Up to 2,500 Belgian Nazis are getting tax-free pensions from the German government, reports BBC News. To this day, Germany is shielding the data of its Belgian retirees from the Belgian government.
The only way that a Belgian Nazi would end up paying taxes on their ill-gotten gains is if they disclose the pension payments in their income tax return according to Belgian broadcaster RTBF. Belgian victims of the Nazi occupation have demanded that their government get to the bottom of this. Belgian Pensions Minister Daniel Bacquelaine “shares their indignation,” his spokeswoman said in response to the victims.
When World War II ended, 57,000 Belgians were found guilty of assisting the Germans in their war effort according to BBC News. Bacquelaine’s spokeswoman told BBC News the Belgian government has “no official figures” about how many retired Belgian Nazis get how much cash.
German sympathizers and collaborators in Belgium assisted their occupants in various ways, including by ratting out resistance fighters and informing on Jewish Belgians who would be sent to concentration camps. Many Belgians also joined the Wehrmacht and SS.
Pieter Paul Baeten of The Memorial Group, an organization run by Belgian survivors of the Nazi occupation, told RTBF: “They get a military pension because of a decree by Hitler. Hitler considered these fighters to be German citizens, and so they were entitled to pensions like other German military officers.”
Germany said in 2012 that it could not confirm if 2,500 Belgians were receiving pensions for their wartime activities. The German Parliament said the only way it can be known if Belgian collaborators worked with Nazis is to get in touch with regional German governments that have the records of specific units.
The Bundestag confirmed in 2012 that 57 Belgians receive payments without revealing what for or who got the money, according to BBC News. In contrast, 58,932 Jewish victims of The Holocaust receive between $295 and $341 per month from the German government.
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