German Labor Ministry Unaware Of Ex-Nazis On Pension Roll - Spokeswoman

Sumaira FH Published February 22, 2019 | 07:50 PM

The German Labor and Social Affairs Ministry is unaware of any former Nazis on its pension roll, the ministry's spokeswoman, Jarmila Schneider, told reporters on Friday

BERLIN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd February, 2019) The German Labor and Social Affairs Ministry is unaware of any former Nazis on its pension roll, the ministry's spokeswoman, Jarmila Schneider, told reporters on Friday.

Belgian lawmakers demanded this week that Germany stop paying pensions to former Nazi collaborators in Belgium after a local war victims' group, Remembrance, found 27 of them were still getting money.

Schneider said Germany had amended the Federal War Victims Relief Act (BVG) in 1997 to exclude recipients with a record of wartime violations of humanity and rule of law principles, and it was up to federal states to run checks on them.

"Under this regulation, 99 people were stripped of pensions," she said at a press briefing, adding the ministry did not know "how well the checks were done on pension requests made before 1997."

The Labor Ministry said on Wednesday that the state of North Rhine-Westphalia was responsible for paying pensions to World War II victims in Belgium. It denied that any recipients were formerly with the Waffen-SS armed unit of the Nazi Party.