Furious Greeks lampoon German 'overlords' as Nazis with picture of Merkel dressed as an SS guard

  • Street poster depicts German Chancellor wearing a swastika armband bearing the EU stars logo on the outside

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated:

Greeks angry at the fate of the euro are comparing the German government with the Nazis who occupied the country in the Second World War.

Newspaper cartoons have presented modern-day German officials dressed in Nazi uniform, and a street poster depicts Chancellor Angela Merkel dressed as an officer in Hitler’s regime accompanied with the words: ‘Public nuisance.’

She wears a swastika armband bearing the EU stars logo on the outside.

Attack: A street poster in Greece has depicted Angela Merkel in a Nazi uniform with a swastika surrounded by the EU stars. The accompanying words describe her as a 'public nuisance'

Attack: A street poster in Greece has depicted Angela Merkel in a Nazi uniform with a swastika surrounded by the EU stars. The accompanying words describe her as a 'public nuisance'

The backlash has been provoked by Germany’s role in driving through painful measures to stop Greece’s debt crisis from spiralling out of control.

Greeks are furious at the deal, even though it means the banks will write off 50 per cent of the country’s debt and Socialist prime minister George Papandreou said Greece had ‘avoided a mortal national danger’.

MERKEL'S LUCKY NECKLACE

Angela Merkel was wearing an amber necklace at the EU negotiations to bring her good luck. 

German media noted that the 11th hour deal was secured while she was wearing her favourite piece of jewellery, which, said Bild newspaper, she always wears to the big political occasions.

Amber is said to bring good fortune to the wearer and to relieve a range of illnesses such as stomach problems.

It also supposedly makes you more lucky and improves your decision making – qualities Mrs Merkel would have found rather handy.

Opposition parties blasted the landmark agreement, with conservatives warning it condemned the country to ‘nine more years of collapse and poverty’.

But it is the fury of ordinary Greeks which is raising eyebrows.

Greek government officials who agreed to the belt-tightening moves have been portrayed in cartoons giving the Nazi ‘Sieg Heil’ salute.

And German visitors flocking to ancient tourist sites are being met with a hostile welcome from some Greeks.

Berlin’s interference has revived historical enmities and evoked comparisons to the massive destruction of Greece at the hands of Hitler’s Germany more than 65 years ago.

Cartoons have sprung up depicting the European Union’s ‘troika’ as ferocious soldiers in Second World War uniforms.

Satirical: Cartoons appearing in Greek newspapers have drawn comparisons with the Nazis

Satirical: Cartoons appearing in Greek newspapers have drawn comparisons with the Nazis

Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos is a regular target in the liberal daily Eleftherotypia and is often shown in cartoons making a Nazi salute.

One shows a German soldier watching over Venizelos as he barks at a Greek citizen to pay more taxes.

In another cartoon, a young Greek answers a German soldier asking why there were no names on a list of Greece’s newly formed labour reserve, saying: ‘They are empty as you exterminated the Communists, the Jews, the homosexuals, the gipsies and the crazies last time.’

GermanyGreeceAngela Merkel

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