German finance minister: We can be flexible on survivors' demands

A reparations agreement signed between Israel and Germany in 1952 will not be reopened, but Germany may be willing to be flexible when discussing other requests submitted by a body representing Holocaust survivors, Germany's Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said in an exclusive interview to Ynet.

"My heart goes out to the victims of the Holocaust, and I cannot – and will not– try to dismiss their pleas with bureaucratic pretexts," he stressed.

Steinbrueck, who is currently visiting Israel, was obviously discomforted by the row prompted by Minister Rafi Eitan's recent demand to reopen the reparations agreement.

Steinbrueck visits Yad Vashem (Photo: AP)

"The German public is willing to acknowledge its historical guilt," Steinbrueck stated, but warned that "We must maintain balance and be careful not to give this subject too much exposure, and thus risk triggering knee-jerk apologetics."

The finance minister said that the growing number of institutions involved in representing Shoah survivors has complicated matters for the German government. "We are unable to deal with several governments, organizations, and private groups at the same time. As a German minister, I cannot get involved in these internal affairs. The Jewish organizations must resolve their differences among themselves."

Firm hand against Iran

Steinbrueck stressed that the German government would only negotiate reparations issues with the Claims Conference, which is entrusted with allocating the funds given by Germany to the Jewish people, and that his government had no intentions of forming expert teams to renegotiate the Luxembourg agreement with Israel, as Minister Rafi Eitan has demanded.

However, he added, "We must be human. Sometimes you have to be flexible in order to help Holocaust survivors who do not meet all the strict criteria of agreements signed in the past." He vowed to continue meeting with representatives of the Claims Conference once a year, "In order to improve the aid we extend to Holocaust victims."

Turning his attention to the Iranian issue, Steinbrueck declared that his country would support imposing further sanctions on Tehran. The volume of trade between the two countries, estimated at 4.5 billion euro in 2006, has already dropped by 15% since January. Last year, the volume of bilateral trade went down by 10%.

The German minister added that Berlin planned to step up the pressure on Iran regardless of the UN Security Council's decision. "Should the sanctions not be approved be (by the Security Council), our government will act firmly in order to find alternative solutions within the framework of the EU," he said.