GREECE has touched Germany's rawest nerve by accusing the EU powerhouse of not fully compensating it for gold stolen by the Nazis during the Second World War.

The incendiary comments came as some 50,000 Greeks took to the streets of Athens to protest over austerity plans aimed at wrenching the country out of a debt crisis that has shaken the eurozone.

The 24-hour general strike grounded flights and disrupted services. "No sacrifices, the rich should pay for the crisis," demonstrators chanted as tens of thousands marched on parliament. Scuffles broke out on the fringe of the protest, with police firing tear gas to disperse groups of stone-throwing youths.

Deputy prime minister Theodoros Pangalos criticised Germany's attitude towards the Greek debt crisis and said Athens had not received adequate compensation for the impact of the Nazi invasion of Greece in 1941.

"They took away the Greek gold that was at the Bank of Greece, they took away the Greek money and they never gave it back. This is an issue that has to be faced sometime in the future," he said. "I don't say they have to give back the money necessarily but they have at least to say 'thanks'."

The German foreign ministry dismissed the remarks and said bringing up the past would not help Greece solve its problems.

"I must reject these accusations," a spokesman said. Germany had paid Greece 115 million Deutsche marks in compensation by 1960 and made further payments to forced labourers of the Nazi regime, he said.

"Finally, I'd like to mention that, parallel to this, since 1960 Germany has paid around 33 billion Deutsche marks in aid to Greece both bilaterally and in the context of the EU," he said.

Mr Pangalos also claimed Italy, France and Belgium had used the same techniques as Greece to mask their true deficits to qualify for the eurozone. "You simply put some amounts of money in the next year … it is what everybody did and Greece did it to a lesser extent than Italy, for example," he said.

The trade union organisers of yesterday's Athens march – which together represent half of Greece's workforce of five million – want the government to scrap plans to freeze public wages, hike taxes and increase the retirement age.

Yannis Panagopoulos, head of the private sector union GSEE, told protesters: "Today, Europe's eyes are turned on us.

"We ask the government not to give in to the desires of the markets, to set people's needs as a priority and adopt a mix of economic and social policies that won't lead to recession but to jobs."

Under the scrutiny of EU policymakers and markets, the government has so far refused to give in to union demands.

Yesterday's first joint walkout by the two major labour federations was the biggest test of the government's resolve since it won October elections. Opinion polls show most Greeks support government efforts to shore up deteriorating public finances that have rattled markets and worried EU partners.

Workers and employers gave vastly different participation estimates. Government officials said only about 16 per cent of public sector workers had gone on strike, but public sector union ADEDY put participation at 90 per cent.

Most shops in the capital were open, some banks were closed and others empty, while the capital's chaotic traffic was quieter than usual. The Athens stock exchange operated normally.

DEBT WORRY

THE pressure on the Greek government to deliver on its promise to rein in the country's borrowing levels rose further yesterday with the news that Standard & Poor's, one of the three big credit ratings agencies, could downgrade its rating on the country within a month.

The EU has issued a vague promise to support Greece, which has some 53 billion (£46.5bn) in debt coming due this year, but ministers want more specific guarantees to shore up market confidence.

Greece has already imposed broad spending cuts but says it is under pressure from the EU to cut salaries in the civil service.