Auschwitz
Photo: Reuters
SNCF hit with compensation claims over Nazi-camp transport
Some 1,200 claims for compensation have been leveled against the French state rail network for its role in helping transport people to Nazi camps during World War II
Some 1,200 claims for compensation have been leveled against the French state rail network for its role in helping transport people to Nazi camps during World War II, the railway said Friday.
The rail network, SNCF, contests the claims, saying it was under orders of French authorities at the time and exercised no autonomy under the occupation government.
An SNCF official said the company had received about 1,200 letters since June, some by individual families and others by lawyers representing several people seeking compensation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, in accordance with company rules.
The families were basing their demands on a successful court challenge by European Parliament member Alain Lipietz and his family. A French court ordered the government and SNCF to pay about USD 77,600 in damages in June for their role in transporting four of Lipietz's relatives to a Nazi transit camp.
SNCF is appealing that ruling, which was the first of its kind.
The four Lipietz relatives were taken in cattle cars from Toulouse in southern France to a camp in Drancy near Paris in 1944. They remained there for several months before the camp was freed, according to the lawsuit. Drancy was a stopover point for Jews deported to Nazi death camps, including Auschwitz.
Lawyer Avi Bitton said in August that some 200 French, Israeli, American, Belgian and Canadian families planned to send letters to SNCF demanding compensation, and if the railway refused, they would sue.
