The German railway company Deutsche Bahn has engaged a New York law firm to fight off compensation claims that it might face under proposed legislation enabling Holocaust victims and their relatives to sue for damages in US courts.
The state-owned network is the main successor to the Nazi-run Deutsche Reichsbahn which, along with other railways in German-occupied Europe, deported millions of Jews to death camps during the Second World War.
Deutsche Bahn has in the past compensated Holocaust victims under extensive German government reparations to survivors. The German Foundation Agreement reached with the US in 2000 was considered to have conclusively resolved all outstanding claims against Germany. But under the laws proposed by the US Holocaust Rail Justice Act, which is now before Congress, Deutsche Bahn fears it could face fresh compensation claims in US courts.
H.R. 1193: Holocaust Rail Justice Act
To ensure that the courts of the United States may provide an impartial forum for claims brought by United States citizens and others against any railroad organized as a separate legal entity, arising from the deportation of United States citizens and others to Nazi concentration camps on trains owned or operated by such railroad, and by the heirs and survivors of such persons, and for other purposes. We think this bill has a 8%chance of passing Congress.
- Sponsor:
Letter United States Senate Holocaust Rail Justice Act
A bill to ensure that the courts of the United States may provide an impartial forum for claims brought by United States citizens and others against any railroad organized as a separate legal entity, arising from the deportation of United States citizens and others to Nazi concentration camps on trains owned or operated by such railroad, and by the heirs and survivors of such persons. We think this bill has a 8% chance of passing Congress.Sponsor:Sen. Charles Schumer [D-NY]
Efraim Zuroff, of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem, said: “To the best of my knowledge, no railroad company has ever been forced to compensate deportees. ”
The US law is specifically designed to gain compensation from the French rail group SNCF, but legal experts say it could also apply to other European networks including Deutsche Bahn.
Holocaust Survivors Families’ Sue
Hungary’s MÁV
“Families of Hungary’s Holocaust victims are suing the Hungarian state railways MÁV at a court in Chicago for $240 million damages and $1 billion non-asset compensation for its part in the deportation of Jews in World War II.
Charles Schumer, a US Senator who is sponsoring the Bill, said that of the 76,000 Jews, resistance fighters and US prisoners deported to Nazi camps by SNCF, only 3 per cent survived.MORE
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