JURIST - Paper Chase: Maryland passes bill forcing railroad to disclose Holocaust activities

[JURIST] Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley [official website] on Thursday signed into law a bill [SB 479 materials] designed to force French rail company SNCF [corporate website] to disclose its participation in the Holocaust to receive a state rail contract. SNCF allegedly transported 76,000 Jews and other prisoners [JTA report] from Paris to the German border from 1942 to 1944. Since their American subsidiary, Keolis America [official website], is pursuing a Maryland Area Regional Commuter train contract, SNCF will now be required to post all of their transportation records from the Holocaust. Due to bills pending [S 634; HR 1193] in the US Senate and House of Representatives, this could open up SNCF and other railroads that transported Jews for the Nazis to lawsuits in federal courts.

Prosecution of Nazis and their collaborators continues internationally. A Hungarian court began the trial [JURIST report] of accused Nazi Sandor Kepiro earlier this month, charged with war crimes committed during the 1942 Novi Sad massacre in Serbia. The trial of accused Nazi guard John Demjanjuk [NNDB profile, JURIST news archive] ended when he was convicted [JURIST report] but released because of his advanced age [DW report]. An appeal [JURIST report] is pending. In November, Nazi guard Samuel Kunz [Trial Watch profile], 89, passed away [JURIST report] in his home before he could be brought to trial. He was accused of aiding in the killing of hundreds of thousands of Jewish people at the Belzec concentration camp [HRP backgrounder].