France court fines government, railway for deporting Jews during Holocaust News
France court fines government, railway for deporting Jews during Holocaust

[JURIST] A French trial court has ordered the French government and the state-controlled railway SNCF [corporate website] to pay 60,000 euros, or about $80,000 US, in compensation to a Jewish family for complicity in crimes against humanity. The case [Haaretz report] was brought by European Parliament member Alain Lipietz [official website] and his sister on behalf of their father and relatives who were taken by an SNCF train to the Drancy transit camp [JVL backgrounder] in 1944. SNCF continued to bill the French government for transportation even after World War II ended, and the ruling acknowledged that SNCF did more than it was asked to do by the Nazis.

The lawyer for SNCF plans to appeal the decision, saying that SNCF had no choice but to comply with Nazi demands and that the statute of limitations had run on the claim. BBC News has more.

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