N.Y. Council Seeks Move Against French ‘Holocaust’ Rail Firm
A New York City Council resolution calls on the State Legislature to bar companies that profited from the Holocaust and never compensated their victims from working in the state.
City Councilmen Mark Levine and Benjamin Kallos introduced the resolution Tuesday aimed at securing reparations from SNCF, the French rail company that was paid to transport 76,000 Jews and thousands of others to Nazi death camps.
The councilmen were joined by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), who is working to pass the Holocaust Rail Justice Act in Congress. Maloney and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) introduced the resolution last year allowing survivors to sue SNCF, which is immune from litigation under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
Other states are working on similar legislation. The U.S. State Department has called the efforts harmful in its bid to secure reparations for Holocaust survivors from the French government.
“Survivors who live in the United States have been denied their day in court and have never received a dime in compensation from SNCF or the French government,” Maloney said in a statement. “Our response to the Holocaust must not only be about remembering and mourning, but also about supporting the survivors still among us and seeking justice for their perpetrators.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
