French Lawmakers Pass Controversial Holocaust Compensation Bill
Burden of History: French rail company SNCF ferried Jews to their death during the Holocaust. It faces new pressure to open its archives. Image by getty images
French lawmakers voted on Wednesday to create a $60-million fund to compensate Holocaust victims deported by French state rail firm SNCF to Nazi concentration camps in a move also intended to protect the company from future U.S. litigation.
About 76,000 Jews were arrested in France during World War Two and transported in appalling conditions in railway boxcars to concentration camps such as Auschwitz, where most died.
The vote was carried despite mass abstentions by France’s conservative opposition, which questioned the validity of the legal guarantees offered by the United States.
Opposition lawmaker Pierre Lellouche described the fund, the fruit of an agreement reached in Washington last December, as “a kind of French capitulation before a form of permanent judicial, even legislative blackmail by the Americans.”
The fund, managed by the United States, will be accessible to those deported from France but who could not benefit from French compensation measures. It covers victims in countries except Britain, Poland, Belgium and the Czech Republic, which already have bilateral agreements with France.
U.S. politicians have for years sought to stop the rail firm taking part in tenders on their territory, asking for the French company to first provide compensation.
The agreement is intended to guarantee a judicial immunity that will mean SNCF can no longer be directly targeted by lawsiuits or excluded from tenders.
France’s upper house examines the bill on July 9.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward Authorities raid Michigan homes that advocates say belong to pro-Palestinian activists
-
Fast Forward 72% of American Jews disapprove of Donald Trump’s performance so far, poll finds
-
Fast Forward Columbia staff receive texts asking if they’re Jewish, as government hunts antisemitic harassment on campus
-
Fast Forward NIH bans grants for schools that boycott Israeli companies
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
- 3
Opinion Yes, the attack on Gov. Shapiro was antisemitic. Here’s what the left should learn from it
- 4
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
In Case You Missed It
-
Music Even the Holocaust could not silence the music of these composers
-
Fast Forward Authorities raid Michigan homes that advocates say belong to pro-Palestinian activists
-
Fast Forward 72% of American Jews disapprove of Donald Trump’s performance so far, poll finds
-
Culture Einstein or Edison? Jordan or LeBron? A rabbi explains why Jews debate who is greatest
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.