Is Campaign on French Rail Firm Blamed in Holocaust ‘Self-Defeating’?
Efforts by state legislatures to force a French rail company to pay reparations to Holocaust survivors deported by train to Nazi death camps are hurting their chances of ever receiving money, said Stuart Eizenstat.
Eizenstat, a special assistant to Secretary of State John Kerry on Holocaust issues, has been in talks with the French government to obtain reparations for the survivors.
The Maryland, New York, Florida and California legislatures are considering laws that would bar the French company, Societe Nationale de Fer Francais, or SNCF, from obtaining state contracts for rail work until it pays reparations to the Holocaust survivors it transported who are now living in the United States.
However, it is the French government’s position that it, and not SNCF, has the authority to pay reparations. Therefore, any loss of work to SNCF while the French government is negotiating in good faith would “pose a serious obstacle” and is “self-defeating,” Eizenstat said in an interview with the Washington Jewish Week.
A third meeting between France and the United States is expected to be held this month, Eisenstat said. The French government has set a goal of completing the negotiations by the end of the summer, he said.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
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 the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
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.