August 30




FRANCE:

Families press SNCF on Nazi trains


More than 200 families plan to press the French state rail network for
compensation for its role in helping transport their relatives to Nazi
death camps during World War II, a lawyer said.

The families -- French, Israeli, American, Belgian and Canadian -- plan to
send a letter this week to the SNCF rail network urging compensation of
several million dollars, said lawyer Avi Bitton. He did not say when the
letter would be sent. If that tactic fails, they plan to sue, he said.

The families were encouraged by a June ruling by an administrative court
in Toulouse, southern France, which ordered the state and the rail
authority to pay damages 62,000 euros ($79,500) for its role in World War
II deportations. The SNCF has appealed the decision.

In that case, European Green Party lawmaker Alain Lipietz, his sister,
Helene, and other family members had brought a suit on behalf of four of
their relatives taken to a Nazi transit camp at Drancy near Paris in May
1944.

The four were transported in cattle cars by the SNCF from southwest France
to Drancy and remained there for several months until the camp was freed
in July 1944, according to the lawsuit. Drancy was a stopover point for
Jews deported to Nazi death camps including Auschwitz.

The June decision was the first of its kind. A similar 2003 case against
the SNCF in a civil court failed because a 30-year statute of limitations
period had passed. Such a time delay was not applicable in the
administrative court.

(source: Associated Press)