French Railway Company Faces Opposition For Transporting Jews to Nazi Camps

Do they have a point?

ORLANDO, Fla. – The French national railway’s hope to bid on the first high-speed tracks in the United States is running into resistance from Holocaust survivors because of the company’s role in transporting Jews to Nazi death camps.

[...]

“Why does this company deserve my tax dollars when they cooperated with the Nazis and let their trains transport people to be murdered?” said Goldstein, 71, who lives in Boca Raton.

SNCF stands for Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francais. The company has argued that it had no control over operations when France was under Nazi occupation from 1940 to 1944 and was under orders to transport Jews to death camps. The firm also has said the French government has made an apology and offered reparations, although survivors contend the company itself has never made such amends.

“We plan to have a full disclosure of our records and complete transparency,” said Peter Kelly, an American-based attorney for SNCF. “The fact is many railway workers were killed by Nazis, many were bullied and the company was under control of an occupied government.”