USA/FILE: HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS ACCUSE FRENCH NATIONAL RAILROAD OF WORKING WITH NAZIS.

Record ID: 649180

  • Title: USA/FILE: HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS ACCUSE FRENCH NATIONAL RAILROAD OF WORKING WITH NAZIS.
  • Date: 14th June 2001
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (FILE) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF NAZIS MARCHING IN FRANCE/ TRAIN LEAVING PARIS (4 SHOTS) 0.16 BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FILE) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 2. GV/CU/PAN: EXTERIOR OF FEDERAL COURT WHERE JUDGE HAS BEEN CONSIDERING LAWSUIT (2 SHOTS) 0.30 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JUNE 13, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 3. GV/MV/CU: NICOLE SILDERKLEIT IN HER APARTMENT LOOKING AT PHOTO ALBUM/ CLOSEUP OF HER PARENTS SUZANNE AND JACQUES SILDERKLEIT WITH HER BROTHER GASTON ON VACATION/ STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF GASTON SILDERKLEIT (5 SHOTS) 1.02 4. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) NICOLE SILDERKLEIT SAYING: "We were treated like cattle, literally like cattle. Because they were cattle cars. They were locked cars. And as I said, nothing to eat, nothing to drink. And we hardly had room to sit down for a whole week. We were locked in there. For me its a question of morality that human being can do something like that." 1.25 PARIS, FRANCE (FILE) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 5. MV/GV: HITLER REVIEWING NAZI TROOPS (3 SHOTS) 1.32 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JUNE 13, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 6. MV/SCU: HARRIET TAYMEN, LAWYER FOR DEFENDANTS, IN PARK AVENUE OFFICE LOOKING OVER DOCUMENTS WITH RICHARD WEISBERG, CO-COUNSEL (2 SHOTS) 1.48 7. CU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) HARRIET TAYMEN, LAWYER FOR DEFENDANTS, SAYING: "SNCF (Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer) worked directly with the Nazis. They picked the cars, they cleaned them, they disinfected them, they loaded them, they threw out the bodies. And they got paid for what they were doing. This was a commercial activity on the part of SNCF. Without SNCF, the Germans would not have been able to depart the Jews and others through France. They didn't have the rolling stock to do it." 2.15 8. GV/CU: VARIOUS OF PASSENGERS FROM FRENCH CONVOYS (2 SHOTS) 2.24 WARSAW, POLAND (FILE) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 9. MV: PRISONERS BOARDING TRAINS FOR AUSCHWITZ (2 SHOTS) 2.28 AUSCHWITZ, POLAND (FILE) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 10. MV/GV: JEWS AND OTHER PRISONERS LEAVING TRAINS AND HEADING TO THE CAMP/ VARIOUS OF JEWS AT CONCENTRATION CAMP (3 SHOTS) 2.37 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JUNE 13, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 11. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) SILDERKLEIT, SAYING: "For me, its not a question of money at all. Because nothing would ever replace what I lost - my family, my liberty, everything I had. But it would give me satisfaction if people would come out and admit what they've done. And maybe not monetary, give us something. But even in Germany, they had people come to Germany, the government invited people and did all these things. The French have never done anything like that." 3.05 AUSHWITZ, POLAND (FILE) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 12. CU/GV/MV: PILE OF SHOES FROM PRISONERS/ VARIOUS OF PRISONERS (3 SHOTS) 3.25 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 29th June 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEW YORK CITY AND BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES / PARIS, FRANCE / AUSCHWITZ, POLAND
  • City:
  • Country: USA United States Poland France
  • Reuters ID: LVA8734F2AMXA2TJXN4DKC37CB16
  • Story Text: Holocaust survivors have sued the French national
    railroad, accusing it of profiting from transporting thousands
    of people, mostly Jews, to Nazi Germany's death camps during
    World War Two.



    The class-action lawsuit alleges the railroad Societe
    Nationale des Chemins de Fer - the latest target of Nazi-era
    victims seeking compensation - made no effort to compensate
    them and after the war ended sent a bill and received payment
    from the French government for use of deportation trains.

    Nicole Silberkleit, 74, of Manhattan is the sole
    survivor of a family of 11 who were transported from France to
    Auschwitz concentration camp in early 1944. She said, "We
    were treated like cattle, literally like cattle. Because they
    were cattle cars. They were locked cars. And as I said,
    nothing to eat, nothing to drink. And we hardly had room to
    sit down for a whole week. We were locked in there. For me its
    a question of morality that human being can do something like
    that."
    Harriet Taymen, one of six lawyers representing about 100
    survivors, said, "SNCF (Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer)
    worked directly with the Nazis. They picked the cars, they
    cleaned them, they disinfected them, they loaded them, they
    threw out the bodies. And they got paid for what they were
    doing. This was a commercial activity on the part of SNCF.

    Without SNCF, the Germans would not have been able to depart
    the Jews and others through France. They didn't have the
    rolling stock to do it."
    New York attorneys for the French railroad could not
    immediately be reached for comment, but in court papers, they
    have argued the company could not be sued in U.S. courts under
    the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976. The law was not
    in place during the war, but the company argued Congress
    intended it to apply retroactively.

    The final brief in the case was filed May 29 and Brooklyn
    federal court judge David Trager has to decide if the
    allegations merit putting the railroad on trial, plaintiffs'
    attorneys said. It was not known when that ruling would be
    made.

    Survivors of the Nazi campaign to wipe out European Jewry
    and loot their wealth have reached settlements in recent years
    with banks and other corporations in Switzerland, Austria,
    Germany and France. Like the latest lawsuit against the
    French railroad, the others were also filed in New York, where
    many Jewish survivors live.

    The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages from the
    railroad, but money is not the motive for suing, according to
    survivor Nicole Silberkleit. She said. "For me, its not a
    question of money at all. Because nothing would ever replace
    what I lost - my family, my liberty, everything I had. But it
    would give me satisfaction if people would come out and admit
    what they've done. And maybe not monetary, give us something.

    But even in Germany, they had people come to Germany, the
    government invited people and did all these things. The French
    have never done anything like that."
    Attorney Taymen said it was not known how much money the
    company made from leasing trains to the Nazis, but the lawsuit
    alleged it ran the trains like any commercial business and was
    paid by the wartime French government in Vichy "per head, per
    kilometre".

    The lawsuit alleges that on March 27 1942, the first SNCF
    train deporting Jews left France for Auschwitz and the last
    SNCF train deporting Jews left France on August 17, 1944, one
    week before the liberation of Paris.

    "After the War ended, SNCF made no effort to compensate
    those it had ill-treated and deported during the War, or
    surviving members of their families," the complaint alleged.

    "Instead, SNCF sought to receive more payments for its wartime
    activities. After the War, SNCF sent at least one demand for
    payment for the deportation trains. SNCF was duly paid."
    It said the railroad operated more than 72 convoys of
    trains deporting 75,000 Jews, and tens of thousands of other
    non-Jewish "undesirables" to the concentration camps. Fewer
    than 3 percent survived.


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