France to Pay $60m over Nazi Rail Deportations

Jews, many of them Polish, getting off the train in Pithiviers,
central France in 1941

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The French government will pay the money to Holocaust survivors in America who were transported using its trains 70 years ago

France has agreed to pay $60 million in compensation to hundreds of American survivors of the Holocaust who were deported to Nazi death camps using the country's trains.

The money will also be available to thousands of descendants of those who were transported on freight cars belonging to the French state rail company SNCF.

It follows a long legal battle after the US state of Maryland barred SNCF from bidding for contracts on a $3 billion transport project there.

There are around 250 survivors in the US who will be eligible for the reparations. They could receive up to $100,000 each, and spouses or heirs of survivors who have since died could get several tens of thousands of dollars. » | Nick Allen, and agencies | Friday, December 05, 2014