France to compensate American survivors of Holocaust
France has agreed to pay reparations to American…Holocaust [survivors] who were deported to Nazi…camps in French trains, after a year of negotiations...[It] closes a loophole that has prevented some [US] citizens…from receiving French compensation…SNCF officials have formally expressed regret on a number of occasions for the company’s role...But SNCF has consistently denied cooperating voluntarily with the Nazis, noting that it was placed under German command in 1940...Holocaust survivors in [the USA]…had pursued compensation via class-action lawsuits for more than a decade. After those cases were dismissed on the basis of sovereign immunity for government-owned companies, survivors…pressed for legislation banning SNCF and its subsidiaries from receiving contracts in the United States…Anyone who applies for the compensation program will have to sign a waiver agreeing not to pursue any lawsuit…As part of the accord…the United States agrees to support French sovereign immunity in any future lawsuit.