SNCF apologises for role in WWII Jewish deportations

[dipsydoodle]

France's state rail company has for the first time publicly expressed regret for its role in transporting Jews to Nazi death camps in World War II.

Until now, SNCF has said its workers were forced to assist in deportations by the occupying German army.

The change of language is clearly linked to the lucrative market for high-speed rail contracts in the US.

The company has been criticised in the US for failing to apologise for its involvement.

French state-owned trains and state-paid rail workers were responsible for carrying some 76,000 Jews from France to Germany and the east in World War II. Only a few of them returned.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11751246

[arcticken]

1. Good for them after all these years. n/t

[LeftishBrit]

2. A little late.

[azurnoir]

4. yes late after all a mere 2000 SNCF worker were killed for resisting the Nazi's

Role during World War II

Between 1942 and 1945, SNCF transported nearly 77,000 Jews and other Holocaust victims from France to Nazi camps.<2> During this time hundreds of SNCF railway workers, acting against SNCF management, performed many acts of resistance.<3> Nearly 2,000 SNCF railway workers were eventually killed for resisting Nazi orders.

SNCF, alone among the major European and Japanese rail companies, voluntarily took efforts to account for its war-time history. In 1992, SNCF and the National Research Institute commissioned the noted historian Christian Bachelier to study the issue. In 2000, Bachelier and his team released a 914- page examination of SNCF’s war-time activities.

In 2001, SNCF was sued by the father of MEP Alain Lipietz, because of the railroad’s role in transporting members of his family to the Drancy deportation camp during World War II. In 2006 the administrative court in Toulouse found SNCF guilty of aiding in deportations <4><5>and awarded a 20,000 euro settlement, but the judgment was appealed. SNCF supplied evidence showing that its actions were the result of requisitions by the occupying German forces under the terms of the 1940 Armistice, and that employees of the Deutsche Reichsbahn oversaw major facilities and operations. <6> SNCF was cleared in 2007 by the Bordeaux appeal court, which agreed that it had been operating under orders and had not autonomously made the decisions pertaining to deportation trains.<7>

In June 2010, a California legislator introduced AB 619, seeking to require companies involved in transporting Holocaust victims to disclose their war-time actions before bidding on California rail projects. SNCF supports

This page was last modified on 11 November 2010 at 17:08.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF

[dipsydoodle]

6. The other side of the coin

Thanks for posting. :hi:

[azurnoir]

8. Personally I think this "apology" was made with

the benefits of doing so in mind, rather than what was done in the name of that company when it was under Nazi control

[ProgressiveMajority]

11. The officiall story was, the jews were being "resettled."

We all get on our high horse and act like anyone seeing a bunch of people in a rail car would obviously know they were being sent to a death camp, but that was hardly so obvious at the time. The soviets transported people in prison rail cares for actual resettlement (for example Volga Germans and Poles to Kazhakstan), so people merely being loaded like cattle onto rail cares doesn't mean they are going to be sent to their death. That 2000 rail employees actually were killed in active resistance is a surprisingly high number, I would have expected a lot less. I'm thinking they're actually conflating rail employees who were killed in general resistance to the Germans with employees who were actively trying to specifically stop the transport of Jews.

I mean, did Americans know what was actually happening to Japenese at the camps?

Still though, an apology is appropriate.

[Violet_Crumble]

3. This hasn't got anything to do with the I/P conflict, so why post it here? n/t

[dipsydoodle]

5. Because

almost anything I post even loosely connected with I/P gets moved here anyway so I thought I'd save the mods the bother this time.

:shrug:

[Violet_Crumble]

7. It sucks how that happens to threads....

Though I think that OP would have survived upstairs because it's got nothing to do with I/P. I just asked about that OP because unfortunately there's a small number of DUers who inhabit this forum who try to equate Palestinians with Nazis just about any chance they get and could conjure themselves up a linkage out of this article :)

[oberliner]

9. There are no posters who inhabit this forum who try to equate Palestinians with Nazis

That is a preposterous and outrageous accusation.

[Violet_Crumble]

10. I found a link to one thread that sprung straight to mind for anyone interested...

It's a long thread, but it's the bottom quarter of it where there's a fair bit of time and effort exerted into equating Palestinians and Nazis...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=124&topic_id=225874