Bordeaux, France – A court has struck down a ruling that French railways must compensate the family of a Jewish man transported to an internment camp in Nazi-occupied France, dealing a blow to hundreds more claims.
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Judges in an administrative appeals court in south-western Bordeaux said administrative courts were not competent to rule on the legal liability of state rail operator SNCF.
The ruling means plaintiffs will have to bring their cases before civil or criminal courts, where lawyers say they have far less chance of success.
“It’s a way for the administrative justice system to kick the issue into touch,” Gerard Boulanger, a lawyer representing some of those bringing cases against SNCF, said.
Tuesday’s decision overturned a landmark verdict last June in which a court ordered SNCF and the French government to pay for one family.
Some 76,000 Jews were arrested in France during World War Two and transported in appalling conditions in railway boxcars to concentration camps such as Auschwitz, where most died.
The SNCF, which has received 1,800 requests for compensation since the ruling, said it had been forced to obey the orders of the government of the time and the German occupiers. [Reuters]