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France in US talks over Holocaust compensation
France in US talks over Holocaust compensation
France and the US are in talks over compensation to American Holocaust victims that were transported to their deaths by France's state-owned rail company, a lawyer involved in the negotiations has said.
The sensitive, decades-long issue of SNCF's role in the deportation of Jews to concentration camps -- it recognizes it was a "cog in the Nazi extermination machine" -- is threatening a reported $2.2-billion contract between the state rail company and the US state of Maryland.
A bill in Maryland's legislature wants to bar a subsidiary of SNCF from a public-private venture in the state, which borders Washington, DC, unless American Holocaust victims and their families are compensated by the rail firm.
After several informal meetings last year, United States and French diplomats began negotiations on February 6, lawyer Stuart Eizenstat told AFP. Eizenstat, Holocaust advisor to US Secretary of State John Kerry and part of the discussions, declined to disclose many details of the talks.
http://www.thelocal.fr/20140222/france-in-us-talks-over-holocaust-compensation