Holocaust claims hit SNCF's bid

A BID by French rail giant SNCF to grab a stake in a planned new California bullet train could be derailed because of its Nazi links during the war.

SNCF was paid to transport 75,000 Jews towards death camps and American campaigners have forced through a law in the state to force bidders for the €35 billion California High-Speed Rail Authority contract to reveal any role in the Holocaust.

Now SNCF must respond to the claims if it wants to win the contract for the bullet train to link San Francisco and San Diego. The law asks if the companies have made any restitution to victim’s families or any survivors.

SNCF has never accepted responsibility for its involvement in the transfer of Jews.

After a 2006 French court found it guilty of colluding in the deportations, in a case brought by Ile-de-France Euro-MP Alain Lipietz, SNCF said it could not be held responsible because it had been forced to cooperate with the occupying German forces.

Elsewhere, some 300 Holocaust survivors are going to court in New York to stop SNCF from running US train lines. They argue the railway was linked to the Nazi murders and have demanded damages and a US ban.