ekscrunchy

http://tinyurl.com/63y4z3

WillTravel

Thanks for posting that, ekscrunchy.

When I have taken trains through Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, I have often wondered if I'm on a route that many Holocaust sufferers were forced to take 60-odd years ago. I'm pretty sure the answer is yes in many instances.

ekscrunchy

Yes, it is sobering indeed.

altamiro

WillTravel,
most of the road and rail network was used, during the WW2, at one time or another to transport the Jewish (and other) victims of the Holocaust. So wherever you have been, the answer is with a high probability "yes".

Ekscrunchy,
without any intension to belittle the Holocaust or to deny benefits to itīs survivors, I still have to wonder - what jurisdiction do American courts have in other countries? Would American public accept the same situation with American governmental organisation forced to do restitution of some wrongs long past? Would the public accept it if, say, a Laotian victim of "carpet bombardment" sues US Air Force in Laotian court for restitution? Or a Guatamalan suing CIA?

ekscrunchy

I am not taking sides here on the validity of this particular claim..there are certainly many, many who have been injured/killed by US wrongdoing such as you mention. Which continues to the present day, in my opinion.

But interesting and sad nevertheless...I had never before thought of the issue of the train companies bearing culpability. They certainly would have known where they were transporting these passengers.

altamiro

>...I had never before thought of the issue of the train companies bearing culpability. They certainly would have known where they were transporting these passengers.

Of course they did. However, the small matter of being under occupation of a hostile and very dangerous power might have some influence on their decisions.

altamiro

Ekscrunchy, I generally support restitution claims (at least justified ones) as long as they are based on reciprocity. In this case I am not convinced that, especially in a civil court, a lawsuit is reasonable in this specific case. It might have been reasonable to sue the persons who continued running the business and didnīt resign (this would be IMO the only moral course of action; any more active protest would result in you and your family landing in those trains). But it is decades too late for that.
One could sue Germany or German organisations for restitution, but this has been done to exhaustion already, too.
I have a feeling that many of WW2/Holocaust related lawsuits were directed not at the parties most guilty but at the parties most easily forced to pay; and that the grief and pain of survivors were made into cash cows by enterprising lawyers.

ekscrunchy

I certainly cannot disagree on the enterprising lawyer comment! The situation is out of control, not only on this particular issue...