French rail firm SNCF will be allowed to bid for contracts in the US state of Maryland where lawmakers had threatened to bar it over its Nazi past, sources said Tuesday.
Under France's Vichy regime, SNCF deported some 76,000 Jews to concentration camps in freight cars between 1942 and 1944. Only around 3,000 survived, according to the state-owned company.
Maryland lawmakers had demanded that SNCF compensate the victims before being allowed to join the bidding process for local projects and introduced bills to that effect.
But these measures never made it to a vote in either the eastern state's House or Senate during the 2014 legislative period that ended at midnight Monday, according to sources in both chambers.
This means that SNCF, via its subsidiary Keolis America, will be able to bid on a 16-mile (25-kilometer) public-private light rail project worth nearly $3 billion between now and this summer. SNCF, in eyeing that contract, is part of a consortium comprising fellow French firms Alstom and Vinci.
A winning bid is expected to be picked by the end of the year or in early 2015.
During emotional hearings in March, Holocaust survivors and their families had demanded they be compensated for their ordeal. In response, SNCF had argued it was "forced to be a cog" in the Nazi extermination machine.
It also said responsibility -- and any eventual compensation -- should ultimately come from the French government.
- Compensation talks -
Paris and Washington are currently in talks over compensation for US victims transported by SNCF between 1942 and 1944.
The negotiations concern the cases of Americans who don't meet current French criteria for compensation, covering citizens and residents of France only through September 1, 1939.
Alain Leray, the president of SNCF America, "noted" Tuesday that the measures had not been voted on, telling AFP that their adoption would have "interfered considerably with the negotiations under way between the two governments."
Lawyer Stuart Eizenstat, who represents the US side and former deportees in the talks, had also warned on public radio NPR in mid March that the measures would have "severely" complicated the discussions.
"To move forward and actually pass it would not be helpful to our negotiations and would really complicate them at a time when we feel like we're beginning to make some real progress," he said at the time.
France was "negotiating in good faith," he added.
Had they become law, the bills -- by restricting competition -- would have jeopardized federal financing of the project, according to a March 13 letter from the US Department of Transportation to the Maryland Transit Administration obtained by AFP.
The Coalition for Holocaust Rail Justice expressed dismay that the bills had not advanced but vowed to keep pursuing their goal.
"While we are disappointed, this fight for justice is far from over," it said.
"SNCF may continue to stall with a strategy to wait out the survivors but the fight to hold SNCF fully accountable for its role in the Holocaust will not end until survivors and their families have gotten justice."
French rail firm SNCF will be allowed to bid for contracts in the US state of Maryland where lawmakers had threatened to bar it over its Nazi past, sources said Tuesday.
Under France’s Vichy regime, SNCF deported some 76,000 Jews to concentration camps in freight cars between 1942 and 1944. Only around 3,000 survived, according to the state-owned company.
Maryland lawmakers had demanded that SNCF compensate the victims before being allowed to join the bidding process for local projects and introduced bills to that effect.
But these measures never made it to a vote in either the eastern state’s House or Senate during the 2014 legislative period that ended at midnight Monday, according to sources in both chambers.
This means that SNCF, via its subsidiary Keolis America, will be able to bid on a 16-mile (25-kilometer) public-private light rail project worth nearly $3 billion between now and this summer. SNCF, in eyeing that contract, is part of a consortium comprising fellow French firms Alstom and Vinci.
A winning bid is expected to be picked by the end of the year or in early 2015.
During emotional hearings in March, Holocaust survivors and their families had demanded they be compensated for their ordeal. In response, SNCF had argued it was “forced to be a cog” in the Nazi extermination machine.
It also said responsibility — and any eventual compensation — should ultimately come from the French government.
– Compensation talks –
Paris and Washington are currently in talks over compensation for US victims transported by SNCF between 1942 and 1944.
The negotiations concern the cases of Americans who don’t meet current French criteria for compensation, covering citizens and residents of France only through September 1, 1939.
Alain Leray, the president of SNCF America, “noted” Tuesday that the measures had not been voted on, telling AFP that their adoption would have “interfered considerably with the negotiations under way between the two governments.”
Lawyer Stuart Eizenstat, who represents the US side and former deportees in the talks, had also warned on public radio NPR in mid March that the measures would have “severely” complicated the discussions.
“To move forward and actually pass it would not be helpful to our negotiations and would really complicate them at a time when we feel like we’re beginning to make some real progress,” he said at the time.
France was “negotiating in good faith,” he added.
Had they become law, the bills — by restricting competition — would have jeopardized federal financing of the project, according to a March 13 letter from the US Department of Transportation to the Maryland Transit Administration obtained by AFP.
The Coalition for Holocaust Rail Justice expressed dismay that the bills had not advanced but vowed to keep pursuing their goal.
“While we are disappointed, this fight for justice is far from over,” it said.
“SNCF may continue to stall with a strategy to wait out the survivors but the fight to hold SNCF fully accountable for its role in the Holocaust will not end until survivors and their families have gotten justice.”
