Holocaust victims sue France for theft

[Wise1]

The lawsuit filed in US District Court in Manhattan seeks class-action status for Jews and others imprisoned in holding camps in France including Drancy, where prisoners were stripped of personal property like cash and jewellery before being transported to Nazi concentration camps.
Three defendants are named in the suit: the Republic of France, French national railway SNCF, which assembled and ran trains from holding camps to Auschwitz and Buchenwald, and French state-owned financial institution CDC.
According to the suit, prisoners were forced to turn over valuables to French government officials when they were loaded on to the trains, while the CDC is today still holding money taken from plaintiffs or received from the sale of their property.
The suit says international law could be enforced in the US court as federal law, including via one statute that denies immunity to foreign states in property rights cases.
Plaintiffs include Mathilde Freund, an American citizen whose husband's gold watches, diamond rings and Swiss Francs were confiscated on his way to Buchenwald, and Leo Bretholz, an American citizen who had gold rings, an Omega chronometer and other valuables taken by French police.
The suit said the role of the CDC emerged after the French government established the Matteoli Commission in 1997 to investigate Jewish property seized during the war.


It estimated the total taken from prisoners at the provincial camps was 200 million francs, roughly $NZ55 million today, not including jewellery or other property.
The suit said less then 3 per cent of the 75,000 Jews and tens of thousands of other "undesirables" shipped from holding camps in France to German concentration camps survived.
The French consulate in New York had no immediate comment, a spokeswoman said, and officials in Paris were unavailable today.

[trumpetplayer992]

is this recent?

[von Poop]

"And the Lawyers get FAT!
And The Law gets BOUGHT!"
(New model Army)

Too late, far, far too late

[sapper]

Can I sue Germany for the injuries I sustained fighting for the freedom of the invaded countries of Europe? Ought ot be worth a great deal of money?

The mind Boggles. There is no doubt in my mind, those that had their money, property, and assets taken, should be reimbursed. I watched a film where a returning Jew found someone living in his house, and he never got it back.....Why? I bet that happend a thousand fold. Their assest should be returned. using the Nazi invasion as an excuse for stealing someones house, or anything else is obscene.
Sapper (Who by the way is not a Jew, but an agnostic) Fair is fair.

[plant-pilot]

Originally Posted by sapper

I watched a film where a returning Jew found someone living in his house, and he never got it back.....Why? I bet that happend a thousand fold. Their assest should be returned. using the Nazi invasion as an excuse for stealing someones house, or anything else is obscene.
Sapper (Who by the way is not a Jew, but an agnostic) Fair is fair.

There were thousands of claims for return of property in the east and west of Germany after unification. The trouble was, if the property had changed hands legally since 1945 there is no longer a claim as the legal deed ahd been bought no matter how illegally the seller had obtained it after the war.