II 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 28 

To ensure that the courts of the United States may provide an impartial 

forum for claims brought by United States citizens and others against 

any railroad organized as a separate legal entity, arising from the deportation of United States citizens and others to Nazi concentration camps 

on trains owned or operated by such railroad, and by the heirs and 

survivors of such persons. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 7, 2009 

Mr. SCHUMER introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To ensure that the courts of the United States may provide 

an impartial forum for claims brought by United States 

citizens and others against any railroad organized as 

a separate legal entity, arising from the deportation of 

United States citizens and others to Nazi concentration 

camps on trains owned or operated by such railroad, 

and by the heirs and survivors of such persons. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS. 

4 Congress finds as follows: 


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1 (1) During World War II, more than 75,000 

2 Jews and thousands of other persons were deported 

3 from France to Nazi concentration camps, on trains 

4 operated for profit by the Socie ́te ́ Nationale des Che5 mins de fer Franc ̧ais (in this Act referred to as 

6 ‘‘SNCF’’), including deportations to Auschwitz and 

7 Buchenwald. Numerous citizens and residents of the 

8 United States were among those on the trains or 

9 had relatives on the trains. United States servicemen 

10 who were pilots shot down over France were also 

11 among the persons deported on the SNCF trains to 

12 Nazi concentration camps. 

13 (2) United States citizens and others have 

14 sought redress against SNCF by filing a class action 

15 suit in the United States District Court for the 

16 Eastern District of New York. The named plaintiffs 

17 and class members include United States Army Air 

18 Force pilots and United States citizens. 

19 (3) The complaint filed alleges that SNCF, a 

20 separate corporate entity which remained inde21 pendent during World War II, operated the deporta22 tion trains for a profit, as ordinary commercial 

23 transactions. SNCF remained under French civilian 

24 control throughout World War II and is alleged to 


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1 have collaborated willingly with the German Nazi re2 gime. 

3 (4) The complaint alleges that SNCF provided 

4 the necessary rolling stock, scheduled the depar5 tures, and supplied the employees to operate the 

6 trains bound for the concentration camps. SNCF al7 legedly charged an ordinary passenger coach fare for 

8 the deportations, calculated per person and per kilo9 meter, and considered these trains as ordinary com10 mercial activities. The plaintiffs further contend that 

11 SNCF herded as many people as possible into each 

12 car, requiring passengers of all ages and sexes, in13 cluding the elderly and young children, to stand 

14 throughout the trip of several days’ duration, with 

15 no provision for food or water and no sanitary facili16 ties. The complaint further alleges that SNCF 

17 cleaned the trains after each trip, removing the 

18 corpses of persons who perished during transit due 

19 to the execrable conditions of the train cars. The 

20 destination was in each case a camp in which the de21 portees were to be exterminated, worked to death, or 

22 made to suffer terrible and inhuman conditions. 

23 (5) The complaint contends that SNCF’s ac24 tions violated the Principles of the Nuremberg Tri25 bunal, 1950, relating to crimes under international 


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1 law (earlier recognized by the Martens Clause of the 

2 Hague Convention IV of 1907), and aided and abet3 ted the commission of war crimes and crimes against 

4 humanity. SNCF has not denied its actions and has 

5 never disgorged the money that it was paid for the 

6 deportations or otherwise compensated the deportees 

7 or their heirs. 

8 (6) SNCF’s records concerning the deportation 

9 trains have not been made available to the plaintiffs, 

10 and SNCF archives concerning its wartime activities 

11 remain closed to the general public. 

12 (7) SNCF moved to dismiss the lawsuit on a 

13 claim of sovereign immunity under the Foreign Sov14 ereign Immunities Act of 1976 (28 U.S.C. 1330 and 

15 1602 et seq.), even though it is one of the 500 larg16 est corporations in the world, earns hundreds of mil17 lions of dollars from its commercial activities in the 

18 United States, and is not accorded sovereign immu19 nity under the laws of France. SNCF’s motion to 

20 dismiss the lawsuit was granted by the United 

21 States District Court for the Eastern District of 

22 New York. Plaintiffs appealed the decision, their ap23 peal was granted, and the case was remanded for 

24 further proceedings. In November 2004, on remand, 

25 the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit deterVerDate Nov 24 2008 05:00 Jan 08, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S28.IS S28

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1 mined that SNCF was entitled to immunity and af2 firmed the dismissal of the complaint. The Second 

3 Circuit stated that ‘‘the railroad’s conduct at the 

4 time lives on in infamy’’ but concluded that ‘‘the evil 

5 actions of the French national railroad’s former pri6 vate masters in knowingly transporting thousands to 

7 death camps during World War II are not suscep8 tible to legal redress in Federal court today.’’. 

9 (8) This lawsuit, which arises from the unique 

10 historical facts of the deportation of persons to Nazi 

11 concentration camps, presents issues of substantial 

12 importance to citizens and veterans of the United 

13 States. Many of those who have sought redress 

14 against SNCF are elderly and would have difficulty 

15 traveling outside the United States in order to pur16 sue their claims elsewhere. The courts of the United 

17 States are and should be a proper forum for this 

18 lawsuit. The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 

19 1976, which had not been enacted at the time of 

20 SNCF’s actions during World War II, was not in21 tended to bar suit against the SNCF. 

22 SEC. 2. ACCESS TO UNITED STATES COURTS FOR HOLO23 CAUST DEPORTEES. 

24 (a) JURISDICTION OF DISTRICT COURTS.—The 

25 United States district courts shall have original jurisdicVerDate Nov 24 2008 05:00 Jan 08, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S28.IS S28

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1 tion, without regard to the amount in controversy, of any 

2 civil action for damages for personal injury or death 

3 that— 

4 (1) arose from the deportation of persons to 

5 Nazi concentration camps during the period begin6 ning on January 1, 1942, and ending on December 

7 31, 1944; and 

8 (2) is brought by any such person, or any heir 

9 or survivor of such person, against a railroad that— 

10 (A) owned or operated the trains on which 

11 the persons were so deported; and 

12 (B) was organized as a separate legal enti13 ty at the time of the deportation, whether or 

14 not any of the equity interest in the railroad 

15 was owned by a foreign state. 

16 (b) OTHER LAWS NOT APPLICABLE.—Sections 1330 

17 and 1601 through 1611 of title 28, United States Code, 

18 or any other law limiting the jurisdiction of the United 

19 States courts, whether by statute or under common law, 

20 shall not preclude any action under subsection (a). 

21 (c) INAPPLICABILITY OF STATUTES OF LIMITA22 TION.—No action described in subsection (a) shall be 

23 barred by a defense that the time for bringing such action 

24 has expired under a statute of limitations. 


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1 (d) APPLICABILITY.—This section shall apply to any 

2 action pending on January 1, 2002, and to any action 

3 commenced on or after that date. 

Æ 


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