Der Spiegel International
reports (auf Englisch) that legislation is being entertained in the US Congress, under the close watch of all parties, that would form a legal framework for the survivors or their relatives who were forcibly deported to sue the national railway networks that transported them to concentration and prisoner-of-war camps in Nazi-controlled territory during World War II. The bill’s sponsor calls it the “Holocaust Rail Justice Act,” and while it names the French rail company for complicity specifically and not the Deutsche Bahn, whose responsibility was previously settled (not absolved)
in toto with other German businesses, this precedence and allowance could expose many companies to new law suits. The resolution was introduced just over a year ago in mid-March 2011 and has yet to move forward, so I wonder if the refreshed currency of this news is a bit of damage-control or a PR offensive on the part of Deutsche Bahn.
I cannot say whether those who profit from war and human tragedy have made their reparations in full, but it also does not seem like the pursuit will enrich anyone, other than the lawyers. Suits have been brought up in the past against the rail-lines with American courts as the venue, but all this grasping greed and boundless litigiousness of the new language, which respects neither history, what was ignored then but could never be unseen and what people suffered nor international borders (though no company should be able to cloak itself in national-identity or cast it off to escape its responsibility) honours no one and nothing.
I cannot say whether those who profit from war and human tragedy have made their reparations in full, but it also does not seem like the pursuit will enrich anyone, other than the lawyers. Suits have been brought up in the past against the rail-lines with American courts as the venue, but all this grasping greed and boundless litigiousness of the new language, which respects neither history, what was ignored then but could never be unseen and what people suffered nor international borders (though no company should be able to cloak itself in national-identity or cast it off to escape its responsibility) honours no one and nothing.
