Paris – Many Americans and others deported by France’s state rail company SNCF during the Nazi occupation will be entitled to compensation under a new U.S.-French agreement.
The French Foreign Ministry and U.S. State Department announced an accord Friday for a $60 million compensation fund, financed by France and managed by the United States.
The French government has already paid more than $6 billion in reparations — but only to French citizens and certain deportees. The new deal will allow compensation for Americans, Israelis and some others.
State legislators in the U.S. have sought to block SNCF from bidding for rail contracts because of its Holocaust-era actions.
SNCF transported about 76,000 French Jews to Nazi concentration camps. SNCF has argued that it had no effective control over operations in 1940-1944.