MOSCOW, December 5 (Sputnik) — France and the United States agreed on Friday to establish a $60 million fund to pay compensation to Holocaust survivors, deported by the National Society of French Railways (SNCF) during the Nazi occupation, the BBC reported.
Under the deal, France is planning to pay reparations to the spouses and descendants of those who were transported by SNCF to Nazi concentration camps, according to the BBC.
Preliminary estimations say that thousands may be entitled to compensation, including Israeli, Canadian and the US citizens. The measure does not apply to Britain, Poland, Belgium and the Czech Republic as these countries have already signed a bilateral agreement with France in this sphere.
Each Holocaust victim could be paid up to $100,000, while their family members could receive tens of thousands of dollars, according to US negotiator Stuart Eizenstat.
The signing of the compensation agreement is slated for December 8.
The SNCF is not rejecting the deal, although it claims that the German army that occupied France from 1940 to 1944 forced the company to assist in the deportations.
In April 2014, New York City lawmakers declared that the city should not do business with the SNCF due to its work for the Nazis in World War Two.
In 2010 the SNCF chief executive expressed "profound sorrow and regret" for the deportations.
During WWII about 76,000 Jews were arrested in France and deported to Nazi concentration camps by train. In 1995 then President Jacques Chirac officially recognized for the first time France's complicit role in the deportations. France's highest court only recognized the country's responsibility in 2009.
