Advertisement

'Moral gesture' - Dutch rail firm to compensate Holocaust survivors

The Dutch state-run rail firm has said it will compensate Holocaust survivors and the families of...
Stephen McNeice
Stephen McNeice

11.41 27 Jun 2019


Share this article


'Moral gesture' - Dutch rail f...

'Moral gesture' - Dutch rail firm to compensate Holocaust survivors

Stephen McNeice
Stephen McNeice

11.41 27 Jun 2019


Share this article


The Dutch state-run rail firm has said it will compensate Holocaust survivors and the families of victims.

Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) has acknowledged involvement in transporting Jewish people and other minorities to Nazi concentration camps during the German occupation of the Netherlands in the early 1940s.

The transport firm says it's a "black page in the history of the company", and in 2005 apologised for their role.

Advertisement

Now, after setting up a commission on how best to pay the compensation, NS has committed to setting aside tens of millions of euro.

Former mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, chaired the commission, and he stressed that the payment was a moral gesture.

He explained: "It is not possible to name a reasonable and fitting amount of money that can compensate even a bit of the suffering of those involved."

Around 500 living survivors of the Holocaust who were transported by the company will receive €15,000 each.

Widows and widowers of victims, meanwhile, are eligible to receive €7,500.

If the widows and widowers are no longer alive, the surviving children of victims will receive €5,000.

In a statement, NS said: "Jews, Roma and Sinti who, during the Second World War on the occupiers instruction, were transported by NS by train to Westerbork, Vught or Amersfoort or to other locations in the Netherlands - with the purpose transporting them to concentration or extermination camps with the aim of exterminating them as a population group - are eligible for an individual moral gesture. Upon their death, this also applies to next of kin.

"It is estimated that several thousand people are eligible for the [compensation], including an estimated 500 survivors. To this end, NS will set aside several tens of millions of euros over the coming years."

It's estimated that around 100,000 Jewish people - 70% of the pre-war population - were deported to and killed in Nazi camps during World War II.

French railway company SNCF has previously expressed its "profound sorrow and regret" for its role in transporting more than 75,000 Jewish people from occupied France to Nazi concentration camps.

In 2014, France agreed to pay $60 million to American survivors of the Holocaust who had been deported to camps on French trains.

Additional reporting by IRN
Main image: Salo Muller - whose parents were murdered at Auschwitz - with Job Cohen & Roger van Boxtel at the NS compensation announcement. Image: NS

Share this article


Read more about

Holocaust Railway World War 2

Most Popular