Rejecting compensation allows the National Railway Company of Belgium to “dilute and evade the necessity of taking any current action,” said the World Jewish Restitution Organization. The unusually blunt reaction followed the release last week of an official report on the role of the National Railway Company of Belgium (SNCB) during the Holocaust.
By JNS
The World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) accused the Belgian government on Monday of evading responsibility and denying its moral obligation in response to an official report rejecting compensation to Holocaust survivors.
The unusually blunt reaction followed the release last week of an official report on the role of the National Railway Company of Belgium (SNCB) during the Holocaust. The report, concluded after years of study and with the number of elderly Holocaust survivors fading fast, argued that the railway organization did not owe compensation to survivors for its part in facilitating deportations.
“To reject compensation from the perpetrator to the victim denies the moral obligation by SNCB to those it wronged; instead it would allow the railroad to dilute and evade the necessity of taking any current action by permitting it to spread the blame widely across Belgian society,” the World Jewish Restitution Organization statement said.
Nearly six years ago, the Belgian Parliament unanimously passed a resolution requesting that the federal government open an independent investigation into the role of the National Railway Company of Belgium in deporting over 25,000 Jews and more than 350 Roma on 28 convoys from Mechelen, Belgium, to extermination camps during the Holocaust. Most of the deportees were murdered on arrival.
The Belgian national railway company was paid the equivalent of millions of dollars by the Nazis for its services, according to a 2023 report by a war research center attached to the State Archives of Belgium.
The Jewish restitution organization, which advocates compensation for Holocaust victims, said that the Belgian government report, presented on Jan. 17, “offered an important opportunity to confront the historical injustices suffered by Holocaust survivors and their families,” yet failed to do so. The organization noted that this is in contrast to the acceptance of responsibility for the victims by both France and the Netherlands.
The WJRO criticized the committee that produced the report for failing to consult survivor representatives, adding that it is urgent to take action while the remaining Holocaust survivors are still alive.
“We urge the government to act quickly to ensure that the railway provides compensation to those who suffered and their heirs,” the WJRO statement continued.
There are currently about 200,000 Holocaust survivors around the world, half of them in Israel.