Hungarian survivors of the Holocaust and families of the victims have filed a lawsuit against the Hungarian government and its two state-owned railway companies in a court in Washington, DC, accusing them of collaborating with the Nazis to exterminate Jews during World War II. The suit accuses the Hungarian government and rail companies of confiscating property of Jews and transporting them to ghettos and death camps in Nazi-occupied Poland and Ukraine. "The Jewish victims of the Hungarian Holocaust seek only what is due them – compensation and restitution for the atrocities they suffered at the hands of the defendants," the lawsuit said.
The suit seeks class-action status and unspecified damages. A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Chuck Fax, was quoted by the ‘Reuters’ news agency as saying that the claims likely total tens of millions of dollars, and possibly more.
Two statutes permit non US citizens to bring claims against private foreign entities in American courts. The present lawsuit specifically targets the Hungarian government, the state-owned railway company, and its cargo rail company which was privatized in 2008. Fax said that the lawsuit was still timely because Hungary had yet to compensate survivors or their heirs, or return stolen assets to them.
