Read the Washington Jewish Week article here.

Maryland legislature spurs congressional action on Shoah

It isn't often that states get to weigh in on the Holocaust. In 2011, Maryland did. Keolis, a Rockville-based subsidiary of the French national railroad, bid on a contract to provide commuter rail service in suburban D.C. In a groundbreaking move, the state legislature managed to block the contract with a special legislative provision.

But new developments have kept alive the drama that has engulfed the Jewish community for nearly a year. The contract was reissued, the deadline was Nov. 21 and no one is saying if Keolis has rebid on it. Nonetheless, Maryland's newly enacted law is being used to advance a long-stalled bill in Congress to allow a reparation suit against the French railroad.

The General Assembly does not have authority over procurement contracts. In this instance, the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA), an arm of the state Department of Transportation, which runs the MARC lines, issues the bids and picks the winners, subject to the approval of the state Board of Public Works.

But when the French railroad, Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais, aka SNCF, is involved, nothing is quiet for long.

During the World War II occupation of France, Germany seized SNCF, which transported 76,000 Jews (and Allied POWs) to the French-German border, where they were transferred to German trains headed for death camps like Auschwitz. In recent years, as money has become available for high-speed rail projects in America, SNCF has competed for contracts. Its presence has not gone unnoticed.

Before the Maryland legislative session began last January, "lawyers working on behalf of the survivors and their descendants came to me. They were trying to get legislation passed in other states as well," said Delegate Samuel "Sandy" Rosenberg, of Baltimore City, a co-sponsor of House Bill 520.

"We didn't know if Maryland would be the first state [to pass legislation]. Florida was considering [similar] legislation at the time," said Senator Roger Manno, of Montgomery County, a co-sponsor of the companion Senate Bill 479.

As it turned out, Maryland was the first, and so far only, state to do so. The Florida bill failed; a California bill passed but was vetoed by then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Maryland bill, which passed unanimously in both the House of Delegates and the Senate and was promptly signed into law by Governor Martin O'Malley, doesn't specifically name Keolis. But there is no doubt of the target.

The law's key provision: Before a state procurement contract can be awarded, any entity or subsidiary of an entity with involvement in World War II-era deportations must digitize its records under the direction of the state archivist. SNCF's records are located in France.

Keolis was the sole bidder on the original, multimillion dollar MTA contract to provide MARC service on the Camden and Brunswick lines. Said Manno, "For an enormous contract like this, we must be able to find another entity to run the rail line. That Keolis was the only one to build a rail system - it was outrageous that we were even considering it."

Two lawyers have been working pro bono on the issue for years. Aaron Greenfield, in Baltimore, with the Duane Morris firm, handled the Maryland aspect. Raphael Prober, in Washington, D.C., with the Akin Gump firm, is pursuing the federal side.

Greenfield got involved two years ago when he learned that Keolis Rail Services America, its official name, had been awarded a contract to run the Virginia Railway Express trains, and was considering doing the same on the MARC lines in Maryland.

Keolis is not required to bid on the reissued contract although there are indications that it has. A number of other companies have expressed interest as well. But because of the rules guiding the procurement process, Tony Owens, spokesman for MTA, said he could neither disclose who bid nor the number of bidders.

An announcement will be made after the bids are evaluated but Owens did not know when that would happen. He did say that CSX Corporation, which had wanted to stop running the commuter service on the CSX-owned lines, has agreed to a contract extension until the new operator is chosen.

According to Greenfield, if Keolis does bid, it must be in compliance with the law by the time the contract is awarded regardless of whether it's the winner. If Keolis doesn't bid, "then nothing has to be revealed," he said. However, he added, taking the bright view, "the law is so general that it may apply to other companies in the future."

Whatever the outcome with Keolis, Greenfield sees the Maryland law as a victory. "The statement Maryland made in passing this legislation is powerful in the U.S. and internationally," he said, noting that the public testimony, often emotional and dramatic, before the General Assembly on the bills is boosting efforts on the federal level. In 2001, survivors and their descendants filed a suit against SNCF for reparations. The suit stalled. Although France itself has reportedly paid reparations in the vicinity of $1.4 billion over the years, SNCF has not.

"They argue that they are owned by the French government and have foreign sovereign immunity," said Prober, who represents a group of 650 people worldwide, of whom 250 are in the U.S. and 11 in Maryland.

The Holocaust Rail Justice Act was introduced in Congress in 2005 to cancel that argument, and so allow the reparations suit to proceed. But the federal legislation stalled as well - until the Maryland law passed.

Like Greenfield, Prober considers the Maryland law a key element. "For the first time, we have a law requiring the opening of records," he said, and, it seems, federal lawmakers noticed. "Maryland is next door to D.C. People heard about it, and the result was a huge momentum push."

Last month, the House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee held its first hearing on the legislation, an indication to Prober that "Congress is getting serious about moving ahead."

So optimistic is Prober that he's willing to predict passage of the act in 2012. "The Maryland law energized the federal legislators," he said. "It was a major development."

For more information from the SNCF perspective, visit www.SNCFhighspeedrail.com; for another perspective, the Coalition for Rail Justice has its own Web site, at www.holocaustrailvictims.org.