As a personal background note, this writer , as the son of survivors of the Nazi genocidal atrocities, is obviously aware of the long-term impact and depth of this horrific chapter of history, as well as, was personally affected by it in a major life changing manner.

So, to  address the political special interest attempt by some who are suggesting falsely that the contractor of the Purple Line rail project, namely Keolis North America, is somehow responsible for reparations for crimes against humanity which were carried out by the Nazis in France some 75 years ago, is appallingly bereft of any logic and historical or legal basis.

A $900 million dollar federal grant to build the much-needed light-rail Purple Line must not be interfered with by some Maryland lawmakers’ bizarre notion that the French state company SNCF, which owns 70% of  Keolis North America, must first compensate Holocaust victims, by linking  thusly Keolis to SNCF, and then linking SNCF to the victims of the German Nazis who invaded France and forced SNCF to transport prisoners to concentration camps.    These linkages are unimaginably rationally real and therefore inoperative.

This linking rationale is disingenuously exploitive of a tragedy of immense proportions and is also opportunistic and devoid of logic, ethics, and legality.

In fact, while not directly responsible for being invaded by the Nazis and commanded to transport prisoners to concentration camps, the French government has paid more than $ 6 thousand million (i.e. $ 6 billion) dollars in reparations since 1948.  It is noteworthy that the descendants of US slaves never received any reparations and that the survivors of the Japanese American concentration camps received a formal apology and $20,000 each, but regardless though, in the case of the claims formulated by the sponsor of the Maryland House bill, Delegate Kirill Reznik (D-Montgomery), we are talking about casting blame for something which occurred a generation ago, and demanding money not from the perpetrators, the Nazis, but from the victims of the Nazis, in this case a French rail company which was hijacked by the Nazi invaders.

This situation brings to mind how, after the end of WWII, extremist Zionists in 1948 took violently over 75% of the land of the Palestinians who to this day are abused by an international law violating brutal occupation against a people who had nothing to do with the crimes of the Nazis.

It also further documents a pattern of false compensations for the victims of the Nazis which was amply and scholarly covered by a distinguished political science professor of Jewish background who is also an activist for the prestigious Israeli human rights organization BeT’selem, namely Professor Norman G. Finkelstein, who wrote the book ” The Holocaust Industry “.

As Michael Marrus, another distinguished professor emeritus of Holocaust studies at the University of Toronto declared, “ I don’t diminish the tragedy or the pain, but I think at the end of the day there will never be justice in the sense that most of the perpetrators have died and most of the people who suffered directly have died by now “.

This writers’ message to Delegate Kirill Reznik and to the other Maryland lawmakers is, withdraw that insidious bill, it is offensive to good decent and rationalist Jews who do not appreciate the citizens of Montgomery County being part of a nonsensical claim which threatens for further delay and even possibly derail  unnecessarily the start of the building of the long-awaited Purple Line.