DC court says Holocaust survivors can sue Hungary in the US for huge reparations
BUDAPEST — The second-highest court in the United States has reinstated a lawsuit brought by a group of Holocaust survivors and their families against the government of Hungary and its national railroad. The class action suit demands restitution for the role Hungary played in the murder of 500,000 Jews and the seizure of their property during World War II.
Setting the stage for what could be a landmark civil suit running into the tens of billions of dollars, Judge Patricia A. Millett wrote for the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on December 28 that Hungary could not force the plaintiffs to have the case tried in a Hungarian court
The decision overturned that of a federal judge who ruled that the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty between Hungary and the Allied powers granted Hungary immunity.
A 2016 decision from the Court of Appeals in the ongoing case similarly overruled an additional federal court decision, which also would have prevented the case from being brought in the US.
The Court of Appeals said that victims of the Holocaust can claim compensation in a US court for any Jewish property seized by Hungary from the moment the Jews were expelled from their homes, calling the theft “genocidal taking” in contravention of international law.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/dc-court-says-holocaust-survivors-can-sue-hungary-in-the-us-for-huge-reparations/
