A Rabbi puts a rose on the railroad tracks at former concentration camp Westerbork, Netherlands, remembering more than a hundred thousand Jews who were transported from Westerbork to Nazi death camps in May 2005
DUTCH state railway company NS will pay compensation to Holocaust survivors and their relatives for its role in transporting Jews to nazi camps.
The company agreed to set up a commission following a campaign by former Ajax football club physiotherapist Salo Muller whose parents were killed at the Auschwitz death camp when he was just five years old.
It said it would “learn, honour and remember in an enduring way,” fearing a damaging legal case similar to that against French railway SNCF which was ordered to pay compensation for deporting Jews over the same period.
More than 107,000 Jews were taken to the Westerbork transit camp and deported to nazi death camps including Auschwitz and Sobibor. Only 5,000 of those transported survived.
The company described the period as a dark page in its history, saying in a statement that it had complied with the orders of the occupying German forces.
However Dutch public broadcaster NOS claimed the rail company went beyond merely following orders, making huge profits from transporting Jews to their deaths.
It claimed the company made an estimated €2.5 million (£2.2m) from the operations with National Westerbork Memorial spokesman Dirk Mulder saying NS complied “without a word of objection.”
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