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A Conversation with Author Sarah Federman
May 19, 2021 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
FreeThe French National Railways and the Journey to Accountability
In the immediate decades after World War II, the French National Railways (SNCF) was celebrated for its acts of wartime heroism. However, recent debates and litigation have revealed the ways the SNCF worked as an accomplice to the Third Reich and was actively complicit in the deportation of 75,000 Jews and other civilians to death camps. Sarah Federman delves into the interconnected roles—perpetrator, victim, and hero—the company took on during the harrowing years of the Holocaust.
This talk will address the war years as well as the SNCF’s journey toward accountability in France and the United States, culminating in a multimillion-dollar settlement paid by the French government on behalf of the railways.
Sarah Federman is an assistant professor of Negotiation and Conflict Management at the University of Baltimore and Fulbright Specialist in Peace and Conflict Resolution. Prior to this research, Sarah worked a decade as an International advertising executive working in 12 countries with companies such as Google, Discovery, and Microsoft. She became interested in the role of the SNCF during World War II after seeing her own name printed on a Holocaust memorial.