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Two Supreme Court Cases to Test Limits on

Foreign Sovereign Immunity for Holocaust

Harms



December 16, 2020
In two cases this term, Republic of h'ungary v. Simon (Hungary) and Federal Republic ofjGermany v.
Philipp (Germany), the Supreme Court is set to address intersecting issues about foreign sovereign
immunity and the Holocaust. The plaintiffs in both cases seek to make foreign governments liable for
Nazi-era injuries. But the defendants, which include Hungary and Germany, argue the suits should be
dismissed based on international comity-a legal doctrine that allows courts to abstain from jurisdiction
out of respect for foreign sovereignty. Germany also argues that it is immune from suit because it believes
the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) does not permit claims in U.S. courts against foreign
governments for taking property from their own citizens within its own territory.
The legal questions in both cases may have longstanding implications for when foreign countries can be
sued in U.S. courts. The cases also have attracted attention because of the way in which the legal defenses
intersect with the tragic events of the Holocaust. Some observers, including some Members of Congress,
contend that the defendants' legal arguments contradict the historical timeline of the Holocaust. The
United States, on the other hand, supports the defendants' legal theories in its role as amicus curiae.

Factual  Background

The atrocities of the Holocaust form the factual backdrop for Hungary and Germany. In Hungary, a group
of 14 Holocaust survivors filed a putative class action against Hungary and a state-owned railway
company, Magyar Allamvasutak Zrt (MAV). From 1941 to 1945, Hungary deported more than 440,000
Hungarian Jews to Nazi-run concentration camps, chiefly Auschwitz. According to the survivors,
Hungarian officials facilitated the mass deportation using MAV's rail system, and MAV employees
robbed Jewish citizens of their last remaining possessions as they were loaded onto trains. The survivors
seek compensation from Hungary and MAV for taking their property during the genocidal campaign.
In Germany, the heirs of a group of Jewish art dealers working during the rise of the Naziregime sued to
recover a collection of medieval relics and art known as the Welfenshatz (Guelph Treasure in English).
The art dealers purchased the collection in 1929 before the stock market crash that year, but soon faced
persecution when the Nazi party came to power in 1933. In 1935, the dealers sold most of the
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