Supreme Court examines class action lawsuit by Holocaust survivors against Hungary

The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will examine a long-standing lawsuit by families of Holocaust victims who are demanding compensation from Hungary for property confiscated from them during World War II.

The nine justices will hear arguments in the fall in a case about whether federal courts in the United States are the appropriate forum for the lawsuit. Under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, sovereign states like Hungary enjoy a certain degree of immunity from lawsuits, but are exempt from the FSIA’s protections if property has been “expropriated in violation of international law.”

A group of Hungarian Holocaust survivors, some of whom are now over 90 years old, filed a class action lawsuit against Hungary and its state railway in 2010. The railway played a key role in the Holocaust when it transported more than 400,000 Hungarian Jews to the Auschwitz extermination camp in Poland within two months in 1944.

The judges must decide whether the survivors can justify the exception that the property has a “commercial connection” to the United States. The class action lawsuit is based on the allegation that Hungary combined the proceeds from its stolen property with other funds and that some of the proceeds are now in the United States as a result of trade and other dealings with the sovereign state.

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There is disagreement in the lower courts on this issue. While one lower court agreed that this lawsuit could proceed under the commercial nexus theory, another case involving Holocaust victims was dismissed in 2021 after the judges said the victims did not have the necessary standing to prove their claims.

Arguments in Hungary against Rosalie The hearing is expected to take place before the end of the calendar year and a decision is expected before the end of June 2025.