Legal proceedings against the perpetrators of Nazi Germany’s murder of six million Jews have almost concluded, with German criminal prosecutions quickly winding down and American efforts to expel those who assisted in Nazi persecutions having ended.1 Holocaust survivors have also initiated civil suits under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) to obtain redress for some of the Nazi crimes. One such recent FSIA case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Simon v. Republic of Hungary, demonstrates the complexity of these proceedings, the significance of the issues and their importance in promoting Holocaust awareness.2

FSIA

The FSIA is the exclusive mechanism for courts in the United States to hear claims against foreign states (including their agencies and instrumentalities). Under 28 U.S.C. §1604, “[s]ubject to international agreements to which the United States is a party” when the FSIA was enacted (1976), foreign sovereigns are immune from federal or state court jurisdiction “except as provided in sections 1605 to 1607 … .” Accordingly, the FSIA’s presumption that foreign sovereigns are immune from suit does not operate when an applicable treaty provides otherwise (the “treaty exception”) or one of the FSIA’s express exceptions applies.3