NEW YORK (VINnews) — A Belgian Jewish organization is preparing to file what it describes as an unprecedented lawsuit against the Belgian government and the country’s national railway operator, SNCB, alleging their complicity in the deportation of Jews during the Holocaust.

The lawsuit, to be filed by the Nico Gunzburg Foundation (NGF), focuses on 28 deportation trains that departed from the Dossin transit camp in Mechelen between August 1942 and July 1944. Most of the trains transported Jewish deportees directly to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.

According to the foundation, about 25,000 Jews and several hundred members of other minority groups were deported on those trains. Only a small fraction survived the Holocaust.

The foundation said research by Belgian historian Nico Wouters found evidence that the Belgian national railway accepted financial compensation for its role in helping Nazi authorities organize and carry out the deportations. The Belgian state, SNCB’s principal shareholder, is also named as a defendant.

The lawsuit seeks financial compensation as well as formal recognition of the Belgian authorities’ role in facilitating the deportations.

The foundation said discussions have taken place with the government and the railway company, but no agreement has been reached. It added that legal proceedings could be suspended if the parties enter serious negotiations that include compensation for victims and their families.

Belgium has previously acknowledged its responsibility for its role during the Holocaust. In 2007, then-Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt issued a formal apology, recognizing the Belgian state’s involvement in assisting the implementation of the Nazis’ “Final Solution.” The apology followed a government-commissioned report concluding that Belgian authorities and elements of the country’s elite had actively collaborated with Nazi occupiers.

Before World War II, Belgium was home to a Jewish community of about 50,000 people. Approximately half were murdered during the Holocaust.

The planned lawsuit comes more than 80 years after the end of World War II, as Holocaust survivors and their descendants continue to seek official recognition and accountability for those who assisted in the deportation of Belgian Jews.