Specialization of motivic Hodge-Chern classes

In this paper we give a proof of the fact, that the motivic Hodge-Chern class transformation MHC_y and Hirzebruch class transformation MHT_y* for mixed Hodge modules and strictly specializable filtered D-modules commute with specialization in the algebraic and in a suitable complex analytic context. Here specialization in the Hodge- and D-module context means the corresponding nearby cycles defined in terms of the $V$-filtration of Malgrange-Kashiwara. This generalizes a corresponding specialization result of Verdier about MacPherson's Chern class transformation c_*.