Compo for ‘Gold Train’ theft

NEW YORK - The United States Government has settled a complaint that American Army officers requisitioned an entire train-load of valuables seized by the Nazis from Jewish families in Hungary, and then kept much of the contents for themselves.

The US Justice Department confirmed it would pay US$25.5 million ($34.41 million) to the Hungarian Jewish community in America. This is to make up for the confiscation of the contents of what has been dubbed the "Gold Train", which left Hungary on March 30, 1945.

To be paid mostly to Jewish causes, the money was a "symbolic acknowledgment of an isolated and unfortunate chapter of the Americans' role in the Holocaust", said Gideon Taylor of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

The sum may represent only a fraction of the true value of the train's contents. It was made up of 29 box cars crammed with treasures handed over to the Nazis by hundreds of Hungarian Jews, many of whom died in concentration camps. They included diamonds, artworks, suitcases of gold dust, silverware, porcelain and religious artefacts.

When the Americans took control of the train it was on the understanding that they would store its priceless contents and arrange for their return, item by item, to the families, many of whom had receipts provided by the Nazis.

According to the complaint filed in the lawsuit, US Army officers not only failed to secure the goods, but turned a blind eye when US soldiers made off with many of the items. It was also alleged that the US Government auctioned off remaining treasures in New York in 1947 to help cover some of the refugee costs at the end of the war.

The case offers startling snapshots of the shamelessness of some of the looting. It described one US general making a virtual shopping list of valuables he wanted to take home to America, including "chinaware and fine silverware sufficient for 45 people".

The case began to take shape in 1999 when details of the Gold Train emerged from a report into missing property commissioned by President Bill Clinton.

- INDEPENDENT