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December 24, 2004/Tevet 12 5765, Vol. 57, No. 17
Holocaust 'Gold Train' reaches destination
RON KAMPEAS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - Hungarian Holocaust survivors who sued the U.S. government are prepared to settle for a fraction of the worth of looted property they say U.S. troops mishandled after the war.
Survivors were not "overjoyed" by the Dec. 20 deal in the "Gold Train" case, said one of the lead plaintiffs, Alex Moskovic, of Hobe Sound, Fla. Still, they were glad to bring an end to a chapter of Holocaust history that stained the U.S. reputation as a rescuer and not an exploiter.
"We spent quite a few years on this and I feel we needed a closure on this," said Moskovic, who in 1945, at age 14, returned to his hometown of Sobrance, the sole survivor of a wealthy family. His house was trashed, and he had no idea what had happened to its contents.
Plaintiffs and negotiators were proscribed from discussing the settlement until it is finalized within the next 60 days, but three people at the negotiating table confirmed a report in Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper that the amount was $25 million. How that will be distributed has yet to be negotiated, but there are an estimated 50,000 Hungarian Holocaust survivors still living worldwide.
That's substantially less than $200 million or so in 1945 dollars - about $2 billion in today's reckoning - originally estimated to have been looted from Hungarian Jews by the Nazis and placed on 24 boxcars for transport to Germany.
U.S. forces seized the train in October 1945, but almost none of the property was returned to its owners. Some went to governments, some apparently went to the wrong individuals and some was requisitioned by high-ranking U.S. troops entranced by art masterpieces and expensive house wares.
The fate of the Gold Train property was uncovered in a 1999 report issued by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States.
Plaintiffs who sued in 2001 sought $300 million: $10,000 each for what they estimated to be 30,000 victims who had property aboard the Gold Train. The $10,000 figure is the maximum compensation allowed under U.S. law.
One of several possibilities now under discussion is that the $25 million will go to the 50,000 survivors worldwide, whether or not they had Gold Train claims. That would break it down to $500 a survivor, before any legal or other costs. Only living survivors will be eligible - not heirs.
Negotiators said several factors played into the decision to accept the settlement: Virtually no one could prove that his or her property was actually on the Gold Train, which some said represented just a fraction of all the property Nazis stole from Hungarian Jews. Others said it represented a substantial portion of Hungarian Jewish wealth. Additionally, there are conflicting claims as to how much was "requisitioned" by U.S. troops.
All parties said the real significance of the settlement was the acknowledgment of responsibility - though not guilt - that the U.S. government will undertake in letters to survivors.
"Any monetary settlement is symbolic," said Sam Dubbin, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. "The case had much more to do with historical reckoning."
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