U.S. to pay $25.5 million, acknowledge role in plundering of Nazi gold tra

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. to pay $25.5 million, acknowledge role in plundering of Nazi gold train

By CATHERINE WILSON
Associated Press
Posted March 11 2005, 12:10 PM EST

MIAMI -- The federal government on Friday reached a $25.5 million settlement with the families of Hungarian Holocaust victims and will acknowledge the U.S. Army's role in commandeering a trainload of the families' treasures during World War II.

Under terms of the settlement, the money will be distributed to needy Hungarian Holocaust survivors rather those who lost family possessions. The wording of the acknowledgment is up to the government and is not expected until after a hearing on final approval proposed for October.

About $21 million in funding for humanitarian services will be distributed to social service agencies worldwide based on the percentage of survivors, including 40 percent in Israel, 22 percent in Hungary, 21 percent in the United States and 7 percent in Canada.

Up to $3.85 million is proposed for legal fees and costs. A total of $500,000 would fund an archive on the so-called Nazi ``Gold Train'' for scholarly and educational uses.
(snip/...)

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-311nazigoldtrain,0,3648659.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

[ozymandius]

1. I wonder if Prescott Bush's name popped up.n/t

[Roland99]

2. I was thinking the same thing.

I'm sure if it was, it's been scrubbed.

[Charon]

18. I wonder

How about a Roosevelt or a Truman. Their Army, Their Policies.

[pie]

3. When are we giving the USA back to the American Indians?

That must be next, right?

[DulceDecorum]

4. How are they going to fund reparations

to the Muslims in Gitmo and Abu Ghraib and the ones who have just simply "vanished" from their homes?

[wildmanj]

7. how

40 acres and a mule---god this could get expensive---but as long as its borrowed money things may not be that bad

[Dover]

5. Wow........I can't even imagine what we'll owe Iraq, and it will be for

much more than plundering...

[solinvictus]

16. We'll pay them nothing..

there are no well heeled lobbyists in D.C. for Iraqi interests.

[Dover]

6. x

[struggle4progress]

8. kick

[Moderator]

9. kick to combine

[UpInArms]

10. U.S. to pay ($25.5M) for seizing WWII loot (Nazi "Gold Train")

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11116442.htm

(free registration or try www.bugmenot.com)

The U.S. government formally agreed on Friday to pay $25.5 million to redress a controversial historical incident -- the American military's seizure of Nazi loot stolen from Hungarian Jews.

After World War II, the government auctioned off many of the possessions to fund refugee relief efforts rather than trying to return them to their owners, who were either dead or scattered around Europe.

The so-called ''Gold Train'' incident gained widespread notice more than a half century after it happened, the result of a presidential commission and a lawsuit filed by Holocaust survivors -- Jews living in Hungary at the time -- in Miami federal court in 2001.

Many of those who filed the suit had long since emigrated to the United States, Israel and elsewhere. Some have settled in South Florida.

Friday's settlement proposal will allot $25 million, less fees and expenses, to cover basic humanitarian services -- including healthcare -- for Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivors throughout the world. Individual plaintiffs will not receive payments.

...more...

[emad]

11. BBC: US pays out for looting Nazi gold

By Lesley Curwen
BBC News, Washington

SNIP:

The settlement is the final chapter in the disturbing story of the Nazi gold train.

Today it is estimated that the cargo might be worth as much as $90m (£46m).
- - - -

More than half a century later, a special commission appointed during the 1990s by then-President Bill Clinton confirmed it had been plundered by US soldiers, including high-ranking officers.

The episode has been seen as a shameful blot on the record of the US army in World War II. The Hungarian families who brought the case have given a guarded welcome to the settlement.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4342555.stm

[DemoTex]

12. $25 million, less fees and expenses ... hum?

How much has already been skimmed in "admin fees"?

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[geek tragedy]

19. Excuse me if I disbelieve your NAZI sources. eom

[jmcgowanjm]

14. 'Citigroup has repeatedly been charged with money laundering

On a daily basis, the press, seemingly blind to the
domestic financial connections to terrorism, grips the
Octopus, scrapes a nerve, and a tentacle buried in the
mud trembles and
unfurls.

http://www.questionsquestions.net/docs04/khashoggi-911.html

[NNN0LHI]

15. American troops stole millions from Holocaust 'Gold Train'

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=619540

Lifting the veil on one of the least advertised and least edifying scandals of the Second World War, the US government has settled a complaint that American army officers requisitioned an entire train loaded with valuables seized by the Nazis from Jewish families in Hungary and then kept much of the contents for themselves.

The US Justice Department confirmed that it will pay $25.5m (£13.3m) to the Hungarian Jewish community in America to make up for the confiscation of the contents of what has been dubbed the "Gold Train", which left Hungary on 30 March 1945 but - as the war ended - was seized by the US army. To be paid mostly to Jewish charitable causes, the money amounts to a "symbolic acknowledgement 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, a New York-based group that was involved in negotiating the settlement.

The sum may represent only a fraction of the true value of the contents of the train, 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 before the war's end. They included diamonds, art works, suitcases of gold dust, silverware, fine china, porcelain and religious artefacts.

When the Americans took control of the train it was on the understanding that they would keep its priceless contents in secure storage and arrange for their return, item by item, to the families, many of whom had receipts provided by the Nazis. That, however, is not what happened.

more

[katinmn]

17. Why don't they make the heirs of the thieves pay?

We taxpayers always get stuck cleaning up the messes of the corrupt.