Post by repeater on Mar 12, 2005 18:03:27 GMT -5
U.S. to Pay Hungarian Jews in 1945 Looting
By JOHN FILES
Published: March 12, 2005
WASHINGTON, March 11 - The United States government and a group of Hungarian Jews have agreed to a $25.5 million settlement for the looting of the Hungarians' valuables by American soldiers during World War II, lawyers for the group said Friday.
Gideon Taylor, executive vice president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, a New York City group that was involved in mediation between the sides, said the settlement was in part "a symbolic acknowledgement of an isolated and unfortunate chapter of the Americans' role in the Holocaust."
"But the acknowledgement matters," he added. "History matters."
The Justice Department said Friday that a settlement had been reached but declined to comment.
The details of the proposal are subject to approval by Patricia A. Seitz, a federal judge in the Southern District of Florida, who has been hearing the case in Miami. Judge Seitz scheduled a hearing for Thursday.
In December, the two sides decided in principle to settle a three-year-old lawsuit that had originally sought up to $10,000 each for as many as 30,000 Hungarian Jews and their survivors.
As part of the settlement arrangement, about $21 million will be given to social welfare groups to assist Jews "born before May 8, 1945, who lived in the 1944 borders of Hungary sometime between 1939 and 1945, who are in need."
The property involved, including gold, silver, paintings and furs, had been stolen from Jews, some of whom had been sent to internment and death camps by the Nazis. Near the close of the war, the property was loaded onto a train for Austria. Americans intercepted the train in May 1945 and moved its contents to a warehouse near Salzburg, Austria.
The items belonging to Hungarian Jews were appropriated by the United States Army and sold to soldiers, according to a 1999 report by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States. Two suitcases filled with gold dust disappeared, investigators found, and other property was stolen by soldiers.
The proposed settlement requires the government to declassify all the documents involved in the case and have them archived.
By JOHN FILES
Published: March 12, 2005
WASHINGTON, March 11 - The United States government and a group of Hungarian Jews have agreed to a $25.5 million settlement for the looting of the Hungarians' valuables by American soldiers during World War II, lawyers for the group said Friday.
Gideon Taylor, executive vice president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, a New York City group that was involved in mediation between the sides, said the settlement was in part "a symbolic acknowledgement of an isolated and unfortunate chapter of the Americans' role in the Holocaust."
"But the acknowledgement matters," he added. "History matters."
The Justice Department said Friday that a settlement had been reached but declined to comment.
The details of the proposal are subject to approval by Patricia A. Seitz, a federal judge in the Southern District of Florida, who has been hearing the case in Miami. Judge Seitz scheduled a hearing for Thursday.
In December, the two sides decided in principle to settle a three-year-old lawsuit that had originally sought up to $10,000 each for as many as 30,000 Hungarian Jews and their survivors.
As part of the settlement arrangement, about $21 million will be given to social welfare groups to assist Jews "born before May 8, 1945, who lived in the 1944 borders of Hungary sometime between 1939 and 1945, who are in need."
The property involved, including gold, silver, paintings and furs, had been stolen from Jews, some of whom had been sent to internment and death camps by the Nazis. Near the close of the war, the property was loaded onto a train for Austria. Americans intercepted the train in May 1945 and moved its contents to a warehouse near Salzburg, Austria.
The items belonging to Hungarian Jews were appropriated by the United States Army and sold to soldiers, according to a 1999 report by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States. Two suitcases filled with gold dust disappeared, investigators found, and other property was stolen by soldiers.
The proposed settlement requires the government to declassify all the documents involved in the case and have them archived.