US to pay $25m for Holocaust looting
The US agreed to pay $25m (€18m) today in settlement of claims by Hungarian Holocaust survivors that American soldiers plundered a trainload of Jewish family treasures seized by Nazis during the Second World War.
It will also acknowledge the US role in the looting but the wording is up to the US government and is not expected before a hearing on final approval expcted in Miami in October.
The families claimed high-ranking US Army officers and troops plundered a so-called Nazi Gold Train with 29 wagons after it was intercepted in May 1945.
The train carried gold, jewels, 1,200 paintings, silver, china, porcelain, 3,000 Oriental carpets and other heirlooms seized from Jewish families.
Word of the financial settlement to be distributed among needy Hungarian survivors rather than individual claimants leaked in December after the two sides announced an agreement in principle, but the question of whether any acknowledgement was forthcoming had not been resolved.
“The case never really was about money. It was about having a reckoning with history,” said Sam Dubbin, one of the families’ lawyers. He called the agreement “a great outcome.”
About $21m (€15m) in funding for humanitarian services will be distributed to social service agencies worldwide based on the percentage of survivors, including 40% in Israel, 22% in Hungary, 21% in the US and 7% in Canada.
