Hungarian Gold Train

The term refers to a Gold Train event from the time of the end of National Socialism. The affair of a missing train with dispossessed of Hungarian Jews valuables is considered as one of the biggest robberies in history. It's about the plundering of the alleged " gold train " with a total of 24 cars by Hungarian, Austrian, German and American soldiers and citizens.

History

As of March 19, 1944, the Hungarian Jews were expropriated by decree of the Hungarian state and deported from May 15 by the Special Operations Command Eichmann Adolf Eichmann to Auschwitz. 437,000 of about 800,000 Jews were deported to 9 July 1944. The remaining Jews in Budapest were also expropriated, but deported from October 1944 only a part. When the Red Army approached in 1944, decided the Nazi Arrow Cross regime loyal to transport the stolen valuables to Germany.

Thus began " allegedly" in March 1945 at the Austrian- Hungarian border, a freight train with 46 cars, including 24 filled with Jewish loot. The train was loaded with boxes full of gold, silver, jewelery, ornaments, coins, cash, crockery, paintings, rugs, china, furs, sacred objects, watches, Mark collections and so on. In Hopfgarten in Tyrol part of the crates was diverted by truck transport by a member of the Arrow Cross regime. The " Gold Train " went on and was initially hidden in Bad Gastein in the Tauern. In Bockstein on May 11 reached the rest of the train, the American occupation zone. The train conductor László Avar handed the wagons finally on 16 May in throwing the U.S. Army. The Zuginhalt was first stored in a barracks in Salzburg, the value was estimated by U.S. authorities at about $ 150 million. U.S. military personnel are said to have " served " from these Hungarian stocks value arbitrarily. In Salzburg endowed American officers have their offices and homes with items from the " Gold Train " from. End of 1945, wanted to visit the camp Gideon Rafael by the Jewish Agency, he was initially refused entry. When the Agency in 1946, visited the camp were of the 24 cars, only 16 available. Finally, a portion of the objects under the direction of the UN High Commission for Refugees in New York was sold at auction.

For decades there was between the U.S. government and the Hungarian government talks about the refund. One of these negotiations U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, the Hungarian Holy Crown brought in January 1978 returned to Budapest. In 1998, Bill Clinton's "Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States ", which should, inter alia, clarify the whereabouts of the treasures of the " Gold Train ". Their report brought on four sides, however, little enlightening. Meanwhile, 33 Hungarian Holocaust survivors had filed suit. They reached in 2005 a comparison, the U.S. government paid $ 25.5 million for social welfare projects for the benefit of Hungarian-Jewish victims of National Socialism.