Judge Lets Hungarian Jews File Suit
Fri Aug 30,11:29 PM ET
By CATHERINE WILSON, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI (AP) - Despite government objections, a judge will allow Hungarian Jews and their heirs to pursue a lawsuit to recover family treasures seized by the Nazis and commandeered by U.S. troops, who sold or stole them.
The families claim valuables seized from 800,000 people were loaded onto the so-called "Gold Train" that moved from Hungary to Austria to avoid advancing Soviet troops days after the May 7, 1945, Allied victory.
U.S. soldiers intercepted the 44-car train, but its 1,200 paintings, 3,000 Oriental carpets, gold, silver, jewelry and other valuables were sold or looted, without compensation to the owners.
Judge Patricia Seitz decided this week that parts of the class-action lawsuit should be dismissed, but the families will still be allowed to pursue claims for compensation and return of their property. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Miami in May 2001; several plaintiffs live in south Florida.
The government had argued the lawsuit was filed decades too late, but the families said they were unaware of what happened until a presidential commission on Holocaust assets ( news - external web site) reported on the train in October 1999.
"Their own commission is the one that identified the problem," said Sam Dubbin, attorney for the families. "They didn't finish the job, and that's why we're in court."
The Justice Department ( news - web sites) did not return a call for comment Friday.
In deciding to keep the suit alive, the judge noted the hardships suffered by Holocaust survivors following World War II, and "the fact that the government cannot benefit from its own alleged misconduct."
A Jewish board in Hungary concluded in 1947 that French troops seized two truckloads of jewels and gold. But the U.S. military had control over numerous cases of silver, gold and gold watches, jewelry and other valuables, the board said.
Much of the property was given to Austria, sold through the Army Exchange Service, donated to refugee agencies, used by U.S. military officers as home and office furnishings, or looted from a Salzburg warehouse, the lawsuit claims. Some was auctioned in New York.
The families maintain the Nazis took detailed inventories but the U.S. government declared the owners unidentifiable in 1946.
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