Rosner v United States of America
Hungarian Holocaust Survivors Ask U.S. Government to Compensate Them for Seized Property
A class action has been filed against the United States of America on behalf of Hungarian Jews who allege that U.S. Army generals plundered family fortunes carried out of Hungary aboard a commandeered Nazi train days after the Allied victory in World War II and covered up the misdeeds for generations. The action was filed under the federal Tort Claims Act and seeks the act's maximum compensation of $10,000 per class member.
Armed with newly declassified documents and the archives of former President Clinton, Jewish families allege in a newly amended filing that they have been cheated out of belongings worth between $50 million and $120 million through looting, military requisitions and U.S.-approved auctions. The U.S. government acknowledged the existence of the train, known as the Gold Train, for the first time in a 1999 report on Holocaust assets by a presidential advisory commission. The advisory commission's research director has said its criticism of the U.S. role was watered down under pressure from the Army.
The survivors allege that the United States illegally sold or distributed the gold, jewels, 1,200 paintings, silver, china, porcelain, 3,000 Oriental carpets and other luxury items seized by the Nazis from 800,000 Hungarian Jews. In one instance, the action alleges that Major General Harry Collins, a division commander, requested 45 sets of china and silver, glassware for 90 people, 320 dinner napkins and 60 sets of bedding, all to "be of the very best quality and workmanship available." In all, a lieutenant colonel allegedly delivered 22 shipments of the train's valuables to Collins.
The action quotes an Army art historian who wrote in 1949 that "The negligence of this explosive situation was hardly short of being criminal," pointing to the lack of controls on what officers shipped home. The United States agreed in 1946 to return all looted Hungarian property but later reclassified the train's treasures as "captured enemy property." Much was sold at New York auctions in 1948 to help defray the costs of Jewish restoration programs in Europe.
The 29 boxcar train was being moved from Hungary to Austria by Nazi officials to avoid advancing Soviet troops days after Germany's surrender and was intercepted by U.S. soldiers in May 1945. Ownership was allegedly marked on many items, and many families still have receipts for the seized property. The action alleges that the U.S. government made no effort to return the valuable personal assets, did not truthfully respond to the postwar Hungarian government and a delegation of Hungarian Jews who sought information about the property, and suppressed the truth about its actions for more than fifty years.
