U.S. court conditionally approves gold train deal

U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz orally gave her preliminary blessing to the deal -- the first involving the U.S. government and stolen Nazi treasure, and under which elderly Jews who need it will get help with welfare services such as health-care costs and living expenses.

Seitz requested minor changes in the paperwork, written statements from plaintiffs attesting to their agreement, and clarity over the list of plaintiffs after at least one objected because there would be no direct monetary compensation for stolen property.

The government's lawyer, Daniel Meron, told the Miami court he could only accept a settlement that ended all litigation involving plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Meron said afterward he did not consider the objections to the agreement to be a major stumbling block.

"I would be very surprised if it fell through at this point," he told Reuters.

The issues raised by the judge will have to be resolved promptly so the U.S. government can authorize by May 1 a $1 million campaign of newspaper ads and letters to inform 50,000 to 60,000 Hungarian Holocaust survivors of the deal.

The potential beneficiaries will then have until Aug. 1 to send in objections to the New York-based Claims Conference, a Jewish group that distributes Holocaust restitution funds and that will administer the "Gold Train" settlement.

Final court approval is expected in October.

The trainload of goods stolen by the Nazis was seized by the U.S. Army in Austria in 1945. The 24 boxcars were packed with gold, jewelry, art, clothing, Oriental rugs and other household goods and religious articles then valued at $50 million to $200 million.

The suit, which originally sought $10,000 per person in compensation and was filed in 2001, said the Army falsely classified the trainload as unidentifiable and enemy property, thus avoiding having to return it to its rightful owners.

The items were requisitioned by U.S. military officers to furnish homes, sold in Army commissaries or kept by military personnel as trinkets.


ACKNOWLEDGING WRONG WAS DONE

Under the deal, all Hungarian Jews born before the end of the war, and their heirs, are eligible for help. Plaintiffs' attorney Sam Dubbin estimated 20 to 30 percent lived in poverty and up to 10,000 people might qualify for assistance.

The help could include medical expenses or even paying someone's rent. Most surviving Hungarian Jews live in Hungary, the United States, Canada, Israel and Australia.

In addition, the U.S. government committed itself to formally recognizing that wrong was done. Some of the funds will also be used to create a historical "Gold Train" archive.

Seitz noted she had received complaints about proposed attorney's fees, which could amount to nearly $4 million.

Jonathan Cuneo, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the three legal firms involved had spent more than $800,000 of their own money working on the case.

Several Holocaust survivors named in the suit told the court they backed the settlement.

Georg Moshe Schwarz, a Dachau concentration camp survivor living in Israel, said it should be adopted "for the historical value of the U.S. government acknowledgment of responsibility" and also because Hungarian Holocaust survivors "deserve support from the symbolic remnants of their own property."

Source: Reuters