Press Releases
MEMBERS OF HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE URGE ASHCROFT TO RESOLVE CLAIMS FILED BY HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS AGAINST U.S.
Washington, D.C. - Five Members of the House Judiciary Committee are urging U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to reach a swift and equitable resolution with hundreds of holocaust survivors suing to recover possessions stolen by the Nazis. A shipment of goods taken from Hungarian Jews during World War II by the Nazis was intercepted by American forces, but have never been returned to their rightful owners.
During World War II, the Nazis and the pro-Nazi government of Hungary stole heirlooms, fine art and other possessions from the Hungarian Jewish community, and loaded them onto a train—the so called “Hungarian Gold Train.” The train was intercepted by the U.S. Army in Austria at the end of the war, but the property on board was never returned to its rightful owners, and some in fact were requisitioned for the personal use of U.S. generals and others.
In May of 2001, Hungarian holocaust survivors sued the Federal government, seeking compensation for their loss. But the Department of Justice has fought the lawsuit vigorously.
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens & Brooklyn) sent a letter, cosigned by Reps. Howard Berman (D-CA), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Robert Wexler (D-FL), and Adam Schiff (D-CA), to Attorney General Ashcroft calling on him to resolve the claims swiftly and fairly. “These Holocaust survivors are elderly,” wrote the Members of Congress to Ashcroft. “They have already had to rebuild their lives in this new country—our country—from scratch, only to learn late in life that our own government played a disgraceful role in their dispossession. They should not be subject to further delay. We ask for your personal attention to this matter, to see that justice is done.”
Congressman Anthony D. Weiner
