Background
With the Soviet Army about 100 miles away from Hungary, on March 7, 1944 Hitler launched Operation Margarethe—the invasion of Hungary. The Arrow Cross Party - the fascist government of Hungary, led by Ferenc Szálasi - collaborated with their Nazi occupiers in forcing the estimated 800,000 Jewish citizens of Hungary to hand over all of their valuables to government officials. This included gems, golden jewelry, wedding rings and anything else considered to be of high monetary value. After they handed over their property, everything was put into individual bags and boxes which identified the owners and receipts were issued. After a majority of the Hungarian Jews were shipped to concentration camps, mostly to Auschwitz-Birkenau where most were murdered, Hungarian authorities re-sorted all the confiscated valuables into content categories. By that time it was all but impossible to identify proper ownership of any of the valuables.
Read more about this topic: Hungarian Gold Train
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