Hungarian Gold Train - Developments Since 1998

Developments Since 1998

Most of the details of the Hungarian Gold Train were kept secret from the public by the United States government until 1998. In that year, United States President Bill Clinton created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States. In a report prepared by the committee that was published in October 1999 which detailed the handling of the train's assets by the United States, the committee cited a multitude of "shortcomings" of the US restitution efforts in Austria that eventually led to the property from the Hungarian Gold Train being so readily dispersed by United States officials. It concluded that the application of several policies regarding many assets on the train ensured they were never returned to their rightful owners.

In 2001 a lawsuit against the United States government was filed by Hungarian Holocaust survivors in a Florida district Federal Court for the government's mishandling of the assets on the Hungarian Gold Train. In 2005, the government reached a settlement worth $25.5 million. The money was allocated for distribution to various Jewish social service agencies for the benefit of Holocaust survivors.