U.S. To Pay Two Museums In Final Settlement Of Nazi Gold Train Case

Two checks totaling $500,000 is being sent to Jewish museums in the United States and Israel for Holocaust research and documentation of the historic Nazi Gold Train case.

It is the final piece of the settlement between Hungarian Holocaust survivors and the U.S. government. The money is going to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Yad Vashem museum in Israel.

In 1944, the Nazis loaded $200 million in gold, jewelry, furnishings and pricey art work onto dozens of railway cars bound for Germany from Budapest. The so-called "Gold Train" was abandoned by the Nazis in Austria and recovered by the U.S. Army on May 16, 1945.

A report by a presidential advisory commission in 1999 said most of the treasures vanished. The suit alleged that high-ranking U.S. Army officers furnished their villas and officers' clubs with Gold Train loot as they oversaw the rebuilding of Europe after the war.

In October, the United States apologized for its actions, as part of the $25.5 million settlement approved by a Miami federal judge.

The first allocation of $4.2 million was distributed by 27 social service agencies worldwide, including four in South Florida.