US to pay up for stolen Jewish loot

[Hrach_Techie]

US to pay up for stolen Jewish loot


At the end of World War II, US troops stopped a Nazi train in Austria carrying gold, art and other goods stolen from Hungarian Jews. The items were not returned to their owners - some even ended up in US officers' homes.

Now, as Daniel Lak reports, a court in Florida is finalising a US government settlement worth about $25m (£13m).

David Mermelstein has vivid memories of what the Nazis and Hungarian police stole from his family in their town in the Carpathian mountains, then a part of Hungary.



Many Jews who survived the Holocaust returned to looted homes

"Fine china, lace, a bag of gold and silver jewellery, my sister's dowry, the candle sticks and wine cups that we used for religious festivals and all of our money," says 74-year-old Mr Mermelstein, sitting in a cafe in south-west Miami.

Pausing for a moment, he adds: "But mostly they stole my family. Of all of us, five brothers and sisters, my father, my mother, my grandmother, I'm on the only one who survived. I'll never get compensation for that." It was 1944 and Mr Mermelstein was 17 years old. Hitler's regime was losing the war. Yet the Nazis were determined to complete the genocide of Jews in Europe, including Hungary's Jewish community of 800,000.

Mr Mermelstein and hundreds of thousands of other Hungarian Jews were deported to death camps, such as Auschwitz.

Through various twists of fate, young David Mermelstein survived, and made his way to America

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4328311.stm

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вот так то вот - полякам принадлежали улицы - им принадлежали дома (с) ... может и не к месту ... так обидно стало за потери наших предков ...