[3] Items of clothing allocated for Army exchange store sales that were considered of lesser value were turned over to a Division chaplain for distribution "to needy DPs" (displaced persons). This is a real-life story about the theft of a fabulous treasure - the German national gold and foreign currency reserves worth some $2,500,000,000 at the time of the original investigation - which disappeared in transit following the Nazi collapse in 1945. The money was allocated for distribution to various Jewish social service agencies for the benefit of Holocaust survivors. Myth-busting the 'Nazi gold train' Published 20 August 2015. In return, Hottl and Westen received four crates of valuables as their cut. Toldi and his family then successfully entered Switzerland, but he was later detained in Austria that year, interrogated by Allied authorities, but released and has never been traced again. [6], In 2001, Hungarian Holocaust survivors filed a lawsuit in a Florida district court against the United States government for the government's mishandling of the assets on the Hungarian Gold Train. Events on the train were about to shift into high gear as Toldi began a double cross intended to ensure the safety of himself and his family at the expense of the rest of the crew and passengers of the gold train. When Hungary fell to the Red Army on April 5, 1944, preparations to move the treasure went into high gear. Nazi gold train search abandoned after bringing in £150m for town The world is about to learn the truth a train 'full of Nazi gold' 'No evidence' that Nazi gold train was found in Poland With his situation growing more desperate by the day, Toldi had to find a way into Switzerland before the Soviets could grab him. The fate of the gold on those trucks remains unknown. The official United States asset restitution policy agreed upon at the 1946 Final Act of Paris Reparation Conference and by the Five-Power Agreement for Non-Repatriable Victims of Germany was to sell ownerless property for the benefit of non-repatriable refugees. The Nazis built networks of hidden tunnels and bunkers. During the night of March 30, 1945, Toldi, his family, and a few trusted aides left the train with the most valuable of the loot, leaving his subordinate, Lazlo Avar, to take the train to its ultimate destination, the Swiss-Austrian border. A treasure hunt duo that made international headlines with its search for a fabled gold-filled underground Nazi train has split up. The gold train was about to begin its journey into myth and legend. Toldi, the story goes, got false passports from Westen. Culture Fabled Nazi gold train: Is the hunt over? All requests for his surrender were for naught. It stopped along the route at various small towns and villages where more gold and other valuables had been stored in warehouses and were then transferred to the train. Nazi “Ghost Train” Loaded with Gold May Have Been Found in Poland. Westen, it seems, was a go-between on behalf of Hottl with the OSS. Does a Guatemala Lake Contain Mayan Treasure? Teen finds gold bar in German lake. The Catholic Church never recognized the Jews’ distinct position in everyday life and only gave lip service to their newly found freedom. The Arrow Cross Party – Hungary's fascist government, led by Ferenc Szálasi – collaborated with their German occupiers in forcing the estimated 800,000 Jewish citizens of Hungary to hand over all of their valuables to government officials. The gold train began its journey shortly before Christmas 1944. No Evidence of Nazi Gold Train, Experts Say. A widespread rumor about a “Nazi Gold Train”—a train car filled with hidden Nazi treasures—has become a point of interest in the last decade. Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States, Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) program, "The Mystery of the Hungarian "Gold Train, "Lawmakers Angry Over Slow Track of 'Gold Train' Case", "U.S. settles 'Gold Train' Holocaust claims", Letter Leads to Gold Train Claims: Missive Written by Late Florida Historian Becomes 'Smoking Gun' in Lawsuit on the Missing Treasures, The Mystery of the Hungarian 'Gold Train', "Programmatic Report on the 2012-2013 Special Fund Allocation of the Hungarian Gold Train Settlement", "Push continues to rectify Nazi-era looting of a 'Gold Train, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hungarian_Gold_Train&oldid=997201845, Art and cultural repatriation after World War II, Wikipedia articles in need of updating from March 2018, All Wikipedia articles in need of updating, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, 24 cars to carry the confiscated and looted items, 15 cars to carry Hungarian and Nazi Germany troops guarding the train, plus their supplies of ammunition, food & drink, 7 cars to carry a designated group of coal miners, who were there to bury the items should need arise, This page was last edited on 30 December 2020, at 13:01. © Copyright 2021 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved. The property included chinaware, silverware, glassware, rugs, and table and bed linen. Charges were filed against him for the forcible deportation of 4,000 Hungarian Jews, and the post-war government asked for his extradition. Toldi ordered large amounts of the valuables onto a 46-car freight train with 213 people on board that was to head for Nazi Germany via Austria: According to various reports about the train, the contents included gold, gold jewelry, gems, diamonds, pearls, watches, about 200 paintings, Persian and Oriental rugs, silverware, chinaware, furniture, fine clothing, linens, porcelains, cameras, stamp-collections and currency (mostly US dollars and Swiss francs). [1], The US Army transferred the majority of the assets to a Military Government Warehouse in Salzburg. Toldi Develops Plot to Smuggle Valuables Out of Hungary. Explore {{searchView.params.phrase}} by color family {{familyColorButtonText(colorFamily.name)}} Nazi officers supervise Jews leaving railway trucks during the deportation to the camps. Jewish organizations and the Hungarian government estimated the total value of the train's contents at $350 million in 1945[2] or almost $4 billion in 2007 adjusted for inflation. On reaching a considered safe location close to the Hungarian/Austrian border, Toldi halted the train for 92 days to carefully document what he catalogued as Hungarian Government property. [1], The majority of the remaining assets from the train was either sold through Army exchange stores in Europe in 1946 or auctioned off in New York City in 1948, with the proceeds going to the IRO. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Directed by Dan Clifton, Wanda Koscia. By requisition order of Major General Harry J. Collins, Commander of the 42nd Infantry Division (the famed "Rainbow" Division), many of the items were used to furnish his home. By the time the gold train began the second leg of its journey in the spring of 1945, the war was almost over. He had written numerous pamphlets on police procedure and a manual for the Gendarmerie (police) training school. The “Nazi Gold Trains” are legendary Nazi German-era trains, laden with gold and treasures, rumored to have been buried underground toward the end of World War II. The trains were never seen again. Some believe that the Nazis, in a panic over people uncovering of their base, hid an entire train car filled with jewels, gold, … A government official appointed by the Schutzstaffel (SS), Árpád Toldi, concocted a plan to evacuate much of the Jewish loot out of Hungary. As the train meandered through Hungary, it stopped at a few locations to collect other looted and confiscated items that had been stored elsewhere, including a stop close to Abaúj Castle. In 1939, the so-called Second Jewish Law put severe impediments on the everyday occupations of the majority of Hungary’s Jews. Many planned to make their getaways with the plunder taken from millions of holocaust victims, who had perished in the concentration camps and that which had been confiscated in occupied countries. In 2005, the government reached a settlement worth $25.5 million. The Jews of Hungary occupied a unique position among the nations of Eastern Europe. The confiscated property was placed into individual bags and boxes which identified the owners, and receipts were issued. Unknown to Avar, Red Army units were only 10 miles away. Last week, a pair of anonymous treasure hunters approached officials in Walbrzych, Poland via their lawyer to claim they had found an old Nazi loot train. UK climate summit 'last best chance', says Kerry. The government of Kalman Daranyi decreed that all professional Jews, such as doctors and lawyers, could no longer pursue their livelihoods. Hitler’s Final Solution to the Jewish problem in Europe did not spare Hungary’s minorities. He firmly believed that the treasure was the property of the Hungarian government. In a similar case of a Hungarian gold train, after invading Hungary and with the Russians quickly approaching, the Nazis transported confiscated gold and treasure via a 42 car freight train to Germany. The Hungarian authorities re-sorted all the confiscated valuables into content categories. In Hungary, a clandestine plot was hatched by a few greedy military officials who took possession of millions of dollars worth of gold, diamonds, and other precious valuables stolen from the Jewish victims of the holocaust. 1 Plot Synopsis 2 Historical Context 3 Summary 4 Notes & Trivia 5 Quotes 6 References Gates exposes Nazi secrets as he searches for the lost fortune of war criminal Adolf Hitler. Classifications included precious stones and jewelry, gold objects, gold coins, gold watches, silver objects, and furs. Nazi 'Gold Train': How Hitler Plundered His Victims During World War II. He was eventually given the prestigious job of Commissioner of Jewish Affairs. It apparently went missing inside air raid tunnels during the advance of the Soviet Army towards Berlin in 1945. Toldi and his party tried to enter Switzerland but were refused admission by the Swiss government. Top Stories. The Nazis confiscated enormous amounts of gold and precious art during the war, and though much of it has been recovered, much still remains lost. These agreements were the basis for the creation of the Preparatory Committee for the International Refugee Organization (IRO). In late 1944, the Soviet Army was advancing on the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Toldi was virulently anti-Semitic and anti-Soviet in his politics. The rest of the booty was attached to the main part of the train. Nazi 'gold train': Poland to bring in army to help in hunt. At a point along the train’s trek, Toldi was reported to have unceremoniously expelled his step daughters from the caravan. [1], The United States government kept most of the details of the Hungarian Gold Train secret from the public until 1998, when US President Bill Clinton created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States. Nazi gold train. In the closing months of WWII, the Nazi’s hide stolen gold and money. Witnesses report seeing the trains being hastily loaded in Wroclaw and leaving in a south-western direction. Unconfirmed accounts placed Toldi in North Africa or as having enlisted in the French Foreign Legion. [1], The ultimate fate of approximately 200 paintings seized from the train is unknown. Meanwhile, the Central Board of Jews in Hungary - an organization representing Jewish interests in Hungary, and under pressure from the occupying Soviet Army who were seeking war repatriations - and the new government of Hungary, were aware of the American seizure of the train and lobbied extensively, and sometimes passionately, for the return of all the contents of the train to Hungary where they could be sorted out in an effort to return them to their rightful owners or their family members. In accordance with long-standing international agreements, the US had a policy of restitution that "looted works of art and cultural material will be restituted to the governments of the countries from which they were taken. Last Secrets of the Third Reich: The Nazi Gold Train ( 5 ) IMDb 7.6 49min 2016 13+ After the end of World War II, rumors persisted that the mountains of southwest Poland held a precious secret-a mysterious abandoned train laden with treasure. Piotr Koper and Andreas Richter discovered the train close to the small town of Walbrzych in south-west Poland after a … Toldi had served in the German ministry of occupation in Hungary. [1], Some of the property from the train ended up in the possession of high-ranking US Army officers who were stationed in Central Europe to oversee post-war and Marshall Plan reconstruction efforts. On June 3, 2014, a report was filed with the federal court detailing that between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013, $464,553.56 had been distributed to 12 Jewish social service organizations in Australia, Canada, Hungary, Israel, Sweden and the United States. Key Point: The gold train incident was one of several involving riches plundered by the Nazi regime from their victims across Europe. Before being killed, the Nazis stripped these innocent victims of all their precious jewels, gold, furs, and anything of value that could be later sold for profit. The cargo was divided to save some of the items in case the train came under Allied aerial attack. One of the most mysterious and brazen incidents to come out of the war. Reports placed him in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1947, but that sighting could not be verified. The fascist government of Hungary was in possession of millions of dollars worth of valuables looted from its own populace. One of the most mysterious and brazen incidents to come out of the war. The rumor of a lost Nazi train filled with gold is a well-known locally. In all, the train consisted of 46 cars, with a total of 213 people on board. The gold at the bottom of the well is thought to have come from the Reichsbank in the Polish town of Breslau (now Wrocław) and is estimated to be worth billions of euros, TFN reported on May 26. As the train neared the Swiss border, Toldi intended to stop from time to time and begin selling off some of the contents to the guards on board, as well as certain civilians living along the route. By the end of December 1944, the gold train was ready for departure. It's a claim the local government seems ready to accept. Toldi was convinced that the Soviets were actively hunting his treasure-laden train, and he began a desperate gamble to keep the contents out of their hands. U.S. troops found roughly 7,000 sacks of gold bullion neatly piled in the underground area, measuring approximately 75 … Soon after the German occupation, he had been appointed governor of the Fejer district in Hungary. Further restrictions forbade Jews from participating in the cultural arts of the country. At this juncture, Toldi requisitioned several transports from a nearby Hungarian army base to gather up more Jewish gold and jewels, which had been secretly kept at the nearby Obanya Castle. That country should have been Hungary, but as of 1953 the paintings were in the possession of the Austrian government;[5] their current whereabouts is unknown. In 1943, at the height of WWII, Adolf Hitler ordered the commencement of the clandestine Project Riese, with the intention of creating seven underground structures in the Owl Mountains in … This included gems, gold jewelry, wedding rings, and anything else considered to be of high monetary value. In late 1944, the Soviet Army was advancing on the Hungarian capital of Budapest. David Mermelstein was the only survivor present at the mediation. Toldi ordered large amounts of the valuables onto a 46-car freight train with 213 people on board that was to head for Nazi Germany via Austria: Reports say that Toldi gave Hottl 10 percent of the plunder in exchange for his promise to transport the fugitives to Switzerland and to give the Toldi family fake German passports under assumed names. Their trail had grown cold—at least temporarily. "[1], The US Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) sent their officer Morton Himmler, who was stationed in Salzburg, to take charge of what they referred to as the Werfen Train. The wholesale looting of non-monetary gold and victim assets did not stop with the cessation of hostilities in Europe. In time, however, the OSS worked directly with Hottl, although the extent of their cooperation is not known. By the end of the war, 200,000 Hungarian Jews remained alive. Himmler ordered the people on board to be immediately detained and separated from the train, although the US Army which was short of personnel allowed selected Hungarian troops to assist in unloading the train. Toldi then turned to SS officer Wilhelm Höttl, to whom he handed over 10% of his convoy's goods (4 cases of gold) in return for both German passports and Swiss visas for all of his family. For the Jews of Hungary, conditions became even worse when the radical, anti-Semitic Magyar government allowed the Nazis to assert control over their country at the outbreak of World War II. This article is more than 5 years old. [3] Other estimates of the contents' 1945 worth are from $50 million to $120 million [4] or $570 million to $1.7 billion in 2007 adjusted for inflation.[3]. Hottl worked with another con man, Friedrich Westen, an Austrian who traveled freely to Poland, Romania, Italy, and Yugoslavia. Nazi 'gold train': Treasure could be claimed by Russia as compensation for Second World War. In 1867, the Hungarian government emancipated the Jews, who then began organizing their cultural and economic life as a distinct minority in a non-Jewish nation. Historian Dan Snow investigates. The gold train spent 92 days at Brennbergbanya, where the cargo was carefully counted and sorted into various categories. The Hungarian Gold Train was the German-operated train during World War II that carried stolen valuables, mostly Hungarian Jews' property, from Hungary towards Berlin in 1945. Hottl had previously been a high-ranking officer in the Balkans, and the two men had come in contact with each other during their work. With Soviet troops now on his heels, Toldi began the laborious process of getting the gold train ready for departure. Its first stop was the town of Zire, 120 miles from Budapest. In 1938, one year before the outbreak of World War II, the first anti-Jewish laws were put into effect in Hungary. The title of the book "Nazi Gold" was only one of the subjects examined in the book. [1][2], With the Soviet Army about 160 kilometres (100 mi) away from Hungary, on March 7, 1944, Adolf Hitler launched Operation Margarethe—the invasion of Hungary. A similar Nazi train carrying more than 5 tons (4.5 metric tons) of gold, 700 pounds (317 kilograms) of diamonds and pearls, 1,250 paintings and thousands of Oriental rugs -- stolen from grand estates as well as everyday victims of the Nazi genocide -- was intercepted by Allied forces in 1945 and dubbed the Hungarian Gold Train. As they were deemed "cultural assets" under official US restitution policy, they should have been returned to their country of origin. Twenty eight tonnes of Nazi gold worth more than £1billion may have been traced to the grounds of a palace in Poland after the location was mentioned in an SS diary. Browse 1,256 nazi train stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. According to The New York Times the auction receipts totaled $152,850.61, or approximately $1.3 million in 2007 adjusted for inflation. The US Government continually ignored the Hungarian pleas. In a devastated and chaotic Europe, the door was still open to looting and pilfering on a wide scale albeit on a much less organised basis. On board were members of Toldi’s family, including his wife, son, and step daughters. Other items furnished the homes and offices of other US military officers including Brigadier General Henning Linden and General Edgar E. Hume. A week later, the train arrived in Brennbergbanya. With Dan Snow, Wojtek Malanowski, Tadeusz Slowikowski, Andreas Richter. The Allied armies that had landed at Normandy almost one year earlier had penetrated deep inside Germany. A government official appointed by the Schutzstaffel (SS), Árpád Toldi, concocted a plan to evacuate much of the Jewish loot out of Hungary. This would disappoint those only interested in the fate of Nazi Gold alone. Post-war Nazi Gold Looting The Hungarian Gold Train. After the war, the new Hungarian government tried to find Toldi, and investigators came up with interesting information. However there are plenty of later books dealing specifically with Nazi Gold. Toldi and his family left the train with a large amount of gold on 30 March 1945, as the train crossed into Austria - the Russian Army was only 16 km (10 mi) behind. Nazi gold train - Find news stories, facts, pictures and video about Nazi gold train - Page 1 | Newser At the beginning of April 1945, with the end of the war in Europe now weeks away, Toldi and his family were situated at the border between Switzerland and Austria where they accumulated additional valuables beyond what they had already stolen from the train. The paintings, however, were stored in the Salzburg Residenz. Published 12 August 2015. By that time it was all but impossible to identify proper ownership of any of the valuables.[1]. [7][8] Among the items of evidence submitted by attorneys who represented the survivors was a January 1949 letter written by Evelyn Tucker, a fine arts officer serving with the United States' Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) program who had been assigned to the Reparation, Deliveries and Restitution (RD&R) Branch of the U.S. Allied Command, Austria (USACA). With Switzerland as its final destination, a large train consisting of 24 cars filled with the looted treasure, 15 other cars containing police and selected army officers, a large amount of foodstuffs, and finally, seven cars containing miners, made emergency plans to leave. In Spring 1945, the train started its journey west again. Sent to U.S. State Department cultural affairs officer Ardelia Ripley Hall, Tucker's letter documented the post-World War II looting by U.S. Army officers of multiple items from former Nazi strongholds, including items from the gold train. After American forces seized the train in Austria, almost none of the valuables were returned to Hungary, their rightful owners, or their surviving family members. [1], The US had a different policy towards works of art. They believed it contained precious treasure left by the Nazis at the close of WW2. So began the myth of the Hungarian Gold Train, one of the most mysterious and brazen incidents to come out of World War II. The majority of the Jews were shipped to concentration camps, particularly Auschwitz-Birkenau; most were murdered. As rumours of a 'Nazi gold train' become more certain, claims to the treasure have emerged Walbrzych now has a Gold Train Car Wash, a Gold Train Skoda dealership and a line in souvenirs including fridge magnets, stickers, bags and gold ingot paperweights. Toldi's convoy tried to enter neutral Switzerland 10 days later, but were refused entry. After passing from Hungary directly into Austria, the train stopped occasionally to transfer amounts of the gold to trucks. In 2015, a media frenzy broke when 2 amateur researchers found a buried train in Poland. The Nazi Gold Train The legend of the Nazi Gold Train dates back to just before the end of WWII. [9][10][11], Funds from the settlement are still being distributed. By May 1945, Hottl and Westen disappeared from sight. The man in charge of the gold train was Colonel Arpad Toldi. The most valuable goods, mainly gold and jewels, were stored on trucks. By the spring of 1945, Hitler’s thousand year Reich had come crashing down in flames. Soon after, Generals Eisenhower and Patton traveled to the mine and discovered years’ worth of stolen Nazi gold. The treasure hunters who found the Nazi gold train today claimed for the first time that the long-lost £250million Amber Room could be inside. Key Point: The gold train incident was one of several involving riches plundered by the Nazi regime from their victims across Europe. There it was seized by Allied troops, first by the French Army and then by the United States Army. Hundreds of men toiled for months during the summer, fall, and winter of 1944 to prepare the stolen property for its journey. Like their brethren, they too had lost their jobs and possessions, taken by either the puppet Magyar government or its Nazi protectors. [12], German-operated train during World War II. The train eventually came to a halt in the town of Werfen, best known for the medieval Hohenwerfen Castle, on 16 May 1945 post the surrender of Nazi Germany. Two treasure hunters in southwest Poland say they have found a hidden tunnel containing a train that may hold rare Nazi gold. Toldi’s personal file was missing from the Hungarian Ministry of Defense. The area is now part of southwest Poland, but was then part of southeast Germany. The so-called Nazi gold train and Wałbrzych gold train concerns a local legend of up to three Nazi German-era trains buried underground in Lower Silesia in January 1945 toward the end of World War II. As ownership of the valuables was impossible to ascertain, the official US position, as stipulated by United States Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, was that the belongings were to be given to refugee aid organizations in accordance with international restitution agreements. Soviet forces were shelling the city, and by April, Adolf Hitler, situated in his fortress bunker, would commit suicide. It concluded that the application of several policies regarding many assets on the train ensured that they were never returned to their rightful owners. In February 1945, Westen made secret contact with Allen Dulles, the American OSS station chief in Bern. A report prepared by the committee, published in October 1999, detailed the handling of the train's assets by the United States and 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. 5 … Nearly 20 years ago French driver Jonathan Diaz spotted a pile of yellowing official Nazi documents with the words 'gold bar' at the long-abandoned Canfranc train station. Throughout Europe, plans were underway by various high-ranking German officers to save themselves. He appointed his own people to all the local positions of governmental authority, enforced the deportations of Jews, and oversaw the seizure of their personal property. Nazi Gold Train is the 27th episode in Season 2 of Expedition Unknown. He now turned to an SS officer, Wilhelm Hottl, for help. As the war drew to an end, Hungarian government officials drew up an audacious plan to take these valuables out of the country and far from the reach of the fast approaching Allied armies. This was a tactical decision, Toldi stated to Avar; he would meet up with him later. Generals Eisenhower and Patton inside the Merker’s mine. Under the command of Colonel Adolf Eichmann, over 600,000 Hungarian Jews were deported to the concentration camps. Under his personal supervision, Toldi divided the most precious cargo in preparation for two types of transportation. At this point, the historical record becomes sketchy regarding how much and what kind of assistance Hottl gave Toldi, as well as what the former Nazi officer demanded in return.