MEDIA ADVISORY
Ronald Zweig, director of New York University’s Taub Center for Israel Studies, is available for comment on today’s “Gold Train” settlement, which was announced in Miami, the site of case’s proceedings. A historian, Zweig has authored The Gold Train: The Destruction of the Jews and the Looting of Hungary (William Morrow, 2002), which reveals the World War II story of a train carrying gold, diamonds, wedding rings, and other valuables that headed out of Budapest toward a Nazi stronghold in the Alps. That train never reached its destination, and the fate of its contents has remained a source of speculation and controversy. Zweig was a consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice on the “Gold Train” case (Rossner et al v. U.S.), which alleged U.S. military malfeasance.
Today, Dec. 20, the U.S. government agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by Hungarian Jews for the trainload of valuables stolen by the Nazis. According to the plaintiffs’ attorney, the agreement would apply to between 30,000 and 50,000 Hungarian Jews whose property was stolen by the Nazis.
Reporters interested in speaking with Professor Zweig should contact James Devitt, Office of Public Affairs, at (212) 998-6808 or james.devitt@nyu.edu
Zweig, formerly of Tel Aviv University, has also written Britain and Palestine During the Second World War (Royal Historical Society, 1986) and German Reparations and the Jewish World: A History of the Claims Conference (Frank Cass, 2001). He edited David Ben-Gurion: Political Leadership in Israel (Frank Cass, 1991); and the Electronic Edition of the Palestine Post, 1932-1950 (online since 2000); co-edited Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver: A Study in American Zionism (Frank Cass, 1997) with Mark Raider and Jonathan Sarna and co-edited Escape Through Austria: Jewish Refugees and the Austrian Route to Palestine (Frank Cass, 2002) with Thomas Albrich.