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8 Works 123 Members 1 Review

About the Author

Ronald W. Zweig is a senior lecturer in modern Jewish history at Tel Aviv University.

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Works by Ronald W. Zweig

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Given the upsurge in interest in Hollywood with the Jewish belongings looted by Nazi Germany during WWII (The Mercenary Men) I decided to read this book about a less known aspect of the conflict, namely the persecution of the Jewish community within Germany's ally Hungary.

In mid-December 1944, as the Soviet army began to encircle Budapest, a train of 42 wagons left the Hungarian capital. The wagons contained valued possessions - ranging from Persian carpets and fur coats to gold wedding rings and silver religious artifacts - that had been systematically plundered from Hungarian Jewry during the conflict and were bound for a safer location within Austria.

As the Gold Train trundled its way westwards,a journey that would normally take days took weeks,its contents and those in charge of them underwent a series of adventures often bordering on comic as the escorts try to justify their actions,positioning themselves in readiness for the Nazi's ultimate defeat. The train and its contents are attacked by various groups, pilfered from and take on almost mythical characteristics.

Zweig worked as a professor within Tel Aviv university and trawled through countless documentation including personal accounts from survivors and tells the story in a slow methodical,scholarly way befitting the trains journey to Austria. However, he also gives a good insight into the persecution of Jews long before the war began in a crumbling Hungarian empire but also how the Allied powers including Russia, along with various Jewish groups used it as a bargaining chip to further their own political aims afterwards.

Perhaps what is most telling is that whereas very little of the value of the trains contents were ever truly realized (was this due to deceit, fraud and theft or just plain wishful thinking?)and even less is returned to their rightful owners or their heirs, the main architects of this escapade seem to have been allowed to live out their lives in relative comfort. This book gives a sobering insight into genocide but ultimately concludes that sentimental value is far higher than real value because when goods are taken from their natural owners they merely become the sum of their parts and therefore only worth what someone else is willing to pay for them.

Perhaps not a riveting book that will be turned into some Hollywood blockbuster but an interesting one none the less.
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PilgrimJess | May 19, 2014 |

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Works
8
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Rating
3.2
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ISBNs
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