From: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031103/sfm097a_1.html

MIAMI, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Hungarian Holocaust survivors on Friday filed
an amended complaint in U.S. District Court, introducing new evidence on
the extensive looting of recovered World War II Jewish valuables by U.S.
Army officers, and the political maneuvers that sold many of the valuables
in auctions rather than returning them to their rightful owners.

The amended complaint claims the United States modified its WWII
restitution policy and auctioned the recovered Jewish valuables to cover up
widespread looting by senior military officers, and to fill in budget gaps
in its Jewish restoration program following WWII.

Originally filed in 2001, the suit claims the U.S. government mishandled
and later sold at auction thousands of Hungarian Jews' personal valuables
-- including gold, jewelry, household items, works of art, and fine rugs --
originally confiscated by the Nazis but later recovered by the U.S. Army
after WWII. For decades, the U.S. government misled the survivors about
what had happened to their property, the complaint alleges. The story only
began to be revealed in a 1999 government report, and the amended complaint
now greatly expands public knowledge about what happened.

"The story about these unconscionable acts by the U.S. government must be
told," said Steve Berman, co-lead counsel representing the plaintiffs. "The
government has a duty to these Holocaust survivors to tell the truth."

Since a September 2002 court ruling rejecting the U.S. government's claims
of immunity and ordering the case forward, Hungarian Holocaust survivors
and their attorneys found in the U.S. archives and Clinton Presidential
Library thousands of documents supporting their case, including formerly
classified U.S. government documents made available by the court and
documents from the Hungarian and Israeli government archives. The amended
complaint filed with the judge also includes documents from the Clinton
presidential library that must remain under seal.

. . .

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