Jews Hungary

Canada announced that Imre Finta, a former Hungarian police captain, has been charged in the deportation of more than 8,600 Jews from Hungary during World War II. Finta is the first Canadian to be charged with war crimes. Canada recently changed its laws to allow the government to prosecute residents for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in other countries. Finta, 76, was detained as he boarded a bus in Hamilton, Ontario, bound for Buffalo, N.Y.

A group of Hungarian survivors of Holocaust death camps sued the U.S. government in federal court in Miami on Monday, seeking compensation for property seized from them by Nazis and eventually taken by the U.S. Army but never returned. The case stems from the Nazi seizure of more than $200 million in gold, jewelry, Oriental rugs, clothing and artworks, among them Rembrandt and Durer paintings. The booty was loaded aboard a train, which the Nazis abandoned and U.S. Army personnel took over.

With the help of film star Tony Curtis and a $2-million tree, Hungarian Jews are trying to restore Europe's largest synagogue in Budapest. Work on repairing the huge 130-year-old building in the former Jewish quarter, weakened by World War II bombs, neglect and the last three severe winters, has already begun with a $5-million contribution from the Hungarian government.

The title of a new documentary about the Holocaust, "The Last Days," carries a double meaning for survivor Tom Lantos. "Not just the last days of the war. It is the last days for us . . . survivors of the Holocaust. Soon we will be no more," says Lantos, now a California congressman from the San Mateo-San Francisco area.

During the darkest days of the Holocaust, Dr. Laszlo Petrovicz was a steady beacon of light for Jews in Budapest. As a Hungarian army doctor assigned to a Jewish labor colony, he helped dozens of captives escape under the guise of sending them to medical specialists. He and his Jewish wife, Zsuszanna, a nurse, provided food and medical care to Jews in Budapest's ghetto. They obtained false identification papers for many and hid others in their own home, written testimonies from survivors say.

Over Vatican objections, the heirs of a Jewish community decimated by the Holocaust publicly rebuked visiting Pope John Paul II here Sunday for the silence of his church in Hungary during the tragic years of World War II.

The title of a new documentary about the Holocaust, "The Last Days," carries a double meaning for survivor Tom Lantos. "Not just the last days of the war. It is the last days for us . . . survivors of the Holocaust. Soon we will be no more," says Lantos, now a California congressman from the San Mateo-San Francisco area.

Beginning this winter, thousands of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust will receive monthly payments from Hungary under a landmark agreement to ease Jewish suffering from World War II. Nearly 50 years late in coming, the deal is being hailed by some Jewish and government leaders as a model for Eastern Europe, where most of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust perished but few governments have settled accounts with devastated communities.

A group of Hungarian survivors of Holocaust death camps sued the U.S. government in federal court in Miami on Monday, seeking compensation for property seized from them by Nazis and eventually taken by the U.S. Army but never returned. The case stems from the Nazi seizure of more than $200 million in gold, jewelry, Oriental rugs, clothing and artworks, among them Rembrandt and Durer paintings. The booty was loaded aboard a train, which the Nazis abandoned and U.S. Army personnel took over.

George Mandel-Mantello, 90, a businessman who helped stop Nazi deportation of thousands of Jews from Hungary during World War II. Born a Jew in Romania, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Mandel-Mantello was an "unsung hero" of the war, said David Kranzler, history professor emeritus at the City University of New York.

Beginning this winter, thousands of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust will receive monthly payments from Hungary under a landmark agreement to ease Jewish suffering from World War II. Nearly 50 years late in coming, the deal is being hailed by some Jewish and government leaders as a model for Eastern Europe, where most of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust perished but few governments have settled accounts with devastated communities.

Over Vatican objections, the heirs of a Jewish community decimated by the Holocaust publicly rebuked visiting Pope John Paul II here Sunday for the silence of his church in Hungary during the tragic years of World War II.

The World Jewish Congress, which opened its first office in a Communist country this week, could open one in the Soviet Union in the near future, the group's president said. The new office, opened Monday in Budapest, Hungary, is designed to work with Hungary's 80,000 Jews and with the small Jewish populations in other East European countries outside the Soviet Union. "My guess is that (we) will have an office in the Soviet Union within the next two years," Edgar M.

During the darkest days of the Holocaust, Dr. Laszlo Petrovicz was a steady beacon of light for Jews in Budapest. As a Hungarian army doctor assigned to a Jewish labor colony, he helped dozens of captives escape under the guise of sending them to medical specialists. He and his Jewish wife, Zsuszanna, a nurse, provided food and medical care to Jews in Budapest's ghetto. They obtained false identification papers for many and hid others in their own home, written testimonies from survivors say.

With the help of film star Tony Curtis and a $2-million tree, Hungarian Jews are trying to restore Europe's largest synagogue in Budapest. Work on repairing the huge 130-year-old building in the former Jewish quarter, weakened by World War II bombs, neglect and the last three severe winters, has already begun with a $5-million contribution from the Hungarian government.

The Soviet Union was willing to trade captured Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg after World War II for Soviet citizens who had defected to Sweden, but Stockholm turned down the offer, a Swedish newspaper said Wednesday. Wallenberg, credited with saving thousands of Jews in Hungary from Nazi death camps by granting them protection under the neutral Swedish flag or by issuing false passports, was last seen when he was arrested in 1945 by Soviet troops in Budapest, the capital.