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Fully loaded wagons

The cargo of the gold train

The Jewish government security was set up in May 1944, the first government commissioner was Dr. Turvölgyi Albert. His sphere of activity extended to the collection and preservation of the valuables “nationalized” by the Jews and to the administration of property law matters of the Hungarian Jews.

This activity was taken over on November 15, 1944 by Dr. Toldi Árpád Gendarme Colonel.

Considering of the war situation, the government security has ordered to load the collection, on wagons and the transport of Jewish valuables deposited at postal savings banks and regular banks to the village of Óbánya puszta next to the town of Zirc.

The first transport with 18-22 wagons left Budapest on October 14th, the second left to Zirc a month later.

In Óbánya puszta the valuables were placed in the curia of Count Tattenbach – Vállai Eberhard Sándor.

The parcels of valuables were opened in the first days of December 1944 by delegations consisting of three people, compared with the lists in them, then sorted according to the following:

(1) precious stones and jewellery, (2) pure gold objects without stones, (3) gold jewels with stones or other, (4) gold coins and gold bars, (5) gold watches, (6) silver objects and jewels, (7) silver and metal watches, ( 8) textiles and clothes, (9) furs and carpets, etc.

No inventory was taken of the goods, the registers were burned on Toldi’s command. Most of the property inventory was destroyed.

Departing steam locomotive and train at Győr station, 1920 (Photo: Fortepan / Tóth Árpád)

There were several examples for that; the contents of the packages did not match the directions. Those cases were drawn up and sent to the responsible finance directorates. The directories found in the parcels were burned at the order of Dr. Z. Kiss. The order came from Dr. Toldi, in his opinion, the further property registration was not necessary, as most of the valuables will be melted down later anyway. (Report on the fate of the freight train, which contained the Jewish valuables delivered to the territory of Austria by the former Jewish government security ... Salzburg, September 20, 1945, Magyar Országos Levéltár / Hungarian State Archives) dr. Zolnay Béla Finance Secretary, Jeszenőy István Accounting - Revident, Horváth Imre Verk. Tax officer, Dr. Avar László Mayor, former platoon commander

Postcard with the Ó-bánya Castle, where valuables confiscated from Jewish people were sorted for the first time in the first days of December 1944, 1910 (Zempléner Museum)
There were 7 type G MÁV, 2-axle concealed trucks out of the 40 gold train wagons (MÁV Archive)
MÁV type Gp, 2-axle concealed trucks from the team of the gold train (MÁV Archive)

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