Gold train
The train that transported the Holy Right Hand around the country in 1938, the one that transported items confiscated from Jewish people at the end of World War II, and the one that saved the gold reserves, the majority of the foreign currency and banknote reserves of Magyar Nemzeti Bank, as well as the most valuable pieces of cultural institutions, is known as the Gold Train.
The country had already prepared for another potential war in the second half of the ‘30s. The institutions established a plan for evacuation. The MNB constructed a multi-level rock bunker in Veszprém. The bank and parts of the Hungarian Mint and parts of the Hungarian Banknote Printing Company were already operational in Veszprém at the beginning of 1944. Valuables entrusted to the bank for safekeeping also arrived from other institutions, including the Corvinas, the manuscripts and hardcopy documents of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the stamp collection of the Hungarian Post, the two platinum bars of the metre etalon, paintings from museums, the oldest documents of the National Archives, and for a short time even the Holy Crown and the coronation regalia. The Germans wanted to transport all valuables to Germany: the gold reserves and banknotes to the Vienna branch, the pieces of art and deposits to the Berlin branch, and the while silver to the Magdeburg branch of the empire. However, Hungarians wanted to keep all treasures together, save them from being qualified as spoils of war and prevent them from falling into German hands.
The nearly 30 net tonnes of gold, banknote and foreign currency reserves were loaded onto trains along with the bank’s archives and the valuables entrusted to the bank and were sent to the west by the bank’s managers and employees under the custody of gendarmes. The trains were joined at Fertőboz, and after six weeks of waiting, they continued their journey to Spital am Pyhrn in Upper Austria. Treasures were placed in the abandoned subterranean church of the former Benedictine abbey, which was protected by gendarmes. Temporary bank offices were established in the former monastery rooms. Bank officials and their family members (a total of 684 persons) were accommodated all over the village. Everybody participated in village life, providing food and cutting wood.
The management of the bank contacted the U.S. Army in the first days of 1945. Gold bars and coins, foreign exchange and deposits were loaded onto trucks under the supervision of the U.S. Army. The convoy set out towards the safes of the empire in Frankfurt am Main.
The delegation led by Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy had a meeting with President Harry Truman in Washington in June 1946. As a result, the U.S. Government approved the full repatriation of the gold reserves and other valuables, if Hungary waived all future monetary claims. The Gold Train arrived at Budapest on 6 August 1946 with 2,696 gold bars, 40 sacks of coins and valuables of other institutions that were originally stored in Veszprém, but then ended up in the west. These gold reserves constituted the basis of the newly introduced forint.
(The story of the Gold Train is presented in documentary novels, movies and animations as well
Source: MTVA