Croatian Holocaust survivor suit (Alperin v. Vatican Bank)

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Rob - wssob2
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Location: MA, USA

Croatian Holocaust survivor suit (Alperin v. Vatican Bank)

#1

Post by Rob - wssob2 » 26 Aug 2009, 02:15

While researching on Google last night I came across a couple of links about a class action lawsuit filed of Croatian Holocaust survivors against the Franciscan order, known as Alperin v. Vatican Bank

It's a complicated case that's been going on for a decade. Briefly summarized, the class action lawsuit was filed on behalf Holocaust survivors against the Vatican Bank and the Franciscan Order for the money and gold stolen by the NDH (the WWII puppet regime of Croatia). The assets allegedly were eventually deposited in the Vatican Bank and/or Franciscan Order coffers.

A Wikipedia article about the case is located at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_acti ... and_others

The case is also documented on the UN High Commission for Refugees website at
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher ... 023,0.html

The United States State Department has a report titled U.S. and Allied Wartime and Postwar Relations and Negotiations With Argentina, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey on Looted Gold and German External Assets and U.S. Concerns About the Fate of the Wartime Ustasha Treasury located at
http://www.state.gov/www/regions/eur/rp ... links.html

The Plaintiffs in the case maintain their own website at
http://www.vaticanbankclaims.com

Their most recent press release from April 2009 is the following:
(see http://www.vaticanbankclaims.com/april%202009.htm)
New Allegations by Holocaust Survivors against Franciscan Order - OFM
Details Slowly Emerge about Nazi Gold in Vatican

April 16, 2009
San Francisco

United States District Court for Northern California
Alperin v. Vatican Bank and Franciscan order
Case No. C-99-4491 MMC


A federal court judge has overruled objections of the defendant Franciscan Order of Friars Minor (OFM) and has permitted the filing of an Amended Complaint in the decade long lawsuit Alperin v. Vatican Bank & Franciscan Order. The plaintiffs, Holocaust survivors and their heirs from former Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, are seeking an accounting and return of gold and other valuables deposited at the Vatican Bank in 1946 by members of the Nazi puppet government of Croatia known as the Ustasha who were sponsored and assisted by the Franciscan Order - OFM.


New details link the Nazi loot to the ongoing “Zagorec diamond affair” trial in Croatia involving millions of dollars of diamonds that were furnished by the Croatian Catholic Church to purchase arms for the fledging state of Croatia during the break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.


Additionally, the involvement of the Franciscan Order in the United States and Rome with post war money laundering is chronicled along with a description of the Ustasha treasure convoy and the initial deposit of the funds at the Vatican in 1946.


For a copy of the Court order and Sixth Amended complaint go to:

http://vaticanbankclaims.com/news.html


For more information:
Vatican Bank Claims
http://www.vaticanbankclaims.com
[email protected]

Dr. Jonathan Levy
Attorney for Holocaust Survivors
The Sixth Amended Complaint is located at http://vaticanbankclaims.com/six.pdf but the website freerepublic.com has an HTML version at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2231152/posts for those who might want to take a long at a very long (but doubtless very interesting) document.

Rob - wssob2
Member
Posts: 2387
Joined: 15 Apr 2002, 21:29
Location: MA, USA

Re: Croatian Holocaust survivor suit (Alperin v. Vatican Bank)

#2

Post by Rob - wssob2 » 16 Dec 2009, 06:09

We can probably spin off the Draganović conversation off the Bleiburg Memorial thread (http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... &start=105) and place it here.

Krunoslav Draganović is accused of being one of the money launderers mentioned in the suit.
Junak 1929 - are you referring to Krunoslav Draganović - the Catholic priest and NDH supporter who helped orchestrate the "ratline" for Ustashe leaders like Pavelic to escape justice, who helped launder the money stolen from murdered Croatian Jews by the Ustashe? The CIA agent who defected back to Tito's Yugoslavia in 1967 and lived peaceably in the Communist regime until his death in 1982? (more biographical info at http://www.jerusalim.org/cd/biblioteka/ ... index.html and http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pa ... mNo=670245)

You're suggesting that Draganović successfully negotiated with the British to surrender the Croatian army at Bleiburg? I have never heard that before.
Can you seriously see what you wrote ? Do you even believe that ?
So-called "ratlines" were not orchestrated and especially not by someone like Draganovic. There was no money laundering, if there was, this would be evident in the post war lives of the survivors. Do you REALLY believe that anyone who would "help Pavelic escape" AND make his and the pockets of the alike were full could EVER return to Yugoslavia and live "peacefully" ? Well then you clearly need to give your head a shake.

Draganovic is an enigma which deserves a thread for himself. Take a look at Vjekoslav Vrancic's book "Branili Smo Drzavu" and Issues of "Spremnost" from 1987 which display who the man really was. He was nothing but a rat working for the other side, he made the phone calls from Rome in the last days of NDH saying that the Eastern Border Drina would be secured from the Communists - to have Pavelic and Macek stay - while having the army retreat to Slovenia and Austria where they would regroup and come back with the English. He was the one who was in Italy representing Croatia to the embassies of the U.S and the British - Not because he was known or trusted, simply because he was already there and had a name over there. Dr. Pavelic did not trust Draganovic, any time he met with him after the war he met in different locations - you can read about this off the web not found on such propaganda sites like the one you posted


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