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George Soros is a billionaire financier of Left Wing causes and candidates, including Hillary Clinton.

Soros has been accused of being a Nazi collaborator and of funding anti-Jewish and anti-Israel groups.

In a Canada Free Press article, Jim O'Neill quotes from a 60 Minutes interview:

KROFT: My understanding is that you went out with this protector of yours who swore that you were his adopted godson.

SOROS: Yes. Yes.

KROFT: Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews.

SOROS: Yes. That’s right. Yes.

KROFT: I mean, that sounds like an experience that would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many, many years. Was it difficult?

SOROS: Not, not at all. Not at all.

KROFT: No feeling of guilt?

SOROS: No.

There is a history of a Soros article being misattributed to 60 Minutes.

Is this an accurate transcript of a real 60 Minutes interview?

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    I'm missing any research if a 14/15 year old in the German-occupied Hungary had the legal possibility (and personality) to confiscate (or help to confiscate) anything.
    – klanomath
    Nov 13, 2016 at 16:52
  • That is old enough to get you into the armie and fighting, with a gun, a tank, or artillery. And, yes, 15 year olds have been tried and convinced for war crimes.
    – Jonathon
    Apr 23, 2017 at 11:51

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I'm not sure if it is fair to call a 14 year old Jewish boy who is posing as a Christian in Nazi-occupied Hungary to save his life a Nazi collaborator, just because he accompanied the person hiding him while that person was "confiscating" Jewish property.

But the interview seems to be real.

It is from 20. December 1998, according to the Congressional Record, V. 152, Pt. 16, September 29 2006. However, it is missing some parts from Soros response to the question if it was difficult:

Kroft: Was it difficult?
Mr. Soros: Not - not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child you don't - you don't see the connection. But it was - it created no - no problem at all.

The interview goes on:

Mr. Soros: Well, of course I c - I could be on the other side or I could be the one from whom the thing is being taken away. But there was no sense that I shouldn't be there, because that was -- Well, actually, in a funny way, it's just like in markets -- that if I weren't there -- of course. I wasn't doing it, but somebody else would ... be taking it away anyhow ... whether I was there or not, I was only a spectator, the property was being taken away. So the -- I had no role in taking away that property. So I had no sense of guilt." ("George Soros." 60 Minutes interview transcript. December 20. 1998)

There are some fake or reenacted videos out there, but this seems to be the actual 60 minutes video (the uploader is obviously politically motivated, so there is some doubt left, but the video does not look manipulated, and it matches the congressional record above). The relevant part starts at minute 8.

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    This really does not pass the common sense test. Are we really to believe that a man, old enough to join the military, went out on the job with this man and just stood around doing nothing, during wartime? The Nazis were sending others his age out with rocket launchers and half a day or training to the front lines, but he just stood around and did not lift a finger if some Jewish man attacked his "father" nor did he help carry away any of the confiscated property? I think the only reasonable assumption is that any man of working age would of had some responsibilities, some job.
    – Jonathon
    Apr 23, 2017 at 12:01
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    @Jonathon, age 14 is a child, not a man, and the army's age limit was 16. Children sneaking in to military service with fake papers does not count as "old enough to join the military".
    – Foo Bar
    Jun 13, 2019 at 3:42
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    @Jonathon The Nazis did say that those that are 14 are men. But 1) Do we want to apply Nazi logic to a 14 year old Jewish child? 2) The age to fight in the Wehrmacht was 18. Only when it was apparent that Germany was going to lose, did they start to recruit 16 year olds. And may have accepted the odd 14 year old volunteer. But is this measure of desperation by Nazis anything to go on? 3) He wasn't a man but a child. Not all Jewish children hiding from the Nazis had jobs...
    – tim ♦
    Jun 13, 2019 at 6:18
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The quote is from a real 60 Minutes interview, and refers to a real incident in Soros' life, but no reliable source holds that this makes him complicit in collaborating with the Nazis. When that was claimed in a newspaper, the newspaper found fault with its own reporting and issued a retraction.

Media Matters, reporting on the retraction, quotes Soros' biography:

This is what actually happened. Shortly after George went to live with Baumbach, the man was assigned to take inventory on the vast estate of Mor Kornfeld, an extremely wealthy aristocrat of Jewish origin. The Kornfeld family had the wealth, wisdom, and connections to be able to leave some of its belongings behind in exchange for permission to make their way to Lisbon. Baumbach was ordered to go to the Kornfeld estate and inventory the artworks, furnishings, and other property. Rather than leave his "godson" behind in Budapest for three days, he took the boy with him. As Baumbach itemized the material, George walked around the grounds and spent time with Kornfeld's staff. It was his first visit to such a mansion, and the first time he rode a horse. He collaborated with no one and he paid attention to what he understood to be his primary responsibility: making sure that no one doubted that he was Sándor Kiss.

(Sándor Kiss was the false name that Soros was registered under in order to avoid being sent to the concentration camps.)

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  • Where's a link to the second quote? This might be something if it disproves what Soros might have said to 60 Minutes.
    – user36356
    Nov 13, 2016 at 16:23
  • Um thanks for the link. Listened to it, assuming it's real. HE DID SAY WHAT THE CLAIM STATES.
    – user36356
    Nov 13, 2016 at 16:27
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    I'm a little confused now, what are you actually claiming? The question you are asking is "Was George Soros a Nazi collaborator?", not "Was George Soros, in disguise, taken along on a trip with his protector, a Nazi collaborator?"
    – Avery
    Nov 13, 2016 at 16:28
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    I was just asking if the 60 Minutes quote was real. I'll change the questions
    – user36356
    Nov 13, 2016 at 16:30
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    @Avery Note that the video you linked is only a reenactment of the interview (it actually reproduces the interview correctly, but I don't think that it's a very good source). Still +1 for the first link, as it provides some important context regarding collaboration.
    – tim ♦
    Nov 13, 2016 at 17:09

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