A couple from Seattle left all they had, nearly $1 million, “to the government of the United States of America" in their identical wills, the lawyer who administered the estate said.

A cashier's check for $847,215.57 was received and deposited into the U.S. Department of the Treasury's general funds on May 13, according to U.S. assistant attorney Peter Winn, who told ABC News today that he was the one who worked with the Treasury Department to accept the money on behalf of the government.

Though Peter Petrasek and Joan Petrasek never indicated why they wanted to donate all of their money to the U.S. government, Winn believes the money is a "thank you" to the country that took in the couple after they fled from Nazi-controlled eastern Europe in World War II.

At some point in the late 1950s, the couple moved to the United States, she said, adding that Peter Petrasek seemed to have lived a solitary life after the death of his wife.