{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-2006-12-27-pt1-PgE2255", "2006-12-27", 109, 2, null, null, "STATEMENT VOICING CONCERN OVER THE DELAY OF THE INTERNATIONAL TRACING SERVICE (ITS) IN RELEASING THE BAD AROLSEN HOLOCAUST ARCHIVES", "HOUSE", "EXTENSIONS", "ALLOTHER", "E2255", "E2257", "[{\"name\": \"Alcee L. Hastings\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}]", null, "152 Cong. Rec. E2255", "Congressional Record, Volume 152 Issue 136 (Wednesday, December 27, 2006)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 136 (Wednesday, December 27, 2006)]\n[Extensions of Remarks]\n[Pages E2255-E2257]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n STATEMENT VOICING CONCERN OVER THE DELAY OF THE INTERNATIONAL TRACING\n     SERVICE (ITS) IN RELEASING THE BAD AROLSEN HOLOCAUST ARCHIVES\n\n                                 ______\n\n                         HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS\n\n                               of florida\n\n                    in the house of representatives\n\n                      Wednesday, December 27, 2006\n\n  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today deeply concerned\nabout the consistent delay of the commission members of the\nInternational Tracing Service (ITS) to permit Holocaust survivors and\ntheir families access to the millions of Holocaust records located at\nBad Arolsen, Germany.\n  Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge the nations who have yet to approve the\nrecently agreed upon amendments to the Bonn Accords regarding these\narchives to give this issue the utmost elevated attention and to be\nmade a top priority in their respective Parliaments.\n  The ITS Commission, comprised of the United States, Belgium, France,\nGermany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland,\nand the United Kingdom, currently possesses nearly 50 million records\ndocumenting Holocaust victims and survivors experiences pre-World War\nII and during the Holocaust. The records are used to substantiate\nbenefit claims by Holocaust survivors and their heirs and operate under\nthe 1955 agreements, the Bonn Accords.\n  For the past decade, Holocaust researchers and most survivors have\nsought and failed to access the Bad Arolsen archive, because the ITS\nCommission believed it would violate the privacy of the survivors and\ntheir families.\n  Following years of delay, in May 2006, the Commission adopted\namendments to the Bonn Accords permitting each Commission member to\nmake the archives public and to receive a digitized copy of the Bad\nArolsen archive, which they would be able to make available to\nresearchers under their own country's respective privacy laws.\n  Unfortunately, 9 out of the 11 ITS Commission member nations have yet\nto ratify the amendments. With the express acknowledgement of the\nvariance in each country's internal procedures, and the utmost respect\nfor the letter of international law, I strongly\nencourage parliamentarians from other members of the ITS Commission to\nratify the ITS amendments promptly so that the Bad Arolsen archives can\nbe opened at the earliest possible date.\n\n  This ongoing delay is a further example of how the Holocaust\nsurvivors, who have been part of such unimaginable, horrendous\ngenocide, and the greatest crime against humanity, are perpetually\nforced to endure severe obstacles and difficulties. Now, the few\nHolocaust survivors who are here with us today remain tormented by the\nunknown.\n  In the Holocaust's aftermath, there have been far too many\ndemonstrations of survivors and heirs of Holocaust victims who have\nbeen\n\n[[Page E2256]]\n\nrefused their moral and legal right to information, restitution of\nassets, or compensation for slave labor from the entities that profited\nduring the Holocaust.\n  As the few remaining survivors pass away, many still pass away\ndeprived of information concerning their loved ones and the assets that\nwere rightfully theirs. Let us not continue to waste the precious time\nleft for the remaining survivors. After all of the horrific acts to\nwhich they have been subjected, they are completely justified in\nuncovering the truth about their families and their loved ones without\nhassle or delay.\n  This issue is of particular importance to me, given the fact that\nSouth Florida is home to the second largest concentration of Holocaust\nsurvivors in the United States, and the third largest in the world\noutside of Israel.\n  Furthermore, as the President Emeritus of the Organization for\nSecurity and Cooperation Parliamentary Assembly in Europe (OSCE), I am\ncommitted to the issue of fair and just treatment of Holocaust\nsurvivors, and remain dedicated to the prevention of all bigotry,\nespecially anti-Semitism.\n  Let us not forget that anti-Semitism has not diminished; if anything\nwe have seen a resurgence in recent years. The threat or occurrence of\nanti-Semitism is still very real to many Jews in the United States and\nacross the world.\n  Only last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad held the second\nHolocaust denial conference in one year in Tehran; the latest in a\nseries of abominable threatening and anti-Semitic, Holocaust denial\nstatements and actions he has taken since he rose to power.\n  While extremist radicals may continue to spew such hatred and\nintolerance, I find it embarrassing that others who know better can\nturn their backs on the remaining Holocaust survivors or on the memory\nof those who perished in such a tragedy.\n  I can think of no better way to commemorate the 6 million murdered in\nthe Holocaust, than for each and every international community member\nto seriously commit to monitor and combat anti-Semitic acts and promote\nHolocaust remembrance and education.\n  While tolerance takes time to teach, it is not too late for\ninternational member nations of the ITS Commission to assist the\nremaining Holocaust survivors and grant them direct access to the Bad\nArolsen archives as soon as possible.\n  Mr. Speaker, we should never forget the horrific crimes of murder and\ndestruction committed by the Nazis; and we must commit ourselves to\nensuring that future generations shall never be forced to endure the\nsuffering, humiliation, and ultimate death experienced by the victims\nof the Holocaust.\n                                              Holocaust Survivors'\n\n                                              Foundation--USA,\n\n                                     Miami, FL, December 18, 2006.\n     Congressman Alcee Hastings,\n     House of Representatives,\n     Washington, DC.\n       Dear Congressman Hastings: We are Holocaust survivors, and\n     elected leaders of grass roots survivor organizations with\n     thousands of members in 15 states. As individual claimants\n     and class members, we have witnessed the failed enterprise\n     known as ``Holocaust asset restitution'' as it has proceeded\n     over the last decade, in litigation over and negotiations\n     over thefts and human exploitation by European manufacturers,\n     banks, insurance companies, railroads, and governments.\n     Sunday's important story in the Associated Press about the\n     monumental documentation of Nazi crimes at the Bad Arolsen\n     archive highlights the absurdity of the process survivors\n     have been forced to endure over this past decade.\n       One would have thought that Holocaust survivors, at the end\n     of our lives, would have been treated with the utmost respect\n     and dignity. In reality, however, much of what has passed for\n     ``restitution'' has been the opposite of what we would have\n     expected, with catastrophic results. Instead, the process has\n     been driven by institutional and organizational imperatives,\n     instead of by the rights, interests, and priorities of the\n     survivors. Too often; these forays have yielded incomplete\n     information disclosure and absurdly low financial\n     compensation. Instead of being principals, we the survivors\n     have been treated as pawns. Instead of receiving dignity and\n     respect, we have received lip service and been patronized by\n     organizations, judges, executive branch officials, and\n     members of Congress.\n       Another hallmark of restitution, up until now, has been the\n     imperative to give European business and governmental\n     miscreants ``legal peace'' while calling for arbitrarily set\n     financial settlements to be doled out by institutions that\n     are self-interested or worse in their motives and practices.\n     For example, when the institutions and lawyers we didn't\n     selected ``settled'' with German industry, they agreed to\n     limit insurance claims against German industry to a\n     ridiculously low, arbitrary sum, without ever conducting an\n     audit of the amount of insurance theft by German insurers and\n     reinsurers. Now, it has been reported that class action\n     lawyers want to forgive Italian insurance giant Generali\n     without ever requiring full disclosure and disgorgement,\n     despite recent evidence that the company stole billions and\n     used the same punch card technology to manage its business\n     used by the Nazis in the Final Solution.\n       The media and Congress have ignored the fact that in almost\n     every instance, survivors have been denied access to the\n     necessary information required to mount full and effective\n     disgorgement of the ill-gotten gains of the European\n     plunderers. They have ignored the rush to judgment by\n     representatives we didn't select to close the books on\n     restitution. Now, with 16 miles of previously suppressed\n     documents from the Nazi period being made public, isn't it\n     time to halt the rush to judgment, the rush for ``closure,''\n     and require the full, transparent accounting that we\n     survivors are morally and legally entitled to move forward\n     without any further impediments? We call on all institutions\n     of good faith, in government, in the media, and in the\n     institutional world, to support us in our morally justified\n     demand for transparence and justice.\n       Israel Arbeiter, Boston, MA.\n       Nesse Godin, Washington, DC.\n       David Mermelstein, Miami, FL.\n       Alex Moskovic, Palm Beach, FL.\n       Leo Rechter, Flushing, NY.\n       David Schaecter, Miami, FL.\n       Henry and Anita Schuster, Las Vegas, NV.\n       Fred Taucher, Seattle, WA.\n       Lea Weems, Houston, TX.\n       Esther Widman, Brooklyn, NY.\n                                                     Greater Miami\n\n                                            Jewish Federation,\n\n                                     Miami, FL, December 11, 2006.\n     Hon. Alcee Hastings,\n     House of Representatives,\n     Washington, DC.\n       Dear Congressman Hastings: On November 25, Arthur Max,\n     Chief of the Amsterdam Bureau of the Associated Press,\n     published an astonishing report about the massive and\n     previously closed collection of information from the Nazi\n     death camps under the jurisdiction of the International Red\n     Cross and now located at Bad Arolsen, Germany. The scope of\n     the records reported by Mr. Max is breathtaking, as are the\n     moral and policy implications of the revelation.\n       South Florida is the home to the second largest\n     concentration of Holocaust survivors in the United States,\n     and the third largest in the world outside of Israel.\n     According to Mr. Max's report, survivors and their families\n     have been unjustly denied access to many of the records at\n     Bad Arolsen regarding their own experiences in the camps, or\n     those of their family members. We are mandated by history and\n     morality to remember that this greatest crime against\n     humanity was in fact millions of crimes against millions of\n     human beings, all of whom have the absolute right to receive\n     all of the unvarnished truth about their fate and the fate of\n     their loved ones they wish to learn about today.\n       We are also painfully aware that far too many examples\n     exist of survivors and heirs of Holocaust victims who have\n     attempted to obtain morally and legally justified restitution\n     of assets, or compensation for horrific slave labor from the\n     entities that profited from the Holocaust, only to be met\n     with rejections, and then, as added insult, to be denied\n     access to the available sources of information they are told\n     justify these rejections.\n       In addition, there is now abundant evidence that tens of\n     thousands of destitute survivors live in our midst, in the\n     United States and Canada, in Israel, in the Former Soviet\n     Union, in Europe and Australia, and in Latin America, and\n     that government, and community--and restitution-based\n     resources are inadequate to meet their basic human needs. In\n     the United States alone, there are over 45,000 Holocaust\n     survivors living near or below the federal poverty level, and\n     who cannot afford adequate nutrition, housing, home care,\n     medications, or simple and necessary devices such as\n     dentures, eyeglasses, or hearing aids. This is unthinkable\n     in the year 2006, but it is true. As the following chart\n     attests, these numbers are staggering, and widespread\n     around the world.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n                                                              Survivors\n                                                                living\n                                                  Survivor     below or\n                                                 population      near\n                                                               poverty\n                                                                 line\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\nUnited States.................................      175,000       87,500\nIsrael........................................      393,000      137,300\nFormer Soviet Union...........................      146,000     126,000\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\nSources: Sheskin, Estimates of the Number of Nazi Victims and Their\n  Economic Status, January 2004; Brodsky and DellaPergola, Health\n  Problems and Socioeconomic Neediness Among Jewish Shoah Survivors in\n  Israel, April 2005; American Joint Distribution Committee,\n  Presentation on the Condition and Needs of Jewish Nazi Victims in the\n  Former Soviet Union. January 2004.\n\n       We would hope that a thorough accounting of the real thefts\n     suffered by the families of the Holocaust would not only\n     allow for proper and overdue restitution to individuals, but\n     would be a step toward creating sufficient financial\n     resources to provide a dignified level of human existence for\n     every survivor in the world who needs or requests relief.\n       As leaders of our general and Jewish communities, locally\n     and nationally and even internationally, the Federation Board\n     believes that our generation owes the survivors the dignity\n     of justice in their final years.\n       In light of these compelling facts, we call upon Congress\n     to take all steps necessary to guarantee immediate access to\n     the Bad Arolsen archive by a qualified group of researchers\n     in order to create a comprehensive and accessible database of\n     information for all affected families without any further\n     delay. As a starting point, we urge you to bring together the\n     responsible U.S. and Red Cross officials to determine the\n     scope of the task and identify the personnel and resources to\n     make this information accessible as soon as humanly possible,\n     beginning immediately. If necessary, we are asking that\n\n[[Page E2257]]\n\n     Congress enact legislation, with funding if necessary, for\n     the immediate completion of these tasks.\n       In addition, we ask the United States Congress to explore\n     and encourage any and all methods, including on an emergency\n     basis, legislation, to provide all survivors and heirs a full\n     opportunity to access the Bad Arolsen materials and to\n     utilize said materials in support of their claims without\n     regard to any previous denials or deadlines.\n       We look forward to working with you to complete this\n     historically and morally necessary task with the utmost\n     speed. You will find enclosed two relevant articles\n     pertaining to this letter. Please contact either one of us if\n     you have any questions or concerns or wish to discuss in more\n     detail.\n           Sincerely,\n     Saby Behar,\n       President.\n     Jacob Solomon,\n       Executive Vice President."]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-2006-12-27-pt1-PgE2255"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6285591516643763, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}