[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3155 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3155

   To authorize the President to award a gold medal on behalf of the 
  Congress to Oskar Schindler and Varian Fry in recognition of their 
               contributions to the Nation and humanity.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

            October 3 (legislative day, September 22), 2000

Mr. Lautenberg introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
    referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To authorize the President to award a gold medal on behalf of the 
  Congress to Oskar Schindler and Varian Fry in recognition of their 
               contributions to the Nation and humanity.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) More than 13,000,000 people were killed during the 
        Holocaust, including Jews, Gypsies, Slavs (Poles, Ukrainians, 
        and Belorussians), homosexuals, and the disabled--each 
        exterminated because Adolf Hitler viewed them as ``subhuman'' 
        to the Aryan race.
            (2) Nazi persecution, arrests, and deportations were 
        directed against all Jewish families, as well as many others, 
        without concern for age. Innocent men, women, and children 
        faced starvation, illness, brutal labor, and other indignities 
        until they were consigned to the gas chambers.
            (3) When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, destruction began 
        immediately and in a merciless fashion. Jews were herded into 
        crowded ghettos, randomly beaten, humiliated, and capriciously 
        murdered. Jewish property and businesses were summarily 
        destroyed, or appropriated by the SS, and sold to Nazi 
        ``investors'', one of whom was Oskar Schindler.
            (4) Oskar Schindler set up a business in an old enamel 
        works factory in Poland. His workforce consisted of enslaved 
        Jews from the Krakow Ghetto. Schindler learned of the horrible 
        atrocities committed by Hitler's regime as he got to know some 
        of the forced workers there. In response, he managed to 
        convince the Nazis that his factory, and more importantly, its 
        trained workers, were vital to the German war effort, thus 
        preventing their deportation to death camps.
            (5) Oskar Schindler used all of the means at his disposal 
        to ensure the safety of those who worked in his factory. Even 
        his wife Emilie's jewels were sold, to buy food, clothes, and 
        medicine for the workers. A secret sanatorium was set up in the 
        factory with medical equipment purchased on the black market. 
        There, Emilie Schindler looked after the sick and wounded.
            (6) Even though Oskar Schindler had a large mansion placed 
        at his disposal close to the factory, he spent every night in 
        his office so that he could intervene should the Gestapo pay a 
        visit. He was detained by the Gestapo twice, but used his 
        connections to get released.
            (7) With his own life at stake, Schindler employed all his 
        powers of persuasion. He bribed, fought, and begged to save 
        Jewish men, women, and children from the gas chambers.
            (8) Oskar Shindler saved the lives of 1,200 Jews from 
        deportation to Nazi death camps.
            (9) On April 28, 1962, Oskar Schindler was named a 
        ``Righteous Gentile'' by Yad Vashem.
            (10) Varian Fry, together with a small group of unlikely 
        associates, succeeded in assisting nearly 2,000 artists, 
        musicians, writers, scholars, politicians, labor leaders, and 
        their families to leave hostile territories in France, either 
        legally or illegally. This effort came to be called the 
        ``Emergency Rescue Committee''.
            (11) Varian Fry offered aid and advice to Jews and 
        antifascist refugees who found themselves threatened with 
        extradition to Nazi Germany under Article 19 of the Franco-
        German Armistice--the ``Surrender on Demand clause''.
            (12) Though risking his personal security in the face of 
        both Gestapo and Vichy officials, Fry did what was necessary to 
        save as many of the refugees as possible.
            (13) Varian Fry aided in the rescue of nearly 2,000 
        individuals, including artists Marc Chaggall, Andre Breton, and 
        Max Ernst.
            (14) The United States Holocaust Memorial Council awarded 
        Varian Fry its highest honor, the Eisenhower Liberation Medal 
        in 1991.
            (15) In 1996, Yad Vashem posthumously honored Fry as the 
        first American ``Righteous Among the Nations'', and the French 
        government awarded him the Croix de Chevalier de la Legion 
        d'Honneur.
            (16) The actions of Oskar Schindler and Varian Fry serve as 
        testimony to all people that even under the worst of 
        circumstances, the most ordinary of us can act courageously.
            (17) Oskar Schindler and Varian Fry are true heroes and 
        humanitarians, deserving of honor by the United States 
        Government.

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

    (a) Presentation Authorized.--The President is authorized--
            (1) to award to Oskar Schindler, posthumously, on behalf of 
        Congress, a gold medal of appropriate design honoring Oskar 
        Schindler in recognition of his contributions to the Nation; 
        and
            (2) to award to Varian Fry, posthumously, on behalf of 
        Congress, a gold medal of appropriate design honoring Varian 
        Fry in recognition of his contributions to the Nation.
    (b) Design and Striking.--For purposes of the awards referred to in 
subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (hereafter in this Act 
referred to as the ``Secretary'') shall strike gold medals with 
suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the 
Secretary.

SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

    The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze, of the gold 
medals struck pursuant to section 2, under such regulations as the 
Secretary may prescribe, and at a price sufficient to cover the costs 
thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, overhead 
expenses, and the cost of the gold medals.

SEC. 4. STATUS AS NATIONAL MEDALS.

    The medals struck pursuant to this Act are national medals for 
purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.

SEC. 5. FUNDING.

    (a) Authority To Use Fund Amounts.--There is authorized to be 
charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund an amount 
not to exceed $30,000 to pay for the cost of the medals authorized by 
this Act.
    (b) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of duplicate 
bronze medals under section 3 shall be deposited in the United States 
Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
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