109 HCON 248 IH: Honoring the life and work of Simon Wiesenthal and reaffirming the commitment of Congress to the fight against anti-Semitism and intolerance in all forms, in all forums, and in all nations. U.S. House of Representatives 2005-09-20 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

IV 109th CONGRESS 1st Session H. CON. RES. 248 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES September 20, 2005 Mr. Waxman (for himself, Mr. Lantos, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Crowley, Mr. Van Hollen, and Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations CONCURRENT RESOLUTION Honoring the life and work of Simon Wiesenthal and reaffirming the commitment of Congress to the fight against anti-Semitism and intolerance in all forms, in all forums, and in all nations.

Whereas Simon Wiesenthal, who was known as the conscience of the Holocaust, was born on December 31, 1908, in Buczacz, Austria-Hungary and died in Vienna, Austria, on September 20, 2005, and he dedicated the last 60 years of his life to the pursuit of justice for the victims of the Holocaust; Whereas, during World War II, Simon Wiesenthal worked with the Polish underground and was interned in 12 different concentration camps until his liberation by the United States Army in 1945 from the Mauthausen camp; Whereas, after the war, Simon Wiesenthal worked for the War Crimes Section of the United States Army gathering documentation to be used in prosecuting the Nuremberg trials; Whereas Simon Wiesenthal’s investigative work and expansive research was instrumental in the capture and conviction of more than 1,000 Nazi war criminals, including Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Nazi plan to annihilate European Jewry, and Karl Silberbauer, the Gestapo officer responsible for the arrest and deportation of Anne Frank; Whereas numerous honors and awards were bestowed upon Simon Wiesenthal, including the Congressional Gold Medal, honorary British Knighthood, the Dutch Freedom Medal, the French Legion of Honor, the World Tolerance Award, and the Jerusalem Medal; Whereas the Simon Wiesenthal Center was founded in 1977 to promote awareness of anti-Semitism, monitor neo-Nazi and other extremist groups, and help bring surviving Nazi war criminals to justice; Whereas the Simon Wiesenthal Center is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and has additional offices in Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, New York, Miami, Paris, and Toronto; Whereas, in 1978, inspired in part by the work of Simon Wiesenthal, the Congress enacted a law to deny citizenship and Federal benefits to former Nazi’s, and the Office of Special Investigations of the Department of Justice has since conducted more than 1,500 investigations, won 79 cases, and blocked the immigration of 170 individuals, and the work of the Office continues; Whereas the Simon Wiesenthal Center opened the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles in 1993, which has received over 2 million visitors, including thousands of students and teachers, law enforcement personnel, and other professionals who participate in the acclaimed Tools For Tolerance program, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center has since opened similar museums and programs in Jerusalem and New York; Whereas the Simon Wiesenthal Center made major contributions to the June 2005 Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Conference on Anti-Semitism and on Other Forms of Intolerance that produced the Cordoba Declaration, which condemned without reserve racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and other forms of intolerance and discrimination and declared that international developments or political issues, including in Israel or elsewhere in the Middle East, never justify anti-Semitism; Whereas, in keeping with the efforts of Simon Wiesenthal, many governments have responded to the growing tide of anti-Semitism worldwide, elected leaders have spoken out against anti-Semitism, and law enforcement officials and prosecutors have aggressively pursed the perpetrators of anti-Semitic acts; and Whereas Simon Wiesenthal’s legacy teaches that the perpetrators of genocide cannot and will not be allowed to hide from their crimes: Now, therefore, be it

That the Congress— (1)honors the life and work of Simon Wiesenthal to memorialize the victims of the Holocaust and to bring the perpetrators of crimes against humanity to justice; (2)reaffirms its commitment to the fight against anti-Semitism and intolerance in all forms, in all forums, and in all nations; and (3)urges all members of the international community to facilitate the investigation and prosecution of surviving Nazi war criminals and to continue documenting and collecting information on Nazi war crimes for archival and historical purposes.