110 HCON 17 IH: Expressing the sense of Congress that the
U.S. House of Representatives
2007-01-05
text/xml
EN
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Whereas the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in 1933
and consolidated its power and popularity in Germany by playing on the fears,
frustrations, and hopes of the German people, and Nazi rule would become a
nightmare for Europe and the world;
Whereas the leaders, government officials, diplomats,
soldiers and police officers of Nazi Germany perpetrated crimes against
humanity by implementing the so-called Final Solution—the systematic murder of
the European Jews—as well as by killing millions of others targeted for
racial
reasons, including Roma (Gypsies), people with
disabilities, Poles, and Soviet prisoners of war;
Whereas the magnitude of death and destruction in the era
of the Holocaust involved the murder of millions, including six million Jews,
more than one million of them children and constituting two-thirds of the
European Jewish population, and marked a society for more than two generations
afterwards with the brand of prejudice and racism;
Whereas the Holocaust forces society and future
generations to face uncomfortable questions, such as the responsibilities of
citizenship, the consequences of indifference and inaction, and the importance
of education and awareness;
Whereas the Nuremberg Trials, conducted before the
International Military Tribunal in the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany,
from November 20, 1945, until the verdicts were delivered on October 1, 1946,
were intended to judge crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against
humanity publicly and transparently, on the basis of individual culpability,
and to set precedents in international law to document such crimes in
historical records and to bring a measure of justice for the victims of
atrocities by calling to account future perpetrators before an international
court of law;
Whereas 2006 was the 60th anniversary of the Nuremberg
Trials and a year in which we commemorated specifically the courage of those
who suffered under Nazi rule in giving testimony in trials of Nazi
offenders;
Whereas the Nuremberg Trials were convened by the Allied
powers of the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, to
prosecute 21 major war criminals in what would become the best-known post-World
War II trials;
Whereas the International Military Tribunal was authorized
in its charter for presiding over the Nuremberg Trials to try and punish
persons who acting in the interest of the European Axis countries
committed one of four newly defined categories of crime: conspiracy, crimes
against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity;
Whereas the last—crimes against humanity—was defined as
murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation . . . or persecution of
an individual on political, racial, or religious grounds
;
Whereas one of the most significant legal concepts
established at the Nuremberg Trials was that a defendant’s argument that he was
following orders was neither a defense nor an excuse justifying or mitigating
the perpetration of a criminal act;
Whereas captured documentation and eyewitness testimony
presented at the Nuremberg Trials laid the initial foundation for what we know
about the Holocaust, including the killing apparatus at Auschwitz, the
atrocities committed by the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units), and the
destruction of the Warsaw ghetto, and for what we know about other Nazi
crimes;
Whereas at the Nuremberg Trials the first statistical
estimate that the Nazis and their collaborators systematically murdered six
million Jews was offered and evidence supporting this estimate was entered into
the record;
Whereas the precedent set by the Nuremberg Trials has been
held as a standard for special international tribunals to try perpetrators for
crimes against humanity and crimes of genocide committed in the former
Yugoslavia and in Rwanda;
Whereas the world is watching closely as other countries,
such as Iraq, seek to follow the framework and guiding vocabulary of the
Nuremberg Trials to determine culpability while simultaneously allowing the
accused to face their accusers;
Whereas Israel, a country created in the wake of tragedy
and born from international compromise, is a beacon of hope for democracy in
the Middle East, and serves as an example of a country that has been able to
maintain a vibrant democracy amidst existential threats that have existed since
its founding;
Whereas the cries of victims of oppression and genocide,
whether in Germany, Cambodia, Rwanda, Iraq, or Sudan, are heard when the world
demands justice and accountability;
Whereas the Holocaust is a testament that democracy is
fragile and not immune to tyranny; and
Whereas freedom demands that justice be pursued: Now,
therefore, be it
That—
(1)it is the sense of Congress that the people
of the United States should grieve for the loss of life that defined the Third
Reich and celebrate the continued education efforts for tolerance and justice;
(2)the United States
reaffirms its commitment to the fight against intolerance and prejudice in any
form;
(3)Congress urges all
members of the international community to honor those individuals of all races,
creeds, and colors who perished at the hands of the Nazis; and
(4)the United States
honors the primacy of transparent procedure, government accountability, the
rule of law, the pursuit of justice, and the struggle for universal freedom and
human rights.