[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 240 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 240

  Urging all member countries of the International Commission of the 
International Tracing Service (ITS) who have yet to ratify the May 2006 
      Amendments to the 1955 Bonn Accords Treaty, to expedite the 
ratification process to allow for open access to the Holocaust archives 
                    located at Bad Arolsen, Germany.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 13, 2007

Mr. Hastings of Florida (for himself, Mr. Wexler, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. 
Kirk, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Ms. Berkley, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Linder, 
   Mr. Weiner, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Cantor, Mr. McNulty, Ms. Wasserman 
Schultz, Mrs. Maloney of New York, Mr. Meek of Florida, Mr. Berman, Mr. 
  Sherman, Mr. Israel, Ms. Loretta Sanchez of California, Ms. Corrine 
 Brown of Florida, Mr. Rothman, Mrs. McCarthy of New York, Mr. Doyle, 
    Mr. Fossella, Mr. Ackerman, Mr. Engel, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Moran of 
Virginia, Mr. Honda, Mr. Lantos, Mr. Crowley, Mr. Davis of Alabama, Mr. 
 Shimkus, and Mr. Sessions) submitted the following resolution; which 
            was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Urging all member countries of the International Commission of the 
International Tracing Service (ITS) who have yet to ratify the May 2006 
      Amendments to the 1955 Bonn Accords Treaty, to expedite the 
ratification process to allow for open access to the Holocaust archives 
                    located at Bad Arolsen, Germany.

Whereas the International Tracing Service (ITS) archives located in Bad Arolsen, 
        Germany, which are administered by the International Committee of the 
        Red Cross, contain an estimated 50,000,000 records on the fates of some 
        17,500,000 individual victims of Nazi war crimes;
Whereas the ITS archives at Bad Arolsen remain the largest closed Holocaust-era 
        archives in the world; while access to individual records can be 
        requested by Holocaust survivors and their descendants, many who have 
        requested information in the past have reported facing significant 
        delays and even unresponsiveness; furthermore, the records remain 
        inaccessible to researchers and research institutions;
Whereas the 1955 Bonn Accords, the treaty governing the administration of the 
        ITS, established an International Commission of 11 member countries 
        (Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the 
        Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States) charged 
        with overseeing the administration of the ITS Holocaust archives;
Whereas following years of delay, in May 2006 in Luxembourg, the International 
        Commission of the ITS agreed upon amendments to the Bonn Accords which 
        would allow researchers to use the archives and would allow each 
        Commission member country to receive digitized copies of archive 
        materials and make the records available to researchers under the 
        respective national laws relating to archives and privacy;
Whereas the May 2006 Amendments to the Bonn Accords require each of the 11 
        members of the International Commission to ratify the amendments before 
        open access to the Holocaust archives is permitted;
Whereas although the final signature was affixed to the amendments in October 
        2006, only 4 out of the 11 Commission member countries (the United 
        States, Israel, Poland, and the Netherlands) have ratified the 
        amendments to date;
Whereas the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has for years been working 
        tirelessly to provide public access to the materials in the Bad Arolsen 
        archives;
Whereas on March 8, 2007, representatives from the 11 member countries of the 
        International Commission of the ITS met in the Netherlands and reviewed 
        the current ratification status of each country and the ratification 
        process in its entirety;
Whereas it is a moral and humanitarian imperative to permit public access to the 
        millions of Holocaust records housed at Bad Arolsen;
Whereas it is essential that Holocaust researchers obtain access now, while 
        survivors are living, so that the researchers can benefit in their 
        scholarly work from the insights of eyewitnesses;
Whereas in the Holocaust's aftermath, there have been far too many instances of 
        survivors and heirs of Holocaust victims being refused their moral and 
        legal right to information--for restitution purposes, slave labor 
        compensation, and personal closure;
Whereas opening the historic records is a vital contribution to the world's 
        collective memory and understanding of the Holocaust and efforts to 
        ensure that the anti-Semitism that made such horrors possible is never 
        again permitted to take hold;
Whereas anti-Semitism has seen a resurgence in recent years; as recently as 
        December 2006, the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, held the 
        second Holocaust denial conference in Tehran in one year; and
Whereas in light of this conference, President Ahmadinejad's anti-Semitic 
        rhetoric, and a resurgence of anti-Semitism in part of the world, the 
        opening of the archives at Bad Arolsen could not be more urgent: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved,  That the House of Representatives--
            (1) commends in the strongest terms all countries that have 
        to date ratified the amendments to the Bonn Accords to allow 
        for open access to the Holocaust archives of the International 
        Tracing Service (ITS) located at Bad Arolsen, Germany;
            (2) commends those countries that have committed to 
        expedite the process of releasing the archives and expects 
        those countries to abide by their commitments;
            (3) strongly urges all countries that have to yet to ratify 
        the amendments to abide by their treaty obligations made in May 
        2006 and to expedite the ratification of these amendments;
            (4) strongly urges all Commission members to consider the 
        short time left to Holocaust survivors and unanimously consent 
        to open the ITS archives should all countries not ratify the 
        amendments by May 2007;
            (5) expresses the hope that bureaucratic and diplomatic 
        processes will not further delay this process; and
            (6) refuses to forget the murder of 6,000,000 Jews and more 
        than 5,000,000 other victims during the Holocaust by Nazi 
        perpetrators and their collaborators.
                                 <all>