[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 142 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 142

   Observing Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, and calling on the 
   remaining member countries of the International Commission of the 
International Tracing Service to ratify the May 2006 amendments to the 
 1955 Bonn Accords immediately to allow open access to the Bad Arolsen 
                               archives.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 10, 2007

 Mr. Biden (for himself, Mr. Warner, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Levin, Mr. Kohl, 
  Mr. Kerry, Mr. Salazar, Mr. Casey, Mr. Lieberman, Mr. Kennedy, Ms. 
    Klobuchar, Mr. Baucus, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. Obama, and Mr. Wyden) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                          on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Observing Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, and calling on the 
   remaining member countries of the International Commission of the 
International Tracing Service to ratify the May 2006 amendments to the 
 1955 Bonn Accords immediately to allow open access to the Bad Arolsen 
                               archives.

Whereas April 15, 2007, marks the international observance of Yom Hashoah, 
        Holocaust Memorial Day, a day to remember and mourn the millions who 
        died during the Holocaust of World War II;
Whereas thousands of Holocaust survivors, historians, and researchers are being 
        denied access to files, located at Bad Arolsen, Germany, that tell the 
        story of unspeakable crimes committed by the Nazis;
Whereas the Bad Arolsen archives contain 30,000,000 to 50,000,000 pages of 
        documents that record the individual fates of over 17,000,000 victims of 
        Nazi persecution;
Whereas the Bad Arolsen archives are administered by the International Tracing 
        Service, which in turn is supervised by an international commission 
        composed of 11 member countries established by the Agreement 
        Constituting an International Commission for the International Tracing 
        Service, signed at Bonn June 6, 1955 (6 UST 6186) (commonly known as the 
        ``Bonn Accords'');
Whereas the member countries of the International Commission are the United 
        States, Israel, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the 
        Netherlands, Poland, and the United Kingdom;
Whereas, in May 2006, after years of delay, the member countries of the 
        International Commission commendably agreed to amend the Bonn Accords to 
        make the Bad Arolsen archives public for the first time and agreed to 
        place digitized copies of the documents in the archives at Holocaust 
        research centers in other countries, including the United States 
        Holocaust Memorial Museum;
Whereas the May 2006 amendments will become effective only after each of the 11 
        member countries completes the ratification process;
Whereas the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, Poland, and the 
        Netherlands have completed the ratification process; and
Whereas opening the Bad Arolsen archives is an urgent matter: Now, therefore, be 
        it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) joins people around the world in observing Yom Hashoah, 
        Holocaust Memorial Day, and mourning the millions who were lost 
        during the Holocaust;
            (2) commends the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, 
        Poland, and the Netherlands, as the member countries of the 
        International Commission of the International Tracing Service 
        that have completed the ratification of the May 2006 amendments 
        to the Agreement Constituting an International Commission for 
        the International Tracing Service, signed at Bonn June 6, 1955 
        (6 UST 6186) (commonly known as the ``Bonn Accords'');
            (3) calls on Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and 
        Luxembourg, the member countries of the International 
        Commission that have not yet ratified the May 2006 amendments 
        to the Bonn Accords, to do so immediately;
            (4) calls on the International Commission to approve the 
        immediate distribution of copies of the documents from the Bad 
        Arolsen archives that have already been digitized when the 
        International Commission meets in Amsterdam in May 2007; and
            (5) respectfully requests the Secretary of the Senate to 
        transmit copies of this resolution to the Secretary of State 
        and to the ambassadors representing each of the member 
        countries of the International Commission in the United States.
                                 <all>