[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 156 (Tuesday, October 10, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14802-S14803]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HUGO PRINCZ

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, nearly 2 years ago, it was my privilege 
to meet with Mr. Hugo Princz in my office. He told me how he and his 
family had been victimized by Nazi brutality and disregard for 
international laws and civilized norms; how his family's American 
passports were ignored in 1942 by German officials and they were sent 
to death camps; how his entire family was exterminated simply because 
they were Jewish as were so many other Jews during those dark days of 
the Holocaust; and how fate intervened in the closing days of World War 
II and American soldiers intercepted and liberated the prison train 
which was taking him to his death.
  I was saddened by the horrors he had suffered and endured and by the 
losses he had sustained. But just as powerful as the sorrow I felt for 
him was the outrage I felt at the brutality he was still enduring from 
the legalistic folly being perpetuated by the German Government which 
refused to resolve his claims for fair reparations. Since Mr. Princz 
was rescued by American forces 

[[Page S 14803]]
and was not processed through a center for displaced persons, the 
German government argued, he was not a stateless person eligible for 
the reparations which Germany agreed to pay to Holocaust survivors in 
the 1960's. Despite repeated attempts to get the German Government to 
recognize the validity of his claim, Hugo Princz was denied the remedy 
he was entitled to by common decency and conscience if not by the 
letter of German law.
  But Hugo Princz did not survive the horrors of Maidanek, Auschwitz, 
and Dachau by being a quitter. He persisted in his claims against 
Germany, eventually suing in Federal district court in 1992. Still the 
years passed with no relief. But Hugo Princz never gave up hope. His 
goal was not monetary compensation; rather, it was the justice which he 
and his family had been denied since the early days of 1942. Finally, 
on September 18, 1995, Hugo Princz was offered and accepted a 
settlement by the Federal Republic of Germany. Fifty years after the 
end of World War II, 50 years after his family was torn apart with all 
but Hugo going to their deaths, finally, after 50 more years of being 
denied justice, this courageous American who has demonstrated the 
patience of Job received what should have been given so long ago. The 
settlement which Hugo has offered is not adequate compensation for what 
he has endured; it is a victory of the spirit not the accountant's 
ledger. It was too long in coming and too difficult to achieve. But it 
is a victory for Hugo Princz; for his courage, his persistence, his 
faith, and his memories.
  Each of us who have been touched by Hugo Princz have been enriched by 
the contact. I hope that these recent events will bring to him at long 
last the peace which he has been denied all these years. I wish Hugo, 
his wife, Delores, and his children, Giselle, Howard, and Cheryl, all 
the peace and joy they so richly deserve and have waited so long to 
enjoy.

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