[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 41 (Wednesday, April 9, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2932-S2933]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 19--RELATIVE TO PROPERTY CLAIMS

  Mr. D'AMATO (for himself, Mr. Campbell, Mr. Kempthorne, Mr. Abraham, 
Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Graham, Mr. Reid, and Mr. Feingold) submitted the 
following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
Foreign Relations:

                            S. Con. Res. 19

       Whereas Fascist and Communist dictatorships have caused 
     immeasurable human suffering and loss, degrading not only 
     every conceivable human right, but the human spirit itself;
       Whereas the villainy of communism was dedicated, in 
     particular, to the organized and systematic destruction of 
     private property ownership;
       Whereas the wrongful and illegal confiscation of property 
     perpetrated by Fascist and Communist regimes was often 
     specifically designed to victimize people because of their 
     religion, national or social origin, or expressed opposition 
     to the regimes which repressed them;
       Whereas Fascists and Communists often obtained possession 
     of properties confiscated from the victims of the systems 
     they actively supported;
       Whereas Jewish individuals and communities were often twice 
     victimized, first by the Nazis and their collaborators and 
     then by the subsequent Communist regimes;
       Whereas churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious 
     properties were also destroyed or confiscated as a means of 
     breaking the spiritual devotion and allegiance of religious 
     adherents;
       Whereas Fascists, Nazis, and Communists have used foreign 
     financial institutions to launder and hold wrongfully and 
     illegally confiscated property and convert it to their own 
     personal use;
       Whereas some foreign financial institutions violated their 
     fiduciary duty to their customers by converting to their own 
     use financial assets belonging to Holocaust victims while 
     denying heirs access to these assets;
       Whereas refugees from communism, in addition to being 
     wrongly stripped of their private property, were often forced 
     to relinquish their citizenship in order to protect 
     themselves and their families from reprisals by the 
     Communists who ruled their countries;
       Whereas the participating states of the Organization for 
     Security and Cooperation in Europe have agreed to give full 
     recognition and protection to all types of property, 
     including private property, as well as the right to prompt, 
     just, and effective compensation in the event private 
     property is taken for public use;
       Whereas the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as 
     well as the Caucasus and Central Asia, have entered a post-
     Communist period of transition and democratic development, 
     and many countries have begun the difficult and wrenching 
     process of trying to right the past wrongs of previous 
     totalitarian regimes;
       Whereas restrictions which require those whose properties 
     have been wrongly plundered by Nazi or Communist regimes to 
     reside in or have the citizenship of the country from which 
     they now seek restitution or compensation are arbitrary and 
     discriminatory in violation of international law; and
       Whereas the rule of law and democratic norms require that 
     the activity of governments and their administrative agencies 
     be exercised in accordance with the laws passed by their 
     parliaments or legislatures and such laws themselves must be 
     consistent with international human rights standards: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
     concurring). That the Congress--
       (1) welcomes the efforts of many post-Communist countries 
     to address the complex and difficult question of the status 
     of plundered properties;
       (2) urges countries which have not already done so to 
     return plundered properties to their rightful owners or, as 
     an alternative, pay compensation, in accordance with 
     principles of justice and in a manner that is just, 
     transparent, and fair;
       (3) calls for the urgent return of property formerly 
     belonging to Jewish communities as a means of redressing the 
     particularly compelling problems of aging and destitute 
     survivors of the Holocaust;
       (4) calls on the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, 
     Romania, Slovakia and any other country with restrictions 
     which require those whose properties have been wrongly 
     plundered by Nazi or Communist regimes to reside in or have 
     the citizenship of the country from which they now seek 
     restitution or compensation to remove such restrictions from 
     their restitution or compensation laws;
       (5) calls upon foreign financial institutions, and the 
     states having legal authority over their operation, that 
     possess wrongfully and illegally property confiscated from 
     Holocaust victims, from residents of former Warsaw Pact 
     states who were forbidden by Communist law from obtaining 
     restitution of such property, and from states that were 
     occupied by Nazi, Fascist, or Communist forces, to assist and 
     to cooperate fully with efforts to restore this property to 
     its rightful owners; and
       (6) urges post-Communist countries to pass and effectively 
     implement laws that provide for restitution of, or 
     compensation for, plundered property.

  Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, at the close of last Congress, I 
submitted a concurrent resolution addressing property claims issues in 
Central and Eastern Europe. Representative Christopher H. Smith, the 
cochairman of the Commission, submitted an identical resolution in the 
House. Today, we are resubmitting this measure, and are joined by all 
the members of the Helsinki Commission as original cosponsors.
  Mr. President, I wish I could report to you that there has been 
improvement in this area since our concurrent resolution was submitted 
last September. Regrettably, there has not. Let me give you just two 
examples of the kinds of cases that moved me to submit this concurrent 
resolution.
  In 1991, Latvia passed a restitution law after regaining its 
independence from the Soviet empire. This law raised the hope that 
those forced from their homes by the 1940 Soviet invasion, and kept out 
by a 50-year occupation, would finally be able to return. And this is 
what Eso Anton Benjamins thought, too, when in 1995 a Latvian municipal 
court ordered that the current occupants of the Benjamins' family home 
vacate the property.
  Unfortunately, the current occupant is none other than the Russian 
Ambassador to Latvia. The Russian Government has refused to move its 
representative from the private property of Mr. Benjamins, 
notwithstanding the Latvian court's legal order to do so, and the 
Latvian authorities have not evicted them.
  In the Czech Republic, things are not much better. Under laws adopted 
after the Velvet Revolution, Susan Benda is theoretically eligible for 
the restitution of her family property, which had been confiscated by 
the Nazis but which her family had been unable to reclaim at the end of 
World War II. Notwithstanding this eligibility under the law and the 
Czech Government's purported intention to restore Jewish properties 
that had been seized by the Nazis, the Czech Ministry of Finance has 
arbitrarily imposed onerous and burdensome conditions for restitution 
which appear to be designed to defeat the intent of the law.
  So while Czech officials may tell us they have properly addressed 
this issue, those seeking the return of wrongfully confiscated property 
in Prague find that an entirely different reality awaits them.
  I am also deeply troubled by recent reports that some $50 million may 
have been embezzled from the funds received by Ukraine from Germany for 
the victims of Nazi prosecution. It is imperative that the Ukrainian 
Government make an investigation into this matter an urgent priority. 
Not only must this

[[Page S2933]]

money be found and returned to the rightful recipients, but immediate 
measures should be taken to ensure that this cannot happen again.
  Americans who came to this country to escape persecution are 
discovering that, in many Central and East European countries, they are 
once again being penalized, this time by discriminatory laws that 
restrict restitution or compensation to those who currently hold the 
citizenship of or residency in the country in question. This is the 
case in the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia.
  Mr. President, this status quo cannot continue. I know it is not 
possible to turn back the clock completely or erase the wrongs that 
have been done. I commend the many emerging democracies attempting to 
address this complex issue, acting on both a moral obligation to 
redress past wrongs and a desire to underscore the differences between 
their new and old systems of government. But more can and should be 
done--and this resolution calls for concrete steps. It deserves our 
support, and the victims of past wrongs in this region deserve our 
help.
  I urge my colleagues to join with me and the other cosponsors of this 
concurrent resolution in pressing for a fair, just, and timely property 
restitution and compensation process so that the victims of the 
Holocaust and subsequent Communist oppression are not denied what is 
rightfully theirs.

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