[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 100 (Tuesday, July 15, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H5290]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      S. 768--MEILI FAMILY RELIEF

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Shays] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I want to explain my support for S. 768, and 
say why this private bill serves an important public purpose.
  In January, Christopher Meili made a simple moral choice. When he 
found financial records documenting accounts opened by European Jews 
while the Nazis were in power, he could have ignored them. He was a 
security guard at the Union Bank of Switzerland, and he could have 
followed orders. He could have allowed the records to go to the 
shredder, to oblivion.
  Instead, Meili made a choice. He gave the records to Jewish leaders, 
to help them document the problem of assets stolen from the heirs of 
Holocaust victims. It's true that theft is less egregious than murder, 
greed less evil than race hatred. But justice demands a reckoning, a 
settling of accounts. Christopher Meili's choice placed him on the side 
of those against forgetting, in favor of justice.
  Christopher Meili's employer, the Union Bank of Switzerland, 
acknowledged that an employee had destroyed records in a regrettable 
incident. But the chairman accused Meili of having some other motive 
than morality or compliance with a Swiss law mandating preservation of 
these records.
  Christopher has also received death threats. He has had to leave his 
homeland, with his family. I support Christopher Meili's moral choice, 
and I support this bill.

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