[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 160 (Thursday, November 13, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12706-S12707]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HOLOCAUST VICTIMS REDRESS ACT

  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
now proceed to the consideration of Senate bill 1564 introduced earlier 
today by Senator D'Amato.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 1564) to provide redress of inadequate 
     restitution of assets seized by the United States Government 
     during World War II which belonged to victims of the 
     Holocaust, and for other purposes.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the immediate 
consideration of the bill?
  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be 
deemed read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid 
upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill appear at 
this point in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill (S. 1564) was deemed read a third time, and passed, as 
follows:

                                S. 1564

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Holocaust Victims Redress 
     Act''.
                        TITLE I--HEIRLESS ASSETS

     SEC. 101. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

       (a) Findings.--The Congress finds as follows:
       (1) Among the $198,000,000 in German assets located in the 
     United States and seized by the United States Government in 
     World War II were believed to be bank accounts, trusts, 
     securities, or other assets belonging to Jewish victims of 
     the Holocaust.
       (2) Among an estimated $1,200,000,000 in assets of Swiss 
     nationals and institutions which were frozen by the United 
     States Government during World War II (including over 
     $400,000,000 in bank deposits) were assets whose beneficial 
     owners were believed to include victims of the Holocaust.
       (3) In the aftermath of the war, the Congress recognized 
     that some of the victims of the Holocaust whose assets were 
     among those seized or frozen during the war might not have 
     any legal heirs, and legislation was enacted to authorize the 
     transfer of up to $3,000,000 of such assets to organizations 
     dedicated to providing relief and rehabilitation for 
     survivors of the Holocaust.
       (4) Although the Congress and the Administration authorized 
     the transfer of such amount to the relief organizations 
     referred to in paragraph (3), the enormous administrative 
     difficulties and cost involved in proving legal ownership of 
     such assets, directly or beneficially, by victims of the 
     Holocaust, and proving the existence or absence of heirs of 
     such victims, led the Congress in 1962 to agree to a lump-sum 
     settlement and to provide $500,000 for the Jewish Restitution 
     Successor Organization of New York, such sum amounting to \1/
     6\th of the authorized maximum level of ``heirless'' assets 
     to be transferred.
       (5) In June of 1997, a representative of the Secretary of 
     State, in testimony before the Congress, urged the 
     reconsideration of the limited $500,000 settlement.
       (6) While a precisely accurate accounting of ``heirless'' 
     assets may be impossible, good conscience warrants the 
     recognition that the victims of the Holocaust have a 
     compelling moral claim to the unrestituted portion of assets 
     referred to in paragraph (3).
       (7) Furthermore, leadership by the United States in meeting 
     obligations to Holocaust victims would strengthen--
       (A) the efforts of the United States to press for the 
     speedy distribution of the remaining nearly 6 metric tons of 
     gold still held by the Tripartite Commission for the 
     Restitution of Monetary Gold (the body established by France, 
     Great Britain, and the United States at the end of World War 
     II to return gold looted by Nazi Germany to the central banks 
     of countries occupied by Germany during the war); and
       (B) the appeals by the United States to the 15 nations 
     claiming a portion of such gold to contribute a substantial 
     portion of any such distribution to Holocaust survivors in 
     recognition of the recently documented fact that the gold 
     held by the Commission includes gold stolen from individual 
     victims of the Holocaust.
       (b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are as follows:

[[Page S12707]]

       (1) To provide a measure of justice to survivors of the 
     Holocaust all around the world while they are still alive.
       (2) To authorize the appropriation of an amount which is at 
     least equal to the present value of the difference between 
     the amount which was authorized to be transferred to 
     successor organizations to compensate for assets in the 
     United States of heirless victims of the Holocaust and the 
     amount actually paid in 1962 to the Jewish Restitution 
     Successor Organization of New York for that purpose.
       (3) To facilitate efforts by the United States to seek an 
     agreement whereby nations with claims against gold held by 
     the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary 
     Gold would contribute all, or a substantial portion, of that 
     gold to charitable organizations to assist survivors of the 
     Holocaust.

     SEC. 102. DISTRIBUTIONS BY THE TRIPARTITE GOLD COMMISSION.

       (a) Directions to the President.--The President shall 
     direct the commissioner representing the United States on the 
     Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold, 
     established pursuant to Part III of the Paris Agreement on 
     Reparation, to seek and vote for a timely agreement under 
     which all signatories to the Paris Agreement on Reparation, 
     with claims against the monetary gold pool in the 
     jurisdiction of such Commission, contribute all, or a 
     substantial portion, of such gold to charitable organizations 
     to assist survivors of the Holocaust.
       (b) Authority To Obligate the United States.--
       (1) In general.--From funds otherwise unobligated in the 
     Treasury of the United States, the President is authorized to 
     obligate subject to subsection (2) an amount not to exceed 
     $30,000,000 for distribution in accordance with subsections 
     (a) and (b).
       (2) Conformance with budget act requirement.--Any budget 
     authority contained in paragraph (1) shall be effective only 
     to such extent and in such amounts as are provided in advance 
     in appropriation Acts.

     SEC. 103. FULFILLMENT OF OBLIGATION OF THE UNITED STATES.

       (a) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized 
     to be appropriated to the President such sums as may be 
     necessary for fiscal years 1998, 1999, and 2000, not to 
     exceed a total of $25,000,000 for all such fiscal years, for 
     distribution to organizations as may be specified in any 
     agreement concluded pursuant to section 102.
       (b) Archival Research.--There are authorized to be 
     appropriated to the President $5,000,000 for archival 
     research and translation services to assist in the 
     restitution of assets looted or extorted from victims of the 
     Holocaust and such other activities that would further 
     Holocaust remembrance and education.
                         TITLE II--WORKS OF ART

     SEC. 201. FINDINGS.

       Congress finds as follows:
       (1) Established pre-World War II principles of 
     international law, as enunciated in Articles 47 and 56 of the 
     Regulations annexed to the 1907 Hague Convention (IV) 
     Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, prohibited 
     pillage and the seizure of works of art.
       (2) In the years since World War II, international 
     sanctions against confiscation of works of art have been 
     amplified through such conventions as the 1970 Convention on 
     the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, 
     Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, which 
     forbids the illegal export of art work and calls for its 
     earliest possible restitution to its rightful owner.
       (3) In defiance of the 1907 Hague Convention, the Nazis 
     extorted and looted art from individuals and institutions in 
     countries it occupied during World War II and used such booty 
     to help finance their war of aggression.
       (4) The Nazis' policy of looting art was a critical element 
     and incentive in their campaign of genocide against 
     individuals of Jewish and other religious and cultural 
     heritage and, in this context, the Holocaust, while standing 
     as a civil war against defined individuals and civilized 
     values, must be considered a fundamental aspect of the world 
     war unleashed on the continent.
       (5) Hence, the same international legal principles applied 
     among states should be applied to art and other assets stolen 
     from victims of the Holocaust.
       (6) In the aftermath of the war, art and other assets were 
     transferred from territory previously controlled by the Nazis 
     to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, much of which has 
     not been returned to rightful owners.

     SEC. 202. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS REGARDING RESTITUTION OF 
                   PRIVATE PROPERTY, SUCH AS WORKS OF ART.

       It is the sense of the Congress that consistent with the 
     1907 Hague Convention, all governments should undertake good 
     faith efforts to facilitate the return of private and public 
     property, such as works of art, to the rightful owners in 
     cases where assets were confiscated from the claimant during 
     the period of Nazi rule and there is reasonable proof that 
     the claimant is the rightful owner.

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