[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 86 (Friday, June 30, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1181-E1182]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NAZI WAR CRIMES DISCLOSURE ACT
______
HON. TOM LANTOS
of california
in the house of representatives
Thursday, June 29, 2000
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, earlier this week, the Subcommittee on
Government Management, Information, and Technology held a particularly
important hearing on the implementation of the Nazi War Crimes
Disclosure Act (P.L. 105-246). That hearing was held under the very
able leadership of our distinguished colleague from California, Stephen
Horn. Chairman Horn has shown unwavering support and a deep personal
commitment to bring to justice Nazi war criminals through the full
declassification of documents in possession of the National Archives
and Records Service. His strong leadership was essential in the passage
of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act two years ago.
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to thank the current Ranking Member of
the Subcommittee, Congressman Jim Turner, and the former Ranking
Member, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, for their unwavering commitment to
declassification issues in the pursuit of Nazi war criminals and human
rights offenders around the world. Special recognition and appreciation
should also be given to Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who introduced
the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act in the House and who has been a
leader on these issues.
Mr. Speaker, the successful implementation of any bill passed by
Congress must be measured against the goals we set out to achieve. The
goal of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act is to declassify and make
public any remaining documents in U.S. possession concerning Nazi
crimes, criminals and looted property. At the same time this ``right to
know'' must be balanced against legitimate reasons to continue to
withhold certain documents. Since we are dealing with documents that
are now half a century old, however, there clearly should be a bias in
favor of declassification.
In compliance with Section 2 (b)(1) of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure
Act, President Clinton issued Exec. Order 13110 on January 11, 1999,
which created the ``Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group
(IWG).'' This organization was established to resolve the conflict
between the policy requirement for public disclosure with the need for
confidentiality of records and documents because of national security
requirements. I want to pay tribute to the members of the IWG. No
matter how well intended and carefully crafted legislation is, the
people who are chosen to implement it have a great impact upon assuring
that the intention of the Congress is met. The efforts of the IWG have
been outstanding.
[[Page E1182]]
The Members of the IWG are Chairman Michael J. Kurtz of the National
Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Thomas H. Baer of
Steinhardt Baer Pictures Company, Richard Ben-Veniste of Weil. Gotshal
& Manges, John E. Collingwood of the FBI, former Congresswoman
Elizabeth Holtzmann, Kenneth J. Levit of the CIA, Harold J. Kwalwasser
of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), William H. Leary of
the National Security Council staff, David Marwell of the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Museum, Eli M. Rosenbaum of the Office of Special
Investigations at the Department of Justice, and William Z. Slany of
the Department of State. In addition, a Historical Advisory Panel
composed of seven outstanding historians supports the IWG in their
endeavors. Two historians, in particular have played a critical role in
the work of the IWG--Dr. Richard Breitman and Dr. Timothy Naftali.
Mr. Speaker, this has been a mammoth undertaking. In its interim
report on the implementation of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act--a
report which is mandated in Sec. 2 (c)(3) of the Act the IWG reported
that all agencies completed a preliminary survey of their records which
could potentially be covered by the Act's requirement for
declassification review. In the first year of its operations, the IWG
has screened over 600 million pages of material to identify potentially
applicable files, principally at the CIA, Department of Defense, FBI,
and archival records in the National Archives. During this initial
screening, some 50 million pages of material meeting the criteria of
the legislation has been identified and is being further screened to
determine if declassification is covered by terms of the Nazi War
Crimes Disclosure Act.
This process is massive and tedious. An enormous amount of material
needs to be categorized, catalogued, and systematically searched. In
the all too frequent absence of an existing catalogue system responsive
to the special focus outlined in the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, a
line-by-line review of many, many documents has often been required.
Mr. Speaker, additional problems have occurred when documents are
found which were given to the United States by allied foreign
intelligence services with the understanding that the United States
would not publicly disclose them. Special permission to make such
documents public in many cases has required careful negotiation.
Despite these problems, in its short life span, the IWG has released
400,000 pages of documents which are now available to the public at the
National Archives and Records Administration. In addition, the IWG has
published ``finding aids'' to the records on Nazi war crimes and
Holocaust-era assets which are housed at the National Archives in
College Park in order to make the released documents more easily
accessible and useable to the general public.
Mr. Speaker, while the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act authorizes the
funds necessary to conduct all this work (Sec. 2(b)(d) ), the IWG did
not receive any appropriations for its heroic effort. The Office of
Special Investigations (OSI) of the Department of Justice made
available $400,000 for IWG support from an appropriation related to the
Act. The National Archives, which is charged by the President with the
administrative support of the IWG, will provide from its own budget
nearly $1 million in staff and other support services by the end of FY
2000. This support falls far short of what is required to satisfy the
requirements of the Act.
In addition, the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act imposes a ``Sunset
Provision'' of 3 years after enactment of the bill (Sec. 2(b)(1) ). Mr.
Chairman, I believe that the monumental task we as Members of Congress
have given to the IWG cannot be fully completed in this time.
Additional time certainly will be required.
Mr. Speaker, let us never forget why these very able people work
extremely hard to bring justice to victims and survivors of the
Holocaust. It is simply unconscionable that war criminals can escape
justice--many times by hiding in the U.S. It is essential that we work
so that family members of the victims of Hitler's tyranny can know the
fate of their loved ones, and that assets illegally seized from the
victims not remain forever hidden.
Mr. Speaker, as this review clearly demonstrates, we have made
incredible progress in opening up United States archives to records
relating to the war crimes and the crimes against humanity that were
perpetrated by the government of Nazi Germany.
The Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act (Sec. 2(c)(1) ) defines Nazi war
criminal records as those pertaining to persons who have committed
their crimes under the direction of, or in association with the Nazi
government of Germany, any government in occupied territories
established by military forces, any collaborator government, or any
government which was an ally for the German Nazi government. This broad
definition clearly includes--and the Congress intended that it
include-- records relating to the Imperial Japanese government and
atrocities that were committed under its responsibility throughout
Asia.
I welcome and fully support the decision of the IWG to move now to
wartime records relating to Imperial Japan in an effort to bring to
light the war crimes that were committed by units of the Imperial
Japanese military forces during World War II. The task of dealing with
the Japanese records are more difficult. This requires the assembly of
a whole new team of scholars and historians, and different language
capability is required for these documents than is required for the
Nazi German records.
Mr. Speaker, I commend the members of the IWG for their remarkable
efforts. I also commend Chairman Horn for holding the hearings to
review the implementation of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act. The
task which is established in the legislation is an important one as we
work to bring a conclusion to this chapter in our history.
____________________