[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.

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