[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 67 (Wednesday, April 25, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H4073-H4076]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  URGING ALL MEMBER COUNTRIES OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF THE 
     INTERNATIONAL TRACING SERVICE TO EXPEDITE RATIFICATION PROCESS

  Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to 
the resolution (H. Res. 240) urging all member countries of the 
International Commission of the International Tracing Service (ITS) who 
have yet to ratify the May 2006 Amendments to the 1955 Bonn Accords 
Treaty, to expedite the ratification process to allow for open access 
to the Holocaust archives located at Bad Arolsen, Germany.
  The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
  The text of the resolution is as follows:

                              H. Res. 240

       Whereas the International Tracing Service (ITS) archives 
     located in Bad Arolsen, Germany, which are administered by 
     the International Committee of the Red Cross, contain an 
     estimated 50,000,000 records on the fates of some 17,500,000 
     individual victims of Nazi war crimes;
       Whereas the ITS archives at Bad Arolsen remain the largest 
     closed Holocaust-era archives in the world; while access to 
     individual records can be requested by Holocaust survivors 
     and their descendants, many who have requested information in 
     the past have reported facing significant delays and even 
     unresponsiveness; furthermore, the records remain 
     inaccessible to researchers and research institutions;
       Whereas the 1955 Bonn Accords, the treaty governing the 
     administration of the ITS, established an International 
     Commission of 11 member countries (Belgium, France, Germany, 
     Greece, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, 
     the United Kingdom, and the United States) charged with 
     overseeing the administration of the ITS Holocaust archives;
       Whereas following years of delay, in May 2006 in 
     Luxembourg, the International Commission of the ITS agreed 
     upon amendments to the Bonn Accords which would allow 
     researchers to use the archives and would allow each 
     Commission member country to receive digitized copies of 
     archive materials and make the records available to 
     researchers under the respective national laws relating to 
     archives and privacy;
       Whereas the May 2006 Amendments to the Bonn Accords require 
     each of the 11 members of the International Commission to 
     ratify the amendments before open access to the Holocaust 
     archives is permitted;
       Whereas although the final signature was affixed to the 
     amendments in October 2006, only 4 out of the 11 Commission 
     member countries (the United States, Israel, Poland, and the 
     Netherlands) have ratified the amendments to date;
       Whereas the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has for 
     years been working tirelessly to provide public access to the 
     materials in the Bad Arolsen archives;
       Whereas on March 8, 2007, representatives from the 11 
     member countries of the International Commission of the ITS 
     met in the Netherlands and reviewed the current ratification 
     status of each country and the ratification process in its 
     entirety;
       Whereas it is a moral and humanitarian imperative to permit 
     public access to the millions of Holocaust records housed at 
     Bad Arolsen;
       Whereas it is essential that Holocaust researchers obtain 
     access now, while survivors are living, so that the 
     researchers can benefit in their scholarly work from the 
     insights of eyewitnesses;
       Whereas in the Holocaust's aftermath, there have been far 
     too many instances of survivors and heirs of Holocaust 
     victims being refused their moral and legal right to 
     information--for restitution purposes, slave labor 
     compensation, and personal closure;
       Whereas opening the historic records is a vital 
     contribution to the world's collective memory and 
     understanding of the Holocaust and efforts to ensure that the 
     anti-Semitism that made such horrors possible is never again 
     permitted to take hold;
       Whereas anti-Semitism has seen a resurgence in recent 
     years; as recently as December 2006, the President of Iran, 
     Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, held the second Holocaust denial 
     conference in Tehran in one year; and
       Whereas in light of this conference, President 
     Ahmadinejad's anti-Semitic rhetoric, and a resurgence of 
     anti-Semitism in part of the world, the opening of the 
     archives at Bad Arolsen could not be more urgent: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved,  That the House of Representatives--
       (1) commends in the strongest terms all countries that have 
     to date ratified the amendments to the Bonn Accords to allow 
     for open access to the Holocaust archives of the 
     International Tracing Service (ITS) located at Bad Arolsen, 
     Germany;

[[Page H4074]]

       (2) commends those countries that have committed to 
     expedite the process of releasing the archives and expects 
     those countries to abide by their commitments;
       (3) strongly urges all countries that have to yet to ratify 
     the amendments to abide by their treaty obligations made in 
     May 2006 and to expedite the ratification of these 
     amendments;
       (4) strongly urges all Commission members to consider the 
     short time left to Holocaust survivors and unanimously 
     consent to open the ITS archives should all countries not 
     ratify the amendments by May 2007;
       (5) expresses the hope that bureaucratic and diplomatic 
     processes will not further delay this process; and
       (6) refuses to forget the murder of 6,000,000 Jews and more 
     than 5,000,000 other victims during the Holocaust by Nazi 
     perpetrators and their collaborators.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Ackerman) and the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Boozman) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York.


                             General Leave

  Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New York?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this 
resolution, and yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a distinct honor to introduce H. Res. 240, a 
resolution urging the immediate ratification of the amendments to the 
1955 Bonn Accords. This treaty would open the immense records of the 
Holocaust to Nazi war crime victims in Bad Arolsen, Germany. I would 
like to thank my good friend from Florida, Representative Alcee 
Hastings, who introduced this important resolution of which I am a 
proud cosponsor.
  Mr. Speaker, the horror of Nazi crimes perpetrated on Jews and others 
across Europe were accompanied by meticulous recordkeeping that was 
maintained by the Third Reich throughout the reign of its terrible 
regime. These accounts include listings of victims, medical records, 
transport notes and other details that often provide the only history 
of millions of innocent people who perished at the hands of the Nazis.
  An abandoned S.S. barracks at Bad Arolsen became the repository for 
many of these records, where they remained under the control the Allied 
Forces, and then under a consortium of 11 nations since the end of 
World War II, some 62 years ago.
  Throughout those years, these records have been closed to the public. 
Most survivors' requests have been met with reluctance or disappointing 
bureaucratic neglect, resulting in some 500,000 legitimate requests for 
information that were outstanding by the year 2000, some of them made 
by people who are no longer with us today.
  Bad Arolsen contains the records of 17.5 million individuals, and I 
have been told by experts at the Holocaust Museum here in Washington 
that almost every person to have known to have been a part of that 
terrible time can be found in those records, victims including Anne 
Frank, marks of saviors such as Oskar Schindler's famous list, and my 
octogenarian friend and constituent, Jacob Rosenthal of Long Island, 
and probably information on my own family members.
  Mr. Speaker, there is a picture that hangs in my den. It used to hang 
in my mother's house. The color of the picture is completely in sepia, 
as was traditional for the time in which it was taken in Poland. It is 
a picture of the wedding party of my grandfather and grandmother, the 
grandmother whom I am named after and never met. It is a very old 
picture. The corners are turned down. It is starting to fade.
  In front of the entire wedding party sits a whole group of young 
children sitting on the ground. My mother would point to this picture 
and point to the little children and say, ``This is my Uncle Chaim, and 
this one is my Aunt Rachel.'' I would ask, ``Mom, they are only 
children. How can they be your aunt and your uncle?'' And her response 
was, ``They will always be children.''
  My mother never knew what happened to them. She would have liked to 
have known. Maybe those records will tell us what happened to them.
  For survivors of the Holocaust, such as our good friend and colleague 
and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Lantos, time for 
answers, for truth, for recognition that our loved ones existed and 
mattered is running out. We need these archives opened now, not next 
year, not a decade from now when fewer survivors will be here to find 
peace and possibly a strong degree of closure in the material in these 
archives. And perhaps opening these archives of over 17 million people 
will in part answer those evil people like the President of Iran, Mr. 
Ahmadinejad, who claims that the Holocaust never existed.
  Our good friend from Kansas spoke on another bill and he cited 
scripture from Isaiah saying ``you be my witness.'' The Nazis were 
their own witnesses and documented in tremendous detail the lives of 
all of these people, as well as their deaths.
  The 1955 Bonn Accords Treaty governs these records. The 11 countries 
that signed that treaty agreed in 1998 to open these records to the 
public, but it did not happen. Last year, these nations agreed to 
ensure not only the opening of the records, but also the sharing of 
digitized copies and access for researchers.
  Diplomatically, substantial progress has been made in recent years in 
achieving international agreement. Four countries have ratified the 
2006 amendments: the United States, Israel, Poland and the Netherlands. 
With this resolution, Congress urgently encourages the remaining seven 
countries to ratify the amendments by May of 2007. Next month is the 
deadline, and we insist we make the digital archives records available 
as soon as they are ready this summer.
  Mr. Speaker, I strongly support this resolution, and urge all of our 
colleagues to do the same.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of H. Res. 240 dealing with the 
Holocaust archives. I would like to thank my colleague, Congressman 
Hastings of Florida, for introducing this bill which urges member 
countries of the International Commission of the International Tracing 
Service to ratify, if they haven't yet done so already, the May 2006 
amendments to the 1955 Bonn Accords Treaty to expedite the ratification 
process to allow for open access to the Holocaust archives located at 
Bad Arolsen, Germany.
  The Holocaust stands as one of history's darkest moments. It is 
critical that we understand and educate future generations about what 
happened under the Nazi oppression and ensure that these atrocities are 
never repeated.
  The ITS archives at Bad Arolsen are the largest closed Holocaust-era 
archives in the world, containing millions of records about the fate of 
over 17 million victims of Nazi Germany. Allowing open access to these 
records will provide researchers and scholars with materials necessary 
to enhance the public knowledge about the Holocaust as well as provide 
Holocaust survivors and their families with the information about their 
loved ones and help bring them closure.
  Furthermore, creating open access to these documents will provide the 
information necessary to address issues of Holocaust compensation. In 
particular, many insurance companies have refused to honor Holocaust-
era insurance policies brought about by Holocaust victims and survivors 
prior to and during World War II. These insurance companies have for 
over 60 years now refused to provide compensation under the insurance 
policies to Holocaust survivors or families of the Holocaust victims, 
arguing that Holocaust survivors and their families don't have the 
documentation, such as death certificates and insurance records. The 
concentration camps in which many of the Holocaust victims perished 
didn't issue death certificates and all assets and documents were 
confiscated from the Jews during that time by the Nazis. Many of these 
documents now remain closed in archives like Bad Arolsen.

                              {time}  1230

  Unfortunately, today, we cannot bring back those who have perished in

[[Page H4075]]

the Holocaust at the hands of Nazi Germany, nor can we erase the pain 
and suffering from the memories of those who survived these atrocities.
  However, what we can do, and what H. Res. 240 aims to accomplish, is 
to make sure that the Holocaust-era archives are opened in an effort to 
bring long awaited justice and closure to Holocaust survivors and their 
families, as well as help ensure, through education, that atrocities 
committed during the Holocaust are never repeated.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, to the gentleman from Florida, chairman of 
the Rules Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process, the 
initiator, sponsor, motivator of this legislation to whom we owe a debt 
of gratitude, Representative Alcee Hastings, I yield 5\1/2\ minutes.
  (Mr. HASTINGS of Florida asked and was given permission to revise and 
extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank my very good friend and 
an original cosponsor of this resolution, Representative Gary Ackerman, 
for the time.
  Let me first say how grateful I am for the bipartisan cooperation and 
support of many House leaders to ensure that this important legislation 
was promptly brought to the House floor.
  In particular, I thank the Chair of the House Foreign Affairs 
Committee, Representative Tom Lantos, a true champion of this issue, 
and so many others in the international forum. I also thank the ranking 
member of the committee, and my fellow Floridian, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. 
Both of them were critical in moving this bill forward.
  I am also deeply appreciative of the tireless commitment to justice 
and fairness of the chairman of the Europe Subcommittee, my colleague 
and very good friend from Florida, Representative Robert Wexler. 
Representative Wexler not only held a critical hearing on this matter 
in his subcommittee, but also shepherded the resolution through the 
full committee.
  And of course, I applaud the Republican cosponsor of this bill, my 
friend, Representative Mark Kirk, for his commitment to this issue. 
Both of these individuals have been instrumental in bringing this issue 
to the forefront of the United States Congress.
  And, Mr. Speaker, very occasionally we don't mention our young staff 
people, but Eve Lieberman, in my office, had an awful lot to do with 
the work on this measure.
  Mr. Speaker, appallingly, 62 years after the concentration camps of 
Europe were liberated, Holocaust survivors, their families and 
researchers still lack immediate, unfettered access to the Holocaust 
archives located in Bad Arolsen.
  This important legislation follows upon previous efforts I made, with 
Representatives Wexler and Kirk, to open the archives. Earlier this 
year, I led bipartisan congressional letters to several European 
countries urging them to swiftly ratify the agreement to open the 
archives.
  I was also privileged to testify at a hearing on this issue, along 
with Holocaust Museum experts, the State Department and Holocaust 
survivors. Since that hearing took place last month, and the letters 
were penned, I am pleased to report to my colleagues that the United 
Kingdom and Germany have ratified the treaty.
  Indeed, our efforts are paying off. Nevertheless, much more needs to 
be done.
  In our world, filled with anti-Semitism, hate, racial bigotry, 
xenophobia and religious intolerance, it is imperative to expose the 
horrors of the Holocaust to all humanity.
  When the leader of Iran hosts numerous Holocaust denial conferences, 
and others in the world attempt to legitimize it, it could not be more 
important to open these Holocaust archives.
  The majority of the member countries of the International Tracing 
Service have been derelict in their obligations under the amendments to 
the Bonn Accords which they signed last May. These amendments require 
full and open access to the archives. Shamefully, it remains unclear 
when these countries will fulfill their obligations.
  If European countries are actually committed to closing this dark 
chapter in world history and combating modern day anti-Semitism, then 
they must ratify these amendments immediately.
  With every day the archives remain closed, Holocaust survivors who 
have suffered some of the most unimaginable and tragic horrors and 
terrors are being forced to suffer even more. It is unconscionable that 
these individuals are now the ones burdened the most by unwarranted 
bureaucratic delays.
  In passing this legislation, Mr. Speaker, the House is proving its 
commitment to this issue, and that it is watching the remaining 
European nations to ensure their expeditious ratification. The short 
time left for the remaining Holocaust survivors does not afford us time 
to deprive them of this critical information any longer.
  Next month I will attend an anti-Semitism conference in Romania. It 
will be my great hope that by that time the other countries have 
ratified this matter.
  I thank my friend from New York, Representative Ackerman, for the 
time.
  Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois, 
Congressman Kirk, as much time as he desires.
  Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida, and it has 
been a great partnership.
  I rise in support of H. Res. 240, calling on the European nations to 
grant open access to the Holocaust archives in Bad Arolsen, Germany.
  To date, the United States and Israel, Poland, the Netherlands, Great 
Britain, even Germany, ratified the amendments to the Bonn Accords, 
amendments which would finally give survivors real-time digital access 
to millions of Nazi records, and provide researchers access to all of 
the archives.
  But for some reason, France and Italy, Greece, Belgium and Luxembourg 
are dragging their feet. One year after agreeing to these amendments, 
these five European nations remain silent on ratification. Mr. Speaker, 
silence on this issue is unacceptable and reprehensible.
  We stand at a crossroads of history, at a time when Iran, a member of 
the United Nations, sponsors official conferences to deny the 
Holocaust, we need to act here. At a time when the President of Iran 
calls for the murder of another 6 million Jews, we need to act on this 
issue. At a time of resurgence of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial 
throughout Europe and the Middle East, this is the time to act.
  Sixty years ago the United States Army, when we liberated the camps, 
we made a solemn promise of ``never again.'' And today, as President 
Ahmadinejad says he wants to, quote, wipe Israel off the map, we must 
say clearly to Europe, open these archives now to show the world that 
we stand behind this pledge.
  I want to thank my longtime friend, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Hastings), for giving me the privilege of working with him on this 
issue. I also want to thank Chairman Lantos and Ranking Member Ileana 
Ros-Lehtinen and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Wexler) for their 
work.
  I also want to thank Richard Goldberg, of my staff, and Eve Lieberman 
from Chairman Hastings' staff and Kay King from Chairman Lantos' staff 
for this, as well as action by outside experts, Paul Shapiro at the 
U.S. Holocaust Museum, Rick Hirshaut at the Illinois Holocaust Museum, 
Rabbi Alan Cooper at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Lonnie Nasatir at the 
Anti-Defamation League, and Jay Tcath of the Chicago Jewish Federation, 
who have all come together on an overwhelmingly bipartisan issue to 
send a clear message, open the archives. Make sure the message goes 
forth that the Holocaust deniers and especially the Iranian Government 
are wrong. We need to open the record, set it straight and make sure 
that the record is clear, especially to the survivors that are still 
among us.
  Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, we don't have any other speakers. I also, 
though, would like to thank the staffs of the Foreign Affairs Committee 
for their hard work, not only on this bill, but the other bills that 
have been presented today.
  I yield back the balance of our time.
  Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 
240, the resolution

[[Page H4076]]

calling on our colleagues in other nations to ratify the agreement 
opening the Bad Arolsen archives. I was proud to cosponsor this 
resolution but I am saddened that it is necessary to remind some of our 
closest allies what is at stake here.
  The Bad Arolsen archives represent over 17 million people records 
related to the Holocaust and post-World War II displacement. Survivors 
of this tumultuous time want nothing more than to find evidence of what 
happened to their loved ones. We are all too aware that members of this 
generation are dying each day and that time is of the essence.
  While survivors are able to make a request for records, the current 
system is both backlogged and poorly managed. Over 500,000 requests are 
unfulfilled and there are demonstrated cases where survivors have been 
incorrectly advised that there are no records concerning them.
  Today, we call on the legislatures of the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, 
Germany, Belgium, Italy, Greece, and France to live up to their 
promises to swiftly approve the changes necessary to open the archive. 
How many more survivors need to pass away before the bureaucratic red 
tape is cleared away?
  Now is the time to provide answers that survivors have been seeking 
for over 60 years. Now is the time to provide some measure of comfort 
to those who were terrorized by the systematic violence of the Nazis 
and the chaos of the war to end their reign.
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 240 
which would help open access to the Holocaust archives located at Bad 
Arolsen, Germany.
  Sixty-two years after the end of the Second World War, the Holocaust 
archives located in Bad Arolsen remain the largest closed World War 
Two-era archives in the world. While access to individual records may 
be requested by Holocaust survivors and their families, many who have 
requested information in the past reported facing significant delays. 
These millions of extensive records continue to remain inaccessible to 
researches.
  In order to allow for open access to the archives, each of the 11 
members of the International Commission of the International Tracing 
Services must ratify the May 2006 amendments to the Bonn Accords. 
Deplorably, the majority of the member countries of the International 
Commission have yet to ratify these amendments. To date, the amendments 
have only been publicly ratified by 4 out of the 11 Commission member 
countries. That is why it is important that we are passing H. Res. 240 
today.
  The 110th Congress has recently recognized Holocaust Remembrance Day, 
and I am pleased that we are continuing our efforts to ``never 
forget''. My district, the 9th Congressional District of Illinois, is 
home to the largest concentration of survivors in the State of Illinois 
and perhaps in the country, and the opening of the Bad Arolsen Archive 
holds deep meaning for those individuals and the entire community. 
Perhaps the records located there will help these families fill in the 
blanks in their lives that were shattered by Nazi Germany.
  I am proud to be a cosponsor of H. Res. 240, and I urge all of my 
colleagues to lend it their support.
  Mr. ACKERMAN. We thank everybody for everything as well, including 
the Speaker. I have no further speakers. I yield back the balance of 
our time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time has now expired. The question is on 
the motion offered by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Ackerman) that 
the House suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 240.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the resolution was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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