[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 70 (Tuesday, May 1, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S5435]
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 THE RATIFICATION PROCESS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign 
Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 
141.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 141) urging all member countries of 
     the International Commission of the International Tracing 
     Service who have yet to ratify the May 2006 amendments to the 
     1955 Bonn Accords to expedite the ratification process to 
     allow for open access to the Holocaust archives located at 
     Bad Arolsen, Germany.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, 
the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the 
table, and any statements be printed in the Record.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 141) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 141

       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;
       Whereas, although access to individual records can be 
     requested by Holocaust survivors and their descendants, many 
     who have requested information from the ITS archives have 
     reported facing significant delays and even unresponsiveness;
       Whereas the ITS archives remain inaccessible to researchers 
     and research institutions;
       Whereas the Agreement Constituting an International 
     Commission for the International Tracing Service, signed at 
     Bonn June 6, 1955 (6 UST 6186) (commonly known as the ``Bonn 
     Accords'') 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 that would allow 
     researchers to use the archives and would allow each member 
     country of the International Commission 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 member countries 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 5 out of the 11 member 
     countries of the International Commission, the United States, 
     Israel, Poland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, have 
     ratified the amendments;
       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 researchers obtain access 
     while Holocaust survivors are living, so that the researchers 
     can benefit in their scholarly work from the insights of 
     eyewitnesses;
       Whereas, in the aftermath of the Holocaust, 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, and 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, the anti-Semitic 
     rhetoric of President Ahmadinejad, 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 Senate--
       (1) commends in the strongest terms all countries that have 
     to date ratified the amendments to the Agreement Constituting 
     an International Commission for the International Tracing 
     Service, signed at Bonn June 6, 1955 (6 UST 6186) (commonly 
     known as the ``Bonn Accords'') to allow for open access to 
     the Holocaust archives of the International Tracing Service 
     (ITS) located at Bad Arolsen, Germany;
       (2) commends the 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 the treaty obligations made in May 
     2006 and to expedite the ratification of the amendments;
       (4) strongly urges all member countries of the 
     International Commission of the ITS 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.

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