[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 107 (Thursday, June 26, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6295-S6297]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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   SENATE RESOLUTION 603--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE ON THE 
RESTITUTION OF OR COMPENSATION FOR PROPERTY SEIZED DURING THE NAZI AND 
                             COMMUNIST ERAS

  Mr. NELSON of Florida (for himself, Mr. Smith, Mr. Cardin, Mr. 
Coleman, and Mr. Menendez) submitted the following resolution; which 
was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 603

       Whereas many East European countries were dominated for 
     parts of the last century by Nazi or communist regimes, 
     without the consent of their people;
       Whereas victims of Nazi persecution included individuals 
     persecuted or targeted for persecution by the Nazi or Nazi-
     allied governments based on their religious, ethnic, or 
     cultural identity, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or 
     disability;
       Whereas the Nazi regime and the authoritarian and 
     totalitarian regimes that emerged in Eastern Europe after 
     World War II perpetuated the wrongful and unjust confiscation 
     of property belonging to the victims of Nazi persecution, 
     including real property, personal property, and financial 
     assets;
       Whereas communal and religious property was an early target 
     of the Nazi regime and, by expropriating churches, synagogues 
     and other community-controlled property, the Nazis denied 
     religious communities the temporal facilities that held those 
     communities together;
       Whereas, after World War II, communist regimes expanded the 
     systematic expropriation of communal and religious property 
     in an effort to eliminate the influence of religion;
       Whereas many insurance companies that issued policies in 
     pre-World War II Eastern Europe were nationalized or had 
     their subsidiary assets nationalized by communist regimes;
       Whereas such nationalized companies and those with 
     nationalized subsidiaries have generally not paid the 
     proceeds or compensation due on pre-war policies, because 
     control of those companies or their East European 
     subsidiaries had passed to the government;
       Whereas East European countries involved in these 
     nationalizations have not participated in a compensation 
     process for Holocaust-era insurance policies for victims of 
     Nazi persecution;
       Whereas the protection of and respect for private property 
     rights is a basic principle for all democratic governments 
     that operate according to the rule of law;
       Whereas the rule of law and democratic norms require that 
     the activity of governments and their administrative agencies 
     be exercised in accordance with the laws passed by their 
     parliaments or legislatures and such laws themselves must be 
     consistent with international human rights standards;
       Whereas the Paris Declaration of the Organization for 
     Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary 
     Assembly in July 2001 noted that the process of restitution, 
     compensation, and material reparation of victims of Nazi 
     persecution has not been pursued with the same degree of 
     comprehensiveness by all of the OSCE participating States;
       Whereas the OSCE participating States have agreed to 
     achieve or maintain full recognition and protection of all 
     types of property, including private property and the right 
     to prompt, just, and effective compensation for the private 
     property that is taken for public use;
       Whereas the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly has called on the 
     OSCE participating States to ensure that they implement 
     appropriate legislation to secure the restitution of or 
     compensation for property losses of victims of Nazi 
     persecution and property losses of communal organizations and 
     institutions during the Nazi era, irrespective of the current 
     citizenship or place of residence of victims or their heirs 
     or the relevant successor to communal property;
       Whereas Congress passed resolutions in the 104th and 105th 
     Congresses that emphasized the longstanding support of the 
     United States for the restitution of or compensation for 
     property wrongly confiscated during the Nazi or communist 
     eras;
       Whereas certain post-communist countries in Europe have 
     taken steps toward compensating victims of Nazi persecution 
     whose property was confiscated by the Nazis or their allies 
     or collaborators during World War II or subsequently seized 
     by communist governments after World War II;
       Whereas, at the 1998 Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era 
     Assets, 44 countries adopted Principles on Nazi-Confiscated 
     Art to guide the restitution of looted artwork and cultural 
     property;
       Whereas the Government of Lithuania has promised to adopt 
     an effective legal framework to provide for the restitution 
     of or compensation for wrongly confiscated communal property, 
     but so far has not done so;
       Whereas successive governments in Poland have promised to 
     adopt an effective general property compensation law, but so 
     far the current Government of Poland has not adopted one;
       Whereas the legislation providing for the restitution of or 
     compensation for wrongly confiscated property in Europe has, 
     in various instances, not always been implemented in an 
     effective, transparent, and timely manner;
       Whereas such legislation is of the utmost importance in 
     returning or compensating property wrongfully seized by 
     totalitarian or authoritarian governments to its rightful 
     owners;
       Whereas compensation and restitution programs can never 
     bring back to Holocaust

[[Page S6296]]

     survivors what was taken from them, or in any way make up for 
     their suffering; and
       Whereas there are Holocaust survivors, now in the twilight 
     of their lives, who are impoverished and in urgent need of 
     assistance, lacking the resources to support basic needs, 
     including adequate shelter, food, or medical care: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) appreciates the efforts of those countries in Europe 
     that have enacted legislation for the restitution of or 
     compensation for private, communal, and religious property 
     wrongly confiscated during the Nazi or communist eras, and 
     urges each of those countries to ensure that the legislation 
     is effectively and justly implemented;
       (2) welcomes the efforts of many post-communist countries 
     to address the complex and difficult question of the status 
     of confiscated properties, and urges those countries to 
     ensure that their restitution or compensation programs are 
     implemented in a timely, non-discriminatory manner;
       (3) urges the Government of Poland and the governments of 
     other countries in Europe that have not already done so to 
     immediately enact fair, comprehensive, and just legislation 
     so that victims of Nazi persecution (or the heirs of such 
     persons) who had their private property looted and wrongly 
     confiscated by the Nazis during World War II and in turn 
     seized by a communist government are able to obtain either 
     restitution of their property or, where restitution is not 
     possible, fair compensation;
       (4) urges the Government of Lithuania and the governments 
     of other countries in Europe that have not already done so to 
     immediately enact fair, comprehensive, and just legislation 
     so that communities that had communal and religious property 
     looted and wrongly confiscated by the Nazis during World War 
     II and in turn seized by a communist government (or the 
     relevant successors to the communal and religious property or 
     the relevant foundations) are able to obtain either 
     restitution of their property or, where restitution is not 
     possible, fair compensation;
       (5) urges the countries of Europe which have not already 
     done so to ensure that all such restitution and compensation 
     legislation is established in accordance with principles of 
     justice and provides a simple, transparent, and prompt 
     process, so that it results in a tangible benefit to those 
     surviving victims of Nazi persecution who suffered from the 
     unjust confiscation of their property, many of whom are well 
     into their senior years;
       (6) calls on the President and the Secretary of State to 
     engage in an open dialogue with leaders of those countries 
     which have not already enacted such legislation to support 
     the adoption of legislation requiring the fair, 
     comprehensive, and nondiscriminatory restitution of or 
     compensation for private, communal, and religious property 
     that was seized and confiscated during the Nazi and communist 
     eras; and
       (7) welcomes a country in Europe to host in 2009 a follow-
     up international conference a decade after the Washington 
     Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets, for governments and non-
     governmental organizations, which would--
       (A) address the issues of restitution of or compensation 
     for real property, personal property (including art and 
     cultural property), and financial assets wrongly confiscated 
     by the Nazis and their allies or collaborators and the 
     subsequent wrongful confiscations by communist regimes; and
       (B) review issues related to the opening of archives and 
     the work of historical commissions, review progress made, and 
     focus on the next steps required on these issues.

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, last month I chaired a hearing 
in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to consider a difficult but 
extremely important issue--compensating Holocaust survivors and their 
heirs for the value of Holocaust-era insurance policies they held 
before the war but lost or had stolen from them by the Nazi regime.
  Although this hearing was the first time a Senate committee had met 
specifically to consider Holocaust-era insurance compensation issues, I 
have been involved in the issue for more than a decade. As Florida's 
insurance commissioner in the late 1990's, I helped lead an 
international effort by regulators and Jewish groups that ultimately 
forced many European insurers to come to the table and for the first 
time begin paying restitution to survivors. Florida is a State with a 
large population of Holocaust survivors--one of the largest 
concentrations of Holocaust survivors in the world. Most are in their 
80s or 90s. The very youngest are in their 70s. They are valued 
constituents, and while I recognize that no amount of financial 
compensation or property restitution can ever make up for the 
indescribable wrong of the Holocaust, I have been and remain committed 
to doing what I can to assist survivors to obtain without delay 
meaningful compensation for assets that they lost during the war.
  The primary purpose of the hearing was to examine what remains to be 
done to compensate Holocaust survivors and their heirs for the 
insurance policies, now that the decade-long compensation process 
undertaken by the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance 
Claims, ICHEC, has ceased operations and paid out some $306 million to 
48,000 Holocaust victims and their heirs for Holocaust-era insurance 
policies that belonged to them and never were paid.
  While Western European countries and insurance companies participated 
in and contributed to ICHEIC, there was undisputed testimony at the 
hearing that Eastern European countries and companies did not, and 
should be called upon to compensate Holocaust survivors for the unpaid 
value of their insurance policies.
  Millions of Jews lived in Eastern European countries before the war. 
While many of them lived in rural areas and were too poor to afford 
insurance, there were certainly Jews who purchased insurance policies 
from subsidiaries of Western European companies whose assets were taken 
by the communist governments that came into power, or by Eastern 
European companies that were nationalized. Unfortunately, the Eastern 
European countries neither participated in ICHEIC nor contributed to 
any of the insurance compensation efforts that have taken place. ICHEIC 
nonetheless paid claims on those Eastern European policies from out of 
the humanitarian funds that were contributed by the ICHEIC companies, 
ultimately distributing $31 million on more than 2,800 such claims.

  Unfortunately, Eastern European countries have not taken nearly 
enough action on restitution for insurance and other private and 
communal property taken from Jews and other victims of Nazi 
persecution, and then seized by the communist governments that ruled 
Eastern Europe after the war. Poland, for example, is the sole member 
of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe not to have 
enacted property restitution legislation. And Lithuania has yet to 
enact promised legislation to compensate communities that had communal 
and religious property seized. This is unacceptable.
  Today, Senator Smith and I, joined by our colleagues Senators Cardin, 
Coleman, and Menendez, are introducing a bi-partisan resolution urging 
countries in Eastern Europe to enact fair and comprehensive private and 
communal property restitution legislation addressing the unjust taking 
of property by Nazi, communist, and socialist regimes, and to do so as 
quickly as possible. Given that the youngest Holocaust survivors are in 
their 70s, time is of the essence.
  Our resolution calls for the Secretary of State to engage in dialogue 
to achieve the aims of the resolution as well as for the convening of 
an international intergovernmental conference to focus on the remaining 
steps necessary to secure restitution and compensation of Holocaust-era 
assets.
  The resolution has received overwhelming support from the survivor 
community. Following the hearing, Holocaust survivors were notified of 
our intent to file this resolution and asked to provide input via e-
mail. Over the space of six weeks, we received more than 200 messages 
from Holocaust survivors and their children and relatives now living in 
nations around the world, supporting restitution. Many e-mails 
addressed specific claims to property in Eastern European countries 
including Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, 
Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.
  The following message of support from a Holocaust survivor from 
England exemplifies the many heart-rending and compelling e-mails I 
received, recounting what was lost by survivors who had lived in 
Eastern Europe and their inability thus far to obtain restitution or 
compensation:

       I support your efforts to secure property restitution in 
     Eastern Europe for Holocaust Survivors.
       With my family, I was expelled from our apartment in Lodz, 
     Poland on December 11, 1939. We were allowed to take with us 
     only 3 rucksacks and all our material belongings had to be 
     left behind. These included a newly built apartment block 
     with 10 luxury flats, a textile factory employing over 100 
     people and magazines full of finished fabrics.
       My mother and I survived the Warsaw ghetto, my father was 
     killed by the Germans in December 1944 and we returned to 
     Lodz after liberation by the Russians in early 1945.

[[Page S6297]]

     Our factory and our apartment belonged now to the Polish 
     authorities. We left Poland soon afterwards.
       After the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the communist 
     regime, I tried [to] get our possessions back without 
     success, my appeal having been dismissed by the Polish High 
     Court. No compensation was offered.

  We hope our resolution we are introducing today will spur our own 
government and governments in Eastern Europe into action and call 
attention to this important unfinished business. Justice and memory 
demand nothing less.
  I ask unanimous consent that this statement be placed in the 
appropriate place in the Record and ask that the text of the resolution 
be printed in the Record.
  Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, I rise today to submit a resolution with my 
friend and colleague, the senior Senator from Florida, urging the 
restitution of property looted from victims of the Holocaust.
  Though it was inflicted over 60 years ago, the persecution of 
Europe's Jews still defies belief. Never before in history had a nation 
committed the scope and breadth of the Holocaust's crimes against its 
own citizens, some of whom were even decorated German veterans of WWI. 
Never before had a state policy of atrocity encompassed such a 
horrifying thoroughness as it did during those terrible years of Nazi 
rule. Crimes against the Jews took all forms--from genocide to theft--
and for those who survived, the scars remain today.
  There are many of us now who look back, and wonder how the civilized 
world could have stood by, and let this thing happen; but we are not 
wholly without responsibility ourselves. Many of the victims of the 
Holocaust still seek property which was stolen from them during the 
years of Nazi and Nazi-allied rule in Germany and Eastern Europe. For 
these survivors and their kin, the persecution of the Jews is not a 60-
year-old horror story in a history textbook, but a constant struggle to 
extract justice from those who would prefer to forget. While some 
countries have taken active steps to recompense victims of the 
wholesale Nazi confiscation, others have not.
  I am proud to have been engaged in this issue throughout my tenure in 
the Senate, serving in 1999 as a Commissioner on the Presidential 
Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States. I also 
introduced with Senator Clinton the Holocaust Victims Assets, 
Restitution Policy, and Remembrance Act in 2001 and again in 2003. This 
legislation aimed to establish a Foundation to research Holocaust-era 
property restitution, and promote innovative solutions restitution 
issues. I am confident that my resolution introduced today will help 
establish a follow-up conference to the previous Holocaust restitution 
conference in 1998. I would further like to thank the Claims Conference 
for all the great work they've done with us on this issue, and in 
furthering the cause of justice for Holocaust victims.
  I recognize that this issue is complex. It is a matter of enacting 
legislation for restitution in countries that do not yet have it, and 
using the existing legislation in those that do. Our resolution calls 
for such action. It also calls for a second conference on Holocaust 
restitution to be held in Europe next year, more than a decade after 
the first. These steps would represent meaningful action on an issue 
which has gone unaddressed for far too long.
  I also recognize that most of the countries in question have 
different governments than they did during the Nazi and Communist eras. 
As a result, I believe that the restitution process can be achieved in 
a positive spirit of cooperation with our European allies.
  I thus sincerely hope that these European friends will work with us 
to resolve some of the last loose ends of the Nazis' crimes; and so do 
our own small part to make redress for the inaction of those who came 
before.

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