[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
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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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