[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8713-8714]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             OBSERVING YOM HASHOAH, HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
Foreign Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration of 
S. Res. 142, and that the Senate then proceed to its immediate 
consideration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk 
will report the resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 142) observing Yom Hashoah, Holocaust 
     Memorial Day, and calling on the remaining member countries 
     of the International Commission of the International Tracing 
     Service to ratify the May 2006 amendments to the 1955 Bonn 
     Accords immediately to allow open access to the Bad Arolsen 
     archives.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to 
reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating 
thereto be printed in the Record, without further intervening action or 
debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 142) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 142

       Whereas April 15, 2007, marks the international observance 
     of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, a day to remember and 
     mourn the millions who died during the Holocaust of World War 
     II;
       Whereas thousands of Holocaust survivors, historians, and 
     researchers are being denied access to files, located at Bad 
     Arolsen, Germany, that tell the story of unspeakable crimes 
     committed by the Nazis;
       Whereas the Bad Arolsen archives contain 30,000,000 to 
     50,000,000 pages of documents that record the individual 
     fates of over 17,000,000 victims of Nazi persecution;
       Whereas the Bad Arolsen archives are administered by the 
     International Tracing Service, which in turn is supervised by 
     an international commission composed of 11 member countries 
     established by 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'');
       Whereas the member countries of the International 
     Commission are the United States, Israel, Belgium, France, 
     Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, 
     and the United Kingdom;
       Whereas, in May 2006, after years of delay, the member 
     countries of the International Commission commendably agreed 
     to amend the Bonn Accords to make the Bad Arolsen archives 
     public for the first time and agreed to place digitized 
     copies of the documents in the archives at Holocaust research 
     centers in other countries, including the United States 
     Holocaust Memorial Museum;
       Whereas the May 2006 amendments will become effective only 
     after each of the 11 member countries completes the 
     ratification process;
       Whereas the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, 
     Poland, and the Netherlands have completed the ratification 
     process; and
       Whereas opening the Bad Arolsen archives is an urgent 
     matter: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) joins people around the world in observing Yom Hashoah, 
     Holocaust Memorial Day, and mourning the millions who were 
     lost during the Holocaust;
       (2) commends the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, 
     Poland, and the Netherlands, as the member countries of the 
     International Commission of the International Tracing Service 
     that have completed the ratification of the May 2006 
     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'');
       (3) calls on Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and 
     Luxembourg, the member countries of the International 
     Commission that have not yet ratified the May 2006 amendments 
     to the Bonn Accords, to do so immediately;

[[Page 8714]]

       (4) calls on the International Commission to approve the 
     immediate distribution of copies of the documents from the 
     Bad Arolsen archives that have already been digitized when 
     the International Commission meets in Amsterdam in May 2007; 
     and
       (5) respectfully requests the Secretary of the Senate to 
     transmit copies of this resolution to the Secretary of State 
     and to the ambassadors representing each of the member 
     countries of the International Commission in the United 
     States.

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