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“URGING REMAINING EUROPEAN NATIONS TO EXPEDITE OPENING ACCESS TO HOLOCAUST ARCHIVES” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E535 on March 13, 2007.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
URGING REMAINING EUROPEAN NATIONS TO EXPEDITE OPENING ACCESS TO
HOLOCAUST ARCHIVES
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HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS
of florida
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce a resolution urging the remaining member countries of the International Commission of the International Tracing Service (ITS) to expedite opening access to the Holocaust archives located in Bad Arolsen, Germany.
On March 8, 2007, a most important diplomatic meeting concluded in the Hague. Nine out of the 11 International Commission of the ITS member countries, which includes the United States, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, and the United Kingdom, met to discuss opening up the world's largest Holocaust era archives.
Incredulously, 62 years after the end of the Second World War, the Holocaust archives located in Bad Arolsen remain the largest closed Second World War-era archives in the world. Inside the archives are 50 million records that disclose the fate of some 17.5 million individual victims of Nazism.
These records are some of the last remains that the Allied forces seized when they liberated the death camps in 1945. Years later, documents were given to the Red Cross for the purpose of tracing missing people and later for validating compensation claims by victims or their relatives. Over the past 60 years, the ITS has handled more than 11 million inquiries.
In order to allow for open access to these important archives, each of the 11 members of the International Commission of the ITS must individually ratify through their respective parliaments the May 2006 amendments to the 1955 Bonn Accords.
For the past decade, Holocaust researchers and most survivors have sought and failed to access the Bad Arolsen archive because the ITS Commission believed it would violate the privacy of the survivors and their families.
Slight progress has been made since last May after the Commission recently amended the Bonn Accords. The Bonn Accords were amended to allow researchers to use the archives while granting each Commission member a digitized copy of the archives and make them available to researchers under their own country's respective archival and privacy laws and practices. Unfortunately, these measures have not gone into practice because not all of the member countries of the ITS have ratified the amendments.
I support the progress made thus far by the ITS and all Commission member countries. Just last week, technical specialists reviewed plans for preparing the documents for electronic transfer and drafted recommendations to be reviewed by the commission in advance of the May 2007 ITS meeting. In fact, many of the Commission's member countries have taken significant steps since last May's meeting in order to expedite the process of ratification and allow for the digitization of the archived materials.
However, the facts remain the same. Generations after the Holocaust, 7 member countries of the International Commission have still yet to ratify these amendments. To date, only 4 out of the 11 Commission member countries; the United States, Israel, Poland and the Netherlands have ratified the treaty. Unfortunately, many Holocaust survivors may be long dead before each country's parliament ratifies the amendments.
I ask: why has it taken over 60 years to allow for open access to these Holocaust records? There is no reason European governments should not give this issue the utmost elevated attention, as this issue should be made a top priority in their respective parliaments.
For the many years after the War's aftermath, the survivors and their families who requested information have faced cumbersome delays and occasional unresponsiveness from the ITS. As a result of the harrowing experience, many survivors had in past dealings with the ITS, many survivors now lack confidence that new inquiries will be answered. Although access to individual records may be requested by Holocaust survivors and their families, the millions of extensive records remain inaccessible to researchers. Furthermore, it will likely still take years before the implementation of the distribution of the digitized archival materials.
Those responsible for the progress made at the meeting in the Hague should be widely commended. The advancements made recently are largely due in part to the United States Holocaust Museum and the United States State Department. I am grateful for their diplomatic efforts which have proved so fruitful at the last meeting.
But much work still remains undone. With the express acknowledgement of the variance in each country's internal procedures and the utmost respect for the letter of international law, I strongly encourage parliamentarians from other members of the ITS Commission to ratify the ITS amendments promptly so that the Bad Arolsen archives can be opened at the earliest possible date.
The short time left for the remaining Holocaust survivors does not afford us time to delay any longer.
As the few remaining survivors pass away, they are being deprived of information concerning their loved ones and the assets that were rightfully theirs. Let us not continue to waste the precious time left for the remaining survivors. After all of the horrific acts to which they have been subjected, they are completely justified in uncovering the truth about their family and their loved ones without hassle or delay.
In passing this legislation, Congress can put itself on record saying, ``Enough is enough.'' I urge my colleagues to support this resolution and ask for its expeditious consideration.
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