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[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 226 Engrossed in House (EH)]

                In the House of Representatives, U. S.,

                                                         June 11, 2007.
Whereas some 6,000,000 Jews were slaughtered pursuant to Adolf Hitler's 
        diabolical plan for the total extermination of the Jews during the Third 
        Reich, and even more would have perished had it not been for the efforts 
        of a number of United States Government officials who spoke out 
        forcefully against American policy and persuaded President Franklin D. 
        Roosevelt of the need for extraordinary measures to save Jewish lives;
Whereas on November 9, 1943 - the 5th anniversary of Kristallnacht, when pogroms 
        against Jews and the burning of synagogues and Jewish businesses and 
        homes were carried out throughout Nazi Germany - identical Congressional 
        resolutions were introduced in both houses of Congress calling for the 
        creation of a United States Government commission ``to formulate and 
        effectuate a plan of immediate action designed to save the surviving 
        Jewish people of Europe from extinction at the hands of Nazi Germany'';
Whereas the Senate version was introduced by Senator Guy Gillette of Iowa with 
        the support of Elbert Thomas of Utah and Edwin Johnson of Colorado and 
        was unanimously approved in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 
        December 20, 1943, and scheduled for a full Senate vote in early 1944;
Whereas the House version was introduced by Representative Will Rogers, Jr., of 
        California and extensive hearings on the resolution were held by the 
        House Foreign Affairs Committee;
Whereas United States Government agencies were receiving extensive credible 
        information about the extent of Nazi atrocities against the Jews and 
        other minorities in Europe, nevertheless, the policy of the United 
        States as developed and implemented in the Department of State opposed 
        American government action to save the lives of Jewish and other 
        minorities who were being systematically exterminated by the Nazi German 
        government;
Whereas in 1943 and early 1944, an extraordinary group of officials at the 
        United States Department of Treasury sought to change those policies and 
        Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau directed the preparation of a 
        memorandum to the President of the United States urging more direct and 
        forceful American action to aid Jewish victims of the Nazi atrocities, 
        and this document, prepared by Josiah DuBois, Jr., Assistant General 
        Counsel of the Treasury Department, and John Pehle, a 33- year-old 
        attorney in the Foreign Funds Control unit of the Treasury Department, 
        was presented to President Franklin D. Roosevelt by Secretary 
        Morgenthau, Randolph Paul and Pehle on January 16, 1944;
Whereas President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9417 on January 22, 1944, 
        affirming that ``it is the policy of this Government to take all 
        measures within its power to rescue the victims of enemy oppression who 
        are in imminent danger of death and otherwise afford such victims all 
        possible relief and assistance consistent with the successful 
        prosecution of the war'' and creating the War Refugee Board, composed of 
        the Secretaries of State, Treasury and War, to carry out this policy;
Whereas John Pehle was appointed the Acting Executive Director and subsequently 
        Executive Director of the Board and Josiah DuBois, Jr. was appointed 
        General Counsel of the Board;
Whereas on January 25, 1944, the Board issued a critically important diplomatic 
        cable to all United States diplomatic missions abroad ordering that 
        ``action be taken to forestall the plot of the Nazis to exterminate the 
        Jews and other persecuted minorities in Europe'' and developed new 
        programs to increase the flow of Jewish and other refugees from Nazi 
        persecution to neutral countries in Europe, including Turkey, Portugal, 
        Switzerland, Spain, and Sweden, from where they were assisted to go to 
        North Africa, Palestine and North and South America;
Whereas the Board assisted the International Red Cross to provide food parcels 
        to ``stateless'' civilians in internment camps, to support and protect 
        some 3,000,000 Allied and Axis prisoners of war, and to streamline 
        Federal licensing procedures for the transmission of funds to pay for 
        Red Cross relief supplies and rescue operations, thus saving the lives 
        of thousands of Jews and other internees;
Whereas in April 1944, John Pehle, on behalf of the War Refugee Board, urged all 
        neutral nations to increase their diplomatic representation in Hungary 
        to help prevent the accelerating deportation of Jews to Auschwitz- 
        Birkenau and other Nazi extermination camps and to begin providing vital 
        funding and other resources to assist in saving Hungarian Jews from 
        concentration and extermination camps;
Whereas the War Refugee Board sought out Swedish citizen Raoul Wallenberg and, 
        with the support of the Swedish government and its legation in Budapest, 
        supported one of the most extensive and successful rescue efforts during 
        the Holocaust; and
Whereas subsequent academic studies have credited the War Refugee Board with 
        rescuing as many as 200,000 Jews from Nazi occupied countries through 
        the efforts of Wallenberg and others: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved,  That the House of Representatives--
            (1) honors the efforts and contributions of those who worked for the 
        establishment of the War Refugee Board and for a more active United 
        States policy to rescue Jews and other victims of Nazi repression who 
        were in imminent danger of death and to provide these persecuted 
        minorities with relief and assistance during World War II; and
            (2) commends in particular the actions of Secretary of Treasury 
        Henry Morgenthau, Josiah DuBois, Jr., and John Pehle for their 
        dedication and devotion to helping rescue Jews and other persecuted 
        minorities in the Holocaust.
            Attest:

                                                                          Clerk.
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