I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 929 

To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Rabbi Michoel Ber 

Weissmandl in recognition of his acts of valor during World War II. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 30, 2019 

Ms. VELA ́ZQUEZ (for herself, Mr. MAST, and Mr. VELA) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 

A BILL 

To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Rabbi 

Michoel Ber Weissmandl in recognition of his acts of 

valor during World War II. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rabbi Michoel Ber 

5 Weissmandl Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl was born in 

9 Hungary on October 25, 1903, later moving to SloVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:54 Feb 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H929.IH H929

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1 vakia to study under Rabbi Shumel Dvoid Ungar in 

2 Nitra. 

3 (2) During his time in Nitra, he quickly became 

4 a senior figure within the local Jewish community 

5 and Yeshiva. 

6 (3) Weissmandl was responsible for some of the 

7 daring efforts to save the Jewish people of Slovakia 

8 from the Holocaust, which include the establishment 

9 of a ‘‘Working Group’’, an underground organization 

10 that raised funds to negotiate ransom with German 

11 and Slovakian officials in order to delay mass depor12 tations. 

13 (4) During the Nazi regime, Weissmandl used 

14 his contacts from England to obtain visas, becoming 

15 one of the first to actively protect people of Jewish 

16 ancestry in Europe. 

17 (5) Weissmandl also wrote telegrams to gen18 erate awareness of the Jewish people’s plight and 

19 encouraged other strategic approaches to stop the 

20 Holocaust, including the bombing of railroad tunnels 

21 to prevent the transportation of persons to con22 centration camps. 

23 (6) Weissmandl established a Working Group— 

24 a wide variety of people from different political and 


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1 ideological spectrums—whose common goal was to 

2 save people from the ‘‘Final Solution’’. 

3 (7) The Working Group was one of the first to 

4 document in writing the accounts of Auschwitz 

5 Escapees in a document widely referred to as the 

6 ‘‘Auschwitz Protocols’’. 

7 (8) Weissmandl himself later translated the ini8 tial documentation from German to Hebrew and in9 cluded a widely known addendum that pleaded for 

10 action. 

11 (9) Weissmandl wrote the first known appeal 

12 for the use of Allied air resources to disrupt the Hol13 ocaust. 

14 (10) In 1942 when Slovakia started deportation 

15 for ‘‘resettlement’’, Rabbi Weissmandl was the first 

16 to inform the Working Group that people were being 

17 murdered and not sent to work as originally claimed. 

18 (11) Rabbi Weissmandl also played an instru19 mental role in Solomon Schoenfeld Kindertransport 

20 rescue, helping save hundreds of lives. 

21 (12) Rabbi Weissmandl came to America and in 

22 1945 immediately got to work to establish a home 

23 and Yeshiva for Holocaust survivors. The Yeshiva of 

24 Nitra he established in Mount Kisco, New York, was 


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1 the first Yeshiva campus in America and became an 

2 example that other institutions followed. 

3 (13) Rabbi Weissmandl has significantly influ4 enced the flourishing communities of Talmudic 

5 scholars in Brooklyn, New York, and generally 

6 across the United States. 

7 SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 

8 (a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of 

9 the House of Representatives and the President pro tem10 pore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements 

11 for the presentation, on behalf of Congress, of a gold 

12 medal of appropriate design, to Rabbi Michoel Ber 

13 Weissmandl in recognition of his acts of valor during 

14 World War II. 

15 (b) PARTICIPATION BY WEISSMANDL COMMITTEE.— 

16 For the purpose of the presentation referred to in sub17 section (a), the Speaker and President pro tempore shall 

18 ensure that the Weissmandl Committee may accept the 

19 medal on behalf of Michoel Ber Weissmandl. 

20 (c) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For the purpose of the 

21 presentation referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary 

22 of the Treasury (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the 

23 ‘‘Secretary’’) shall strike a gold medal with suitable em24 blems, devices, and inscriptions to be determined by the 

25 Secretary. 


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1 (d) TRANSFER OF MEDAL AFTER PRESENTATION.— 

2 Following the presentation of the gold medal in honor of 

3 Michoel Ber Weissmandl under subsection (a), the gold 

4 medal shall be given to Samuel Dovid Weissmandl or, 

5 should he not be present, to Rabbi Menachem Meir 

6 Weissmandl. 

7 SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 

8 Under such regulations as the Secretary may pre9 scribe, the Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 

10 bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to section 3 at 

11 a price sufficient to cover the cost of the bronze medals 

12 (including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and 

13 overhead expenses) and the cost of the gold medal. 

14 SEC. 5. NATIONAL MEDAL. 

15 (a) NATIONAL MEDAL.—The gold medal struck 

16 under this Act is a national medals for purposes of chapter 

17 51 of title 31, United States Code. 

18 (b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of sections 

19 5134 and 5136 of title 31, United States Code, all medals 

20 struck under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic 

21 items. 

Æ 


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