I 

109TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5011 

To award posthumously a congressional gold medal to John Pehle in recognition of his contributions to the Nation in helping rescue Jews and 

other minorities from the Holocaust during World War II. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 16, 2006 

Ms. WOOLSEY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Financial Services 

A BILL 

To award posthumously a congressional gold medal to John 

Pehle in recognition of his contributions to the Nation 

in helping rescue Jews and other minorities from the 

Holocaust 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. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress makes the following findings: 

5 (1) Approximately 6,000,000 Jews were slaugh6 tered pursuant to Adolf Hitler’s diabolical plan for 

7 the total extermination of the Jews during the reign 

8 of the Third Reich, and even more would have perVerDate Aug 31 2005 04:16 Mar 18, 2006 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5011.IH H5011

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1 ished had it not been for the heroic efforts of John 

2 Pehle to persuade President Franklin Roosevelt of 

3 the need for extraordinary measures. 

4 (2) As a 33-year-old lawyer working in the For5 eign Funds Control unit of the Department of the 

6 Treasury of the United States, John Pehle, along 

7 with his colleagues at the Department of the Treas8 ury, worked to overcome bureaucratic inertia within 

9 the United States Government during World War II 

10 in order to rescue many Jews from the extermi11 nation camps of the Nazi Holocaust. 

12 (3) By researching and citing pertinent and 

13 overlooked precedents, in December 1943, John 

14 Pehle was instrumental in helping secure the first li15 cense of communications in enemy-occupied territory 

16 and a remittance of $25,000 that was issued by the 

17 United States Government to Gerhart Riegner, the 

18 representative of the World Jewish Congress in 

19 Switzerland, for the rescue of Jews in France and 

20 Romania. 

21 (4) Overcoming internal communication prob22 lems within the United States Government, John 

23 Pehle provided critical information about the rap24 idly-worsening plight of deported Jews from many 

25 parts of Europe to his superiors—Secretary of the 


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1 Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr., General Counsel 

2 Randolph Paul, and Assistant General Counsel Jo3 siah E. Dubois—and together they determined to in4 form President Franklin Roosevelt of the urgent 

5 need for corrective action. 

6 (5) John Pehle accompanied Secretary Morgen7 thau and Randolph Paul to meet with President 

8 Franklin Roosevelt on January 16, 1944, to deliver 

9 a vitally important document titled Personal Report 

10 to the President, which Pehle, Morgenthau, and 

11 Paul were instrumental in compiling and which had 

12 first been entitled Report to the Secretary on the 

13 Acquiescence of This Government in the Murder of 

14 the Jews. 

15 (6) On January 22, 1944, only 6 days after re16 ceiving the Personal Report to the President, and in 

17 reaction to it, President Franklin Roosevelt issued 

18 Executive Order 9417, establishing the War Refugee 

19 Board, and appointed John Pehle as the Acting Ex20 ecutive Director of the Board. 

21 (7) Thanks largely to the heroic efforts and un22 paralleled persistence of John Pehle, it became the 

23 policy of the United States Government to imple24 ment ‘‘the development of plans and programs . . . 

25 for a) the rescue, transportation, maintenance, and 


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1 relief of the victims of enemy oppression, and b) the 

2 establishment of havens of temporary refuge for 

3 such victims’’; Pehle became responsible directly to 

4 the President in implementing that policy Govern5 ment-wide. 

6 (8) In one of his first official acts at the War 

7 Refugee Board, John Pehle, on January 25, 1944, 

8 drafted an overdue and critically important diplo9 matic cable, sent to all United States embassies, 

10 consulates, and other diplomatic missions, that or11 dered ‘‘action be taken to forestall the plot of the 

12 Nazis to exterminate the Jews and other persecuted 

13 minorities in Europe’’. 

14 (9) Working with a staff of no more than 30 

15 employees in Washington, D.C., Pehle spearheaded 

16 the development of new programs to increase the 

17 flow of refugees from Nazi persecution to neutral 

18 countries in Europe (Turkey, Portugal, Switzerland, 

19 Spain, and Sweden), who, in turn, would funnel 

20 them to Northern Africa, Palestine, and North and 

21 South America, thus making room for new arrivals 

22 from Nazi-occupied territories. 

23 (10) In 1944, Pehle and his colleagues in the 

24 War Refugee Board cleared the way for the Inter25 national Red Cross to provide food parcels to ‘‘stateVerDate Aug 31 2005 23:56 Mar 20, 2006 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5011.IH H5011

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1 less’’ civilians in the internment camps, to support 

2 and protect 3,000,000 Allied and Axis prisoners of 

3 war, and to streamline Federal licensing procedures 

4 for the transmission of funds to pay for Red Cross 

5 relief supplies and rescue operations, thus saving the 

6 lives of thousands of Jews and other internees. 

7 (11) President Franklin Roosevelt’s promotion 

8 of John Pehle from Acting Executive Director to 

9 Executive Director of the War Refugee Board on 

10 March 24, 1944, coincided with the issuance of a di11 rect warning at the presidential news conference on 

12 the same day, prepared by the Board, that none of 

13 those who participated in the wholesale systematic 

14 murder of the Jews of Europe—‘‘one of the blackest 

15 crimes of all history’’—shall go unpunished. 

16 (12) In April 1944, at the direction of John 

17 Pehle, the War Refugee Board urged all neutral na18 tions to increase their diplomatic missions in Hun19 gary to help prevent the accelerating deportation of 

20 Jews to Auschwitz, Birkenau, and other Nazi exter21 mination camps and begin providing vital funding 

22 and other resources such as lists of corrupt Hun23 garian passport officials, undercover anti-Nazis, and 

24 other sympathizers to assist the ingenious and heroic 

25 struggle of Raoul Wallenberg, whose extraordinary 


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1 personal efforts resulted in the rescue of more than 

2 100,000 Hungarian Jews from Nazi concentration 

3 camps. 

4 (13) John Pehle spearheaded the valiant efforts 

5 of the War Refugee Board, which was responsible 

6 for the direct rescue of several hundred thousand 

7 men, women, and children from the Holocaust and 

8 the sustenance of thousands of Holocaust survivors 

9 during 1944 and 1945, thus breathing new life into 

10 the American tradition of helping the oppressed and 

11 persecuted in the name of human decency. 

12 SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 

13 (a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of 

14 the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tem15 pore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements 

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

17 medal of appropriate design, to the family or personal rep18 resentative of John Pehle in recognition of his service to 

19 the Nation. 

20 (b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For purposes of the 

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

22 of the Treasury (hereafter 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 SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 

2 The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 

3 bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to section 2 

4 under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, at 

5 a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, 

6 materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses, 

7 and the cost of the gold medal. 

8 SEC. 4. STATUS OF MEDALS. 

9 (a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—The medals struck under 

10 this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 

11 of title 31, United States Code. 

12 (b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of section 

13 5134 of title 31, Unites States Code, all medals struck 

14 under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items. 

15 SEC. 5. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF 

16 SALE. 

17 (a) AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS.—There is 

18 authorized to be charged against the United States Mint 

19 Public Enterprise Fund such amounts as may be nec20 essary to pay for the costs of the medals stuck pursuant 

21 to this Act. 

22 (b) PROCEEDS OF SALE.—Amounts received from the 

23 sale of duplicate bronze medals authorized under section 

24 3 shall be deposited into the United States Mint Public 

25 Enterprise Fund. 

Æ 


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