S. 1564

One Hundred Fifth Congress

of the

United States of America

AT THE SECOND SESSION

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,

the twenty-seventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight

An Act

To provide redress for inadequate restitution of assets seized by the United States

Government during World War II which belonged to victims of the Holocaust,

and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of

the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Holocaust Victims Redress Act’’.

TITLE I—HEIRLESS ASSETS

SEC. 101. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds as follows:

(1) Among the $198,000,000 in German assets located in

the United States and seized by the United States Government

in World War II were believed to be bank accounts, trusts,

securities, or other assets belonging to Jewish victims of the

Holocaust.

(2) Among an estimated $1,200,000,000 in assets of Swiss

nationals and institutions which were frozen by the United

States Government during World War II (including over

$400,000,000 in bank deposits) were assets whose beneficial

owners were believed to include victims of the Holocaust.

(3) In the aftermath of the war, the Congress recognized

that some of the victims of the Holocaust whose assets were

among those seized or frozen during the war might not have

any legal heirs, and legislation was enacted to authorize the

transfer of up to $3,000,000 of such assets to organizations

dedicated to providing relief and rehabilitation for survivors

of the Holocaust.

(4) Although the Congress and the Administration authorized the transfer of such amount to the relief organizations

referred to in paragraph (3), the enormous administrative difficulties and cost involved in proving legal ownership of such

assets, directly or beneficially, by victims of the Holocaust,

and proving the existence or absence of heirs of such victims,

led the Congress in 1962 to agree to a lump-sum settlement

and to provide $500,000 for the Jewish Restitution Successor

Organization of New York, such sum amounting to 1⁄6th of

the authorized maximum level of ‘‘heirless’’ assets to be transferred.
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(5) In June of 1997, a representative of the Secretary

of State, in testimony before the Congress, urged the reconsideration of the limited $500,000 settlement.

(6) While a precisely accurate accounting of ‘‘heirless’’

assets may be impossible, good conscience warrants the recognition that the victims of the Holocaust have a compelling moral

claim to the unrestituted portion of assets referred to in paragraph (3).

(7) Furthermore, leadership by the United States in meeting obligations to Holocaust victims would strengthen—

(A) the efforts of the United States to press for the

speedy distribution of the remaining nearly 6 metric tons

of gold still held by the Tripartite Commission for the

Restitution of Monetary Gold (the body established by

France, Great Britain, and the United States at the end

of World War II to return gold looted by Nazi Germany

to the central banks of countries occupied by Germany

during the war); and

(B) the appeals by the United States to the 15 nations

claiming a portion of such gold to contribute a substantial

portion of any such distribution to Holocaust survivors

in recognition of the recently documented fact that the

gold held by the Commission includes gold stolen from

individual victims of the Holocaust.

(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are as follows:

(1) To provide a measure of justice to survivors of the

Holocaust all around the world while they are still alive.

(2) To authorize the appropriation of an amount which

is at least equal to the present value of the difference between

the amount which was authorized to be transferred to successor

organizations to compensate for assets in the United States

of heirless victims of the Holocaust and the amount actually

paid in 1962 to the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization

of New York for that purpose.

(3) To facilitate efforts by the United States to seek an

agreement whereby nations with claims against gold held by

the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold

would contribute all, or a substantial portion, of that gold

to charitable organizations to assist survivors of the Holocaust.

SEC. 102. DISTRIBUTIONS BY THE TRIPARTITE GOLD COMMISSION.

(a) DIRECTIONS TO THE PRESIDENT.—The President shall direct

the commissioner representing the United States on the Tripartite

Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold, established

pursuant to Part III of the Paris Agreement on Reparation, to

seek and vote for a timely agreement under which all signatories

to the Paris Agreement on Reparation, with claims against the

monetary gold pool in the jurisdiction of such Commission, contribute all, or a substantial portion, of such gold to charitable organizations to assist survivors of the Holocaust.

(b) AUTHORITY TO OBLIGATE THE UNITED STATES.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—From funds otherwise unobligated in the

Treasury of the United States, the President is authorized

to obligate subject to paragraph (2) an amount not to exceed

$30,000,000 for distribution in accordance with subsections (a)

and (b).
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(2) CONFORMANCE WITH BUDGET ACT REQUIREMENT.—Any

budget authority contained in paragraph (1) shall be effective

only to such extent and in such amounts as are provided

in advance in appropriation Acts.

SEC. 103. FULFILLMENT OF OBLIGATION OF THE UNITED STATES.

(a) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There are authorized

to be appropriated to the President such sums as may be necessary

for fiscal years 1998, 1999, and 2000, not to exceed a total of

$25,000,000 for all such fiscal years, for distribution to organizations

as may be specified in any agreement concluded pursuant to section

102.

(b) ARCHIVAL RESEARCH.—There are authorized to be appro- priated to the President $5,000,000 for archival research and translation services to assist in the restitution of assets looted or extorted

from victims of the Holocaust and such other activities that would

further Holocaust remembrance and education.

TITLE II—WORKS OF ART

SEC. 201. FINDINGS.

Congress finds as follows:

(1) Established pre-World War II principles of international

law, as enunciated in Articles 47 and 56 of the Regulations

annexed to the 1907 Hague Convention (IV) Respecting the

Laws and Customs of War on Land, prohibited pillage and

the seizure of works of art.

(2) In the years since World War II, international sanctions

against confiscation of works of art have been amplified through

such conventions as the 1970 Convention on the Means of

Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, which forbids the illegal

export of art work and calls for its earliest possible restitution

to its rightful owner.

(3) In defiance of the 1907 Hague Convention, the Nazis

extorted and looted art from individuals and institutions in

countries it occupied during World War II and used such booty

to help finance their war of aggression.

(4) The Nazis’ policy of looting art was a critical element

and incentive in their campaign of genocide against individuals

of Jewish and other religious and cultural heritage and, in

this context, the Holocaust, while standing as a civil war

against defined individuals and civilized values, must be considered a fundamental aspect of the world war unleashed on

the continent.

(5) Hence, the same international legal principles applied

among states should be applied to art and other assets stolen

from victims of the Holocaust.

(6) In the aftermath of the war, art and other assets

were transferred from territory previously controlled by the

Nazis to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, much of which

has not been returned to rightful owners.

SEC. 202. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS REGARDING RESTITUTION OF

PRIVATE PROPERTY, SUCH AS WORKS OF ART.

It is the sense of the Congress that consistent with the 1907

Hague Convention, all governments should undertake good faith
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efforts to facilitate the return of private and public property, such

as works of art, to the rightful owners in cases where assets

were confiscated from the claimant during the period of Nazi rule

and there is reasonable proof that the claimant is the rightful

owner.

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.