I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2591
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.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 1, 1997
Mr. LEACH (for himself and Mr. GILMAN) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on International Relations
A BILL
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 Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Holocaust Victims Re-
dress Act’’.
TITLE I—HEIRLESS ASSETS
SEC. 101. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds as follows:
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 the author-
ized maximum level of ‘‘heirless’’ assets to be trans-
ferred.
(5) In June of 1997, a current representative of
the Secretary of State, in testimony before the Con-
gress, 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 Hol-
ocaust have a compelling moral claim to the
unrestituted portion of assets referred to in para-
graph (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 remain-
ing 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 occu-
pied during the war by Germany); 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 recogni-
tion of the recently documented fact that the
gold held by the commission includes gold sto-
len from individual victims of the Holocaust.
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are as fol-
lows:
(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 au-
thorized to be transferred to successor organizations
to compensate for assets in the United States of
heirless victims of the Holocaust and the amount ac-
tually paid in 1962 to the Jewish Restitution Suc-
cessor 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 chari-
table organizations to assist survivors of the Holo-
caust.
SEC. 102. DISTRIBUTIONS BY THE TRIPARTITE GOLD COM-
MISSION.
(a) DIRECTIONS TO SECRETARY OF STATE.—The
Secretary of State shall direct the commissioner represent-
ing 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 signato-
ries 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.—The Secretary of State may
commit the United States to pay an amount not to
exceed $25,000,000 for distribution under an agree-
ment described in subsection (a).
(2) CONFORMANCE
WITH
BUDGET
ACT
RE-
QUIREMENT.—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.—Subject
to subsection (b), 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 con-
cluded pursuant to section 102, only if they meet the
needs of Holocaust survivors in the United States.
(b) RESERVATION.—The Secretary of State shall re-
serve a portion of the amount appropriated under sub-
section (a) for the United States Holocaust Museum, for
archival research 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, inter-
national 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 Trans-
fer 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 criti-
cal element and incentive in their campaign of geno-
cide against individuals of Jewish and other religious
and cultural heritage and, in this context, the Holo-
caust, 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 prin-
ciples applied among states should be applied to art
and other assets stolen from victims of the Holo-
caust.
(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 So-
cialist Republics, much of which has not been re-
turned to rightful owners.
SEC. 202. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS REGARDING RESTITU-
TION 
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 un-
dertake good faith 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 rea-
sonable proof that the claimant is the rightful owner.
Æ