Urging All Member Countries of the International Commission of the International Tracing Service to Expedite Ratification Process
Floor Speech
URGING ALL MEMBER COUNTRIES OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF THE INTERNATIONAL TRACING SERVICE TO EXPEDITE RATIFICATION PROCESS
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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 240 which would help open access to the Holocaust archives located at Bad Arolsen, Germany.
Sixty-two years after the end of the Second World War, the Holocaust archives located in Bad Arolsen remain the largest closed World War Two-era archives in the world. While access to individual records may be requested by Holocaust survivors and their families, many who have requested information in the past reported facing significant delays. These millions of extensive records continue to remain inaccessible to researches.
In order to allow for open access to the archives, each of the 11 members of the International Commission of the International Tracing Services must ratify the May 2006 amendments to the Bonn Accords. Deplorably, the majority of the member countries of the International Commission have yet to ratify these amendments. To date, the amendments have only been publicly ratified by 4 out of the 11 Commission member countries. That is why it is important that we are passing H. Res. 240 today.
The 110th Congress has recently recognized Holocaust Remembrance Day, and I am pleased that we are continuing our efforts to ``never forget''. My district, the 9th Congressional District of Illinois, is home to the largest concentration of survivors in the State of Illinois and perhaps in the country, and the opening of the Bad Arolsen Archive holds deep meaning for those individuals and the entire community. Perhaps the records located there will help these families fill in the blanks in their lives that were shattered by Nazi Germany.
I am proud to be a cosponsor of H. Res. 240, and I urge all of my colleagues to lend it their support.
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