James A. Leach, Chairman

Closing Statement
Of Rep. James A. Leach
Chairman, House Banking and Financial Services Committee
Holocaust Assets Hearing

By way of closing, let me state that, although they covered different economic sectors in different countries, all our hearings over the past three years share a common theme. Because the crimes were so unspeakably heinous and took place on such an incomprehensible scale, the brutality of the Nazi era has obscured for fifty years the degree to which the Holocaust was not just murderous, but also constituted the largest and most unjust theft of wealth and labor in history - grand larceny on a continental scale.

During the decade we have just completed, a convergence of historical forces removed some of the obstacles that had kept the world community from confronting the economic implications of Nazi genocide: the end of the Cold War; the economic reconstruction of Europe, including the reunification of Germany; and a new wave of historical research based on hitherto unexploited documents into the complicity of private citizens and institutions in Nazi crimes. Most importantly, however, it was the effort on the part of the survivors’ advocates, who refused to let the nations involved, including the U.S., shy away from their responsibility to provide belated help.

Taken together, our hearings over the past three years have shown how the economic component of Nazi rule continued Hitler’s legacy long after his regime was defeated. It kept survivors impoverished, unable to rebuild their lives, and ensured that their suffering and that of their families would continue. It allowed both complicit and unwitting beneficiaries of the theft to enjoy unfair economic advantages derived from stolen riches and inhuman treatment of workers.

Although justice can never be adequately attained for crimes of genocidal magnitude, it is important that symbolic efforts, at least, be undertaken and that a measure of accountability for economic crimes be established. In this context, Deputy Secretary Eizenstat and Dr. Lambsdorff outlined a plan of redress that is more extensive in scope than any other compensation for human rights violations the world has known. While the individual amounts will be modest, the plan envisions compensating a million workers, even in cases where the institution that exploited them may no longer exist.

Deputy Secretary Eizenstat is to be commended not only for shedding light on Holocaust issues, but previously overlooked Nazi crimes against non-Jewish Europeans, many of whom are double victims - first of the Nazis, then the Communists. The relentless integrity Secretary Eizenstat has exhibited provides a model of public service.

Likewise, the public owes a debt of gratitude to two other distinguished citizens, a former Federal Reserve Board chairman and a former Secretary of State, who have been called upon to head bank and insurance panels, respectively.

Paul Volcker, chairman of a commission that audited Swiss banks, reported that 54,000 names had been found that were likely owners of banks accounts, which were improperly closed. Sadly he concluded that there were surely many others, but that the passage of time and disappearance of records had made it impossible to provide a fuller accounting. A humanitarian fund endowed at $1.25 billion has been formed as a token of compensation.

Lawrence Eagleburger reported that consensus has developed that insurance companies need fairly and generously to settle unpaid Holocaust-era policies. The international commission he chairs is about to begin processing claims, although considerable work still remains to be done indentifying potential claimants.

In the art world, there is a new, rigorous attitude toward provenance and a solemn determination on the part of museum directors, here and abroad, to scour their collections and return any tainted pieces to their rightful owner.

What is astounding in all this is how much progress has recently been made - how many parties have transcended their initial impulse to hide from uncomfortable legacies behind walls of legalistic denial, sophistry, and obfuscation. Historical scrutiny and individual conscience have moved us to a new stage in the evolution of this horrible issue: a stage in which key public and private leaders in each country involved now acknowledge that moral responsibility for economic crimes implicit in the Holocaust cannot continue to be ignored.

We must not delude ourselves, however. Any notion of justice - with crimes so heinous, with so many millions of victims, with redress so long overdue, with so many records destroyed by the ravages of time, with so many stories of inhumanity that will never be told - is elusive at best. The sad truth is that the deepest wrongs cannot be redressed and that hatred’s bounty will never be fully disgorged.

Nevertheless, although unconscionably delayed and inadequate to right the wrongs committed, the largely symbolic restitution efforts underway are the only way at hand to bring accountability to bear on the Nazi economic legacy - the only way to give meaning to the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s assertion that "the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards Justice."

The Committee is adjourned.