[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 86 (Thursday, June 19, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6010-S6011]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  COMMENDING ALL THOSE ASSISTING THE SENATE BANKING COMMITTEE INQUIRY 
                         INTO HOLOCAUST ASSETS

 Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I rise today to commend all those 
assisting in the ongoing Senate Banking Committee Inquiry into 
Holocaust Assets.
  I must start with the leading role of the World Jewish Congress, 
particularly Edgar Bronfman who along with WJC Secretary General Israel 
Singer brought this issue to me on December 7, 1995. Their work, along 
with that of Elan Steinberg has been a true force to reckon with for 
the Swiss banks.
  I cannot forget the absolutely invaluable help of Ambassador Stuart 
Eizenstat and his very able staff in finding and preparing the 
administration's exhaustive report on the subject. Of particular help 
has been the work of Judy Barnett. She has fought the tough interagency 
battles to establish the truth. State Department Historian Bill Slany 
did an incredible job in assembling the report.
  I want to also thank the following members of the various departments 
of the U.S. Government: Francine Barber, Abby Gilbert, David Joy, Felix 
Hernandez, Judy Liberson, Bill McFadden, Eli Rosenbaum, Ruth Van 
Heuven, and Barry White.
  I hope that I have not left out anyone.
  The National Archives at College Park has been nothing less then 
amazing. The staff has gone out of their way to provide our researchers 
with help, including declassification, record and document locations, 
use of their facilities, overall access to the building and records, 
and the wisdom, and advice of the gifted archivists. Put all together, 
their help was indispensable in establishing, continuing and expanding 
the research of the Committee.
  Of particular help to our staff and researchers has been that of Greg 
Bradshear who compiled the finding aid

[[Page S6011]]

for the various record groups of documents, Calvin Jefferson who has 
provided us with every appropriate extension of help with regard to use 
of the Textual Reference Room, Clarence Lyons for his help in the 
overall effort, Cary Conn for his help in declassifying hundreds of 
boxes of documents, and John Taylor for his wisdom and guidance. In 
addition to these fine and dedicated people, I would like to thank the 
following for their help in our effort: Rich Boylan, Rebecca Collier, 
David Giordano, Milt Gustafson, Ken Heger, Marty McGann, Wil Mahoney, 
William Deutscher, Robert Coren, Tim Nenninger, David Pfieiffer, Fred 
Ramanski, Ken Schlessinger, Amy Schmidt, Donald Singer, Marilyn 
Stachelczyk, Carolyn Powell, Dr. Michael Kurz, R. Michael McReynolds, 
Peter Jefferies, and Lee Rose.
  Again, I hope that I have not left out anyone. I am truly grateful 
for their help to my staff and the researchers.
  In regard to the researchers, I would like to extend my sincere 
thanks to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum for their unwavering 
support to the committee by their provision of interns to us for the 
research. Of particular help and support, and for which this part of 
the project could not have gotten off the ground, I have to thank 
Walter Reich and Stan Turesky. Specifically without Stan, we could not 
have done the research among many other aspect of this inquiry.
  The museum provided the committee with top rate college students to 
conduct the research. I would like to thank the following researchers 
for their dedicated work: Charles Borden, Rick Crowley, Polly Crozier, 
Joshua Cypress, Mary Helen Dupree, Ben Fallon, Aaron Field, David Ganz, 
Avi Glazer, Jessica Hammer, Anantha Hans, Miriam Haus, Olivia Joly, 
Kelsey Libner, Mary McCleery, Daniel Renna, Adam Sonfield, Hannah 
Trooboff, Kevin Vinger, and Brian Wahl.
  Hannah Trooboff did excellent work with her research at the various 
research archives in and around New York City. She did this research 
while attending Columbia University.
  Additionally, I would like to thank those who were either volunteers, 
interns, or Legislative Fellows in my office who participated in the 
research Marc Isser, now a member of my staff was an early member of 
the research team and the third person out at the archives to dig 
through the records Marc Mazurovsky was extremely helpful in aiding our 
effort by pointing us in the right direction and helping us with the 
record groups. Sid Zabludoff provided help with particular record group 
sources as well.
  Moreover, I want to extend particular thanks to the dogged research 
of a Legislative Fellow in my office, B.J. Moravek, who was the man who 
interviewed and tracked down dozens of survivors, found information 
that no one else could have found, and was as dedicated as anyone could 
possibly be to obtain the truth about the misdeeds of the Swiss 
bankers.
  I also want to thank another Legislative Fellow in my office, Brian 
Hufker. Brian has been indispensable in translating documents from the 
German and French languages and researching for the complicated and 
vast amount of detail involved in this inquiry. I am proud to have him 
as a member of my staff.
  I also have to thank Miriam Kleiman who was literally the first 
person in the archives for us researching this subject. She has been 
diligent, dedicated, and totally committed to achieving justice for the 
victims of the Holocaust, survivors, and heirs who have assets in Swiss 
banks. While the term indispensable might be overused, she truly has 
been She found the first ``five-star'' documents, and she continues 
finding them today as she continues her fine work for this worthy 
topic.
  In addition, I want to thank Willi Korte, who along with Miriam was 
there from the beginning and continues to this day to help in the 
cause. Willi has selflessly dedicated his time, efforts, vast knowledge 
on the subject, and even his own resources to get to the truth.
  My greatest debt of gratitude goes to my legislative director, Gregg 
Rickman. Gregg was with me from the very beginning of this inquiry. He 
spent countless hours toiling through thousands of pages of 
documentation from so many sources. He also worked behind the scenes to 
organize four Senate Banking Committee hearings and numerous meetings 
with many of the principals involved. There was no institutional 
knowledge on this subject when we started. The inquiry evolved through 
a painstaking learning process derived from listening to the tragic 
recollections of Holocaust victims and their descendants, and 
conducting persistent detective work. In the latter Gregg has no equal. 
Gregg, I thank you and your wife, Sonia, who made personal sacrifices 
to see that some measure of justice is achieved.
  Mr. President, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of 
these fine people who made the revelations and discoveries of the past 
year and more possible. I mean this when I say that they have all made 
history. They have contributed to correcting a great injustice and have 
tried with all of their might to set history straight. They should be 
proud of their work and I know that the claimants and survivors would 
agree. For my part, I am immensely proud of their effort and I heartily 
congratulate them for their fine work. While there is still a great 
amount of work to be done, we could not have gotten even this far 
without all of these fine people.

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