The Wartime Treatment Study Act reintroduced on June 30, 2005
The Wartime Treatment Study Act was reintroduced on June 30 in both the Senate (S. 1354) and House (HR 3198). Joining Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) in the Senate were Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Jon Corzine (D-NJ) and Ron Wyden (D-OR). In House, Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) was joined by Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ).
Also last week, the BBC Radio 4 program on German American internment, The
Lost Voices of Crystal City, won the Gold World Medal Award in the New York
Festivals' Radio Programming international competition for history
documentaries.
Click here and scroll down for information on the program, along with the producer's 30 second clip explaining why it deserved an award. You can listen to the story at this link. The producer was Jo Meek of AllOut Productions in Manchester, England.
If you would like further information re: our legislative effort, please contact Karen Ebel or contact the German American Internees Coalition. We need your help! Sen. Feingold's floor statement re: the WSTA is set forth below.
To view the Wartime Treatment Study Act as introduced in the Senate, S. 1354, click here. HR 3198, the companion bill introduced in the House, is identical.
STATEMENT ON INTRODUCTION OF
Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, today I introduce the Wartime Treatment Study
Act. This bill would create two fact-finding commissions: one commission
to review the U.S. government’s treatment of German Americans, Italian
Americans, and European Latin Americans during World War II, and another
commission to review the U.S. government’s treatment of Jewish refugees
fleeing Nazi persecution during World War II. This bill is long overdue.
I am very pleased that my distinguished colleagues, Senators Grassley,
Kennedy, Lieberman, Corzine and Wyden, have joined me as cosponsors of this
important bill. I thank them for their support.
The victory of America and its allies in the Second World War was a triumph
for freedom, justice, and human rights. The courage displayed by so many
Americans, of all ethnic origins, should be a source of great pride for all
Americans.
But, as so many brave Americans fought against enemies in Europe and the
Pacific, the U.S. government was curtailing the freedom of people here at
home. While, it is, of course, the right of every nation to protect itself
during wartime, the U.S. government must respect the basic freedoms for
which so many Americans have given their lives to defend. War tests our
principles and our values. And as our nation’s recent experience has shown,
it is during times of war and conflict, when our fears are high and our
principles are tested most, that we must be even more vigilant to guard
against violations of the Constitution or of basic freedoms.
Many Americans are aware of the fact that, during World War II, under the
authority of Executive Order 9066, our government forced more than 100,000
ethnic Japanese from their homes into internment camps. Japanese Americans
were forced to leave their homes, their livelihoods, and their communities
and were held behind barbed wire and military guard by their own government.
Through the work of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of
Civilians, created by Congress in 1980, this shameful event finally received
the official acknowledgement and condemnation it deserved. Under the Civil
Liberties Act of 1988, people of Japanese ancestry who were subjected to
relocation or internment later received an apology and reparations on behalf
of the people of the United States.
While I commend our government for finally recognizing and apologizing for
the mistreatment of Japanese Americans during World War II, I believe that
it is time that the government also acknowledge the mistreatment experienced
by many German Americans, Italian Americans, and European Latin Americans,
as well as Jewish refugees.
The Wartime Treatment Study Act would create two independent, fact-finding
commissions to review this unfortunate history, so that Americans can
understand why it happened and work to ensure that it never happens again.
One commission will review the treatment by the U.S. government of German
Americans, Italian Americans, and other European Americans, as well as
European Latin Americans, during World War II.
Mr. President, I believe that most Americans are unaware that, as was the
case with Japanese Americans, approximately 11,000 ethnic Germans, 3,200
ethnic Italians, and scores of Bulgarians, Hungarians, Romanians or other
European Americans living in America were taken from their homes and placed
in internment camps during World War II. We must learn from our history and
explore why we turned on our fellow Americans and failed to protect basic
freedoms.
A second commission created by this bill will review the treatment by the
U.S. government of Jewish refugees who were fleeing Nazi persecution and
genocide. We must review the facts and determine how our restrictive
immigration policies failed to provide adequate safe harbor to Jewish
refugees fleeing the persecution of Nazi Germany. The United States turned
away thousands of refugees, delivering many refugees to their deaths at the
hands of the Nazi regime.
As I mentioned earlier, there has been a measure of justice for Japanese
Americans who were denied their liberty and property. It is now time for
the U.S. government to complete an accounting of this period in our nation’s
history. It is time to create independent, fact-finding commissions to
conduct a full and through review of the treatment of all European
Americans, European Latin Americans, and Jewish refugees during World War
II.
Up to this point, there has been no justice for the thousands of German
Americans, Italian Americans, and other European Americans who were branded
“enemy aliens” and then taken from their homes, subjected to curfews,
limited in their travel, deprived of their personal property, and, in the
worst cases, placed in internment camps.
There has been no justice for Latin Americans of European descent who were
shipped to the United States and sometimes repatriated or deported to
hostile, war-torn European Axis powers, often in exchange for Americans
being held in those countries.
Finally, there has been no justice for the thousands of Jews, like those
aboard the German vessel the St. Louis, who sought refuge from hostile Nazi
treatment but were callously turned away at America’s shores.
Although the injustices to European Americans, European Latin Americans, and
Jewish refugees occurred fifty years ago, it is never too late for Americans
to learn from these tragedies. We should never allow this part of our
nation’s history to repeat itself. And, while we should be proud of our
nation’s triumph in World War II, we should not let that justifiable pride
blind us to the treatment of some Americans by their own government.
I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the Wartime Treatment Study
Act. It is time for a full accounting of this tragic chapter in our
nation’s history.
I ask that the full text of the Wartime Treatment Study Act be placed in the
record following these remarks. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the
floor.
THE WARTIME TREATMENT STUDY ACT
June 30, 2005