Tom Lantos: “The Holocaust clearly was one of the most horrific crimes against humanity in this or, indeed, in any century. Most of…”

“The Holocaust clearly was one of the most horrific crimes against humanity in this or, indeed, in any century. Most of the individuals who survived the Holocaust are no longer here. We are dealing with a passing generation, and we are dealing with their heirs. No legislation can compensate for the death of 6 million innocent people; no legislation can compensate for the unspeakable horrors and suffering that millions of innocent people have suffered. But we find a half a century after the end of the Holocaust that governmental organizations and private institutions like banks and insurance companies have seen fit to hide and to use for their own purposes assets wrongfully and illegally taken from victims of the Holocaust, from institutions that these individuals created, and from entire communities. The Nazi regime used foreign financial institutions to launder and to hold illegally confiscated assets from Holocaust victims.”