Russ Feingold: “today I introduce the Wartime Treatment Study Act. This bill would create two fact-finding commissions: one commission…”

“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, and Lieberman, have joined me as cosponsors of this important bill. I thank them for their support. The Allied victory in the Second World War was an American triumph, 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, here, at home, the U.S. Government was curtailing the freedom of some of its own people. 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.”