Remarks of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold
On The Wartime Treatment Study Act Amendment to the Comprehensive
Immigration Reform Act
May 24, 2007
This amendment contains the language of S. 621, the Wartime Treatment
Study Act, a bill I have introduced with my friend from Iowa, Senator
Grassley.
This amendment 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.
I am very pleased that my distinguished colleagues, Senator Lieberman
and Senator Inouye, have agreed to cosponsor this amendment. They
are also cosponsors of my bill, and I appreciate their continued support
for this important initiative.
This amendment would help us to learn more about how, during World
War II, recent immigrants and refugees were treated. It is an appropriate
and relevant amendment to this immigration bill.
I would have preferred to have moved this bill on its own. Senator
Grassley and I have introduced the Wartime Treatment Study Act in
the last four Congresses, and the Judiciary Committee has reported
it favorably each time, including just last month. It has been cleared
for adoption by unanimous consent by my Democratic colleagues. But
I am forced to offer this as an amendment because the Wartime Treatment
Study Act has not cleared the Republican side in this Congress or
any of the last three Congresses. It is time for the Senate to pass
this bill.
During World War II, the United States fought a courageous battle
against the spread of Nazism and fascism. Nazi Germany was engaged
in the horrific persecution and genocide of Jews. By the end of the
war, 6 million Jews had perished at the hands of Nazi Germany.
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 of us. But we should not let that justifiable
pride in our Nation's triumph blind us to the treatment of some Americans
by their own Government.
Sadly, as so many brave Americans fought against enemies in Europe
and the Pacific, the U.S. Government was curtailing the freedom of
some of its own people here, at home. While it is, of course, the
right of every Nation to protect itself during wartime, the U.S. Government
can and should respect the basic freedoms that so many Americans have
given their lives to defend.
Many Americans are aware that during World War II, under the authority
of Executive Order 9066 and the Alien Enemies Act, the U.S. Government
forced more than 100,000 ethnic Japanese from their homes and ultimately
into relocation and internment camps. Japanese Americans were forced
to leave their homes, their livelihoods, and their communities. They
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 unfortunate episode
in our history finally received the official acknowledgement and condemnation
it deserved.
Congress and the U.S. Government did the right thing by recognizing
and apologizing for the mistreatment of Japanese Americans during
World War II. But our work in this area is not done. That same respect
has not been shown to the many German Americans, Italian Americans,
and European Latin Americans who were 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.
Most Americans are probably unaware that during World War II, the
U.S. Government designated more than 600,000 Italian-born and 300,000
German -born U.S. resident aliens and their families as ``enemy aliens.''
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. Some even remained interned for up to 3 years after the war
ended. Unknown numbers of German Americans, Italian Americans, and
other European Americans had their property confiscated or their travel
restricted, or lived under curfews.
This amendment would not--would not--grant reparations to victims.
It would simply create a commission to review the facts and circumstances
of the U.S. Government's treatment of German Americans, Italian Americans,
and other European Americans during World War II.
Now, a second commission created by this amendment would review the
treatment by the U.S. Government of Jewish refugees who were fleeing
Nazi persecution and genocide and trying to come to the United States.
German and Austrian Jews applied for visas, but the United States
severely limited their entry due to strict immigration policies--policies
that many believed were motivated by fear that our enemies would send
spies under the guise of refugees and by the unfortunate antiforeigner,
anti-Semitic attitudes that were sadly all too common at that time.
It is time for the country to review the facts and determine how
our immigration policies failed to provide adequate safe harbor to
Jewish refugees fleeing the persecution of Nazi Germany. It is a horrible
truth that the United States turned away thousands of Jewish refugees,
delivering many to their deaths at the hands of the Nazi regime we
were fighting.
It is so urgent that we pass this legislation. We cannot wait any
longer. The injustices to European Americans and Jewish refugees occurred
more than 50 years ago. The people who were affected by these policies
are dying.
In fact, one of them died earlier this month. Max Ebel was one of
the thousands of German Americans who were interned during World War
II in the United States. He died on May 3, 2007. His death brings
me great sadness.
Max Ebel was only 17 when he came to America in 1937. He fled Germany
after he was assaulted for refusing to join the Hitler Youth. When
he came to the United States, he lived with his father in Massachusetts.
He learned English. He joined the Boy Scouts. He completed high school.
When the war broke out, he registered for the draft.
Nonetheless, in 1942, this new American was arrested by the FBI and
interned under the Alien Enemies Act because of his German ancestry.
He spent the next 18 months in a series of detention facilities and
internment camps and ultimately was transferred to a camp in Fort
Lincoln, ND, where despite the way he had been treated, he found a
way to help the war effort. He volunteered for a government work detail
and spent a North Dakota winter laying new railroad track on the Northern
Pacific Rail Line. Max Ebel's crew boss saw how hard he worked and
petitioned for his release.
Finally, in April of 1944, the Government let him go home. Despite
everything that had happened, he remained loyal to his new country
and became a citizen in 1953. A few years ago he told a journalist:
I was an American right from the beginning, and I always will be.
Max Ebel's death is a loss not only to his family and friends but
also to our country.
But losing Max Ebel does more than bring me sadness; it also makes
me a bit angry. It makes me angry because he did not live to see the
day that Congress recognized what he went through: his internment
at the hands of his newfound country.
I have been trying for years to pass this legislation creating a
commission to study what happened to Max Ebel and to other German
Americans and other European Americans and to Jewish refugees during
World War II. I am gravely disappointed that Max Ebel and many others
affected by these policies will not be here to see that legislation
become law.
Americans must learn from these tragedies now, before there is no
one left. We cannot put this off any longer. These people have suffered
long enough without official, independent study of what happened to
them and without knowing this Nation recognizes their sacrifice and
resolves to learn from the mistakes of the past that caused them so
much pain.
As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board put it, Congress
must move forward with this legislation:
Lest the passage of time deprive more Americans of the justice that
they deserve.
Let me again repeat that this amendment does not call for reparations.
All it does is ensure that the public has a full accounting of what
happened. We should be proud of our victory over Nazism, as I am.
But we should not let that pride cause us to overlook what happened
to some Americans and refugees during World War II. I urge my colleagues
to join me in supporting the Wartime Treatment Study Act that is an
amendment to this immigration legislation, and I hope the managers
of the bill can accept it.
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