WASHINGTON (AFP) — A group of 25 US lawmakers urged Lithuania and Poland in letters released Wednesday to enact laws this year to address restituting property the Nazis stole during the Holocaust.
Democratic Representative Robert Wexler and 24 colleagues wrote to prime ministers Donald Tusk of Poland and Andrius Kubilius of Lithuania to push for action on the legislation during a June 26-30 conference on Holocaust-era assets to be held in Prague.
"We believe that the Prague Conference may represent the last and best opportunity to resolve outstanding Holocaust-era issues during the lifetime of Holocaust survivors," wrote Wexler.
He urged the US allies "to publicly recommit to introducing, passing, and implementing equitable and fair property restitution legislation" giving those who lost property to the Nazis or subsequent Communist governments "at least a small measure of justice during their lifetimes."
The Florida lawmaker, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who chairs the panel's Subcommittee on Europe, will be part of the US delegation to the conference.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman, a Democrat, and the panel's top Republican, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen were among the other lawmakers who signed Wexler's letter.
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