Tag: holocaust

Three days, One question

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

      I just spent ten days in Israel. 

     Even though I’ve been there many times, there were several firsts.  A tour of Hebron, a new path to the Old City of Jerusalem, and a new place to pray on my next trip.  My trip blog starts at http://www.delsandy.com/2012/06/08/i-have-never-walked-down-this-street-before/

     My first three workdays back home were devoted to another first – testifying before a committee of Congress. 

     The Holocaust Rail Justice Act would give a day in court to the survivors and descendants of the thousands of people transported by the French national railroad (SNCF) to the German borders and then to the Nazi concentration camps. 

      The law I successfully sponsored last year requires SNCF to  submit relevant records from this period if it wants to bid for the MARC commuter rail contract. 

      (In Annapolis, all bills get a public hearing if introduced by a certain date.  Not so on Capitol Hill.  That a hearing was scheduled is a significant step forward for the legislation.)

      We prepared as if I was going to argue before the Supreme Court.

      I answered countless questions that we expected Senators to ask.  Most were from the perspective of a member who didn’t want to open the courts to yet another lawsuit from individuals seeking damages from corporations.

      We edited my prepared statement down to five minutes.  (My first run-through took 8 ½ minutes.)  My written testimony was not time-limited.

       I’ve testified on hundreds of my bills over the years, but the questioners have been my colleagues. 

      This time, it would be U.S. Senators.  It could be on CSpan. 

       Until the farm bill intervened – with seventy-three amendments to be acted on by the full Senate. 

       Since there would be continuous floor votes, the hearing was moved to a small room in the Capitol itself. 

       I was asked one question: “Do you think SNCF will comply with the Maryland law?”

       “We should know within a month,” I replied.

Lost in the translation

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

             Politique volontariste sounds better in French.

             It means proactive policy, according to Google Translate and SNCF.

             In this instance, when used by SNCF, the French national railroad, it means refusing to acknowledge the real reason why the company is making public its records detailing its transport of Jews and others to the German border during World War II, where thousands were subsequently sent to their deaths. 

             A press release from SNCF heralded its delivery of these digitized documents to the Shoah Memorial in Paris, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and the Holocaust Museum in Washington. 

             One can assume they’re also being prepared for delivery to the State of Maryland, as required under House Bill 520, the legislation we passed last session. 

            SNCF has expressed interest in bidding on a major commuter rail contract in Maryland.  To qualify, it must make these records available. 

            I didn’t expect to be praised by SNCF, but our efforts shouldn’t be ignored.

December 4 – Next Year and What Next

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L’an prochain a Jerusalem.

For millenia, every Passover seder has ended with the words, “Next year in Jerusalem.”

I read that phrase in French for the first time today in the haggadah used by Jews in 1941 who were sent to to a French internment camp.

That hagaddah is among the archives at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum.

The museum has few records of the role of the French national railroad during the Nazi period.

However, one memorandum summarizes a meeting attended by railroad officials on July 15, 1942, the day before the mass arerest and deportation to Auschwitz of 13,000 Jews.

“It will be very important to get all these details – the whole picture of what the railroad did,” commented Shaul Ferrero, a senior archivist for documentation from France.

—

“To have a city where 40% of the people are new immigrants, that is the Zionist ideal,” Mayor Benny Vaknin of Ashkelon told me at lunch.

“How does this compare to running Jerusalem?” I asked.

“There you have eight deputies. It keeps your coalition together,” the Mayor replied.

“Lincoln used that theory when creating a Cabinet of his band of rivals,” I responded.

—

Over the years, I’ve explained my bills in many settings – before committees in Annapolis, at neighborhood meetings, and in my Legislation classes.

Never, until today, before nine people whose parents were transported to their death by the French national railroad.

They asked some questions more than once.

Most urgently, “What do we have to do next?”

I simply replied, “No other state will have to pass such a bill, if the company complies with the Maryland law. All you will need to do is turn on your computer. The records will be there.”

I was emotionally drained when our hour together ended.

Getting an "A"

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2011 Legislative Diary | 2 Comments on Getting an "A"
            I flunked Civil Procedure.
 
            My law school professor called me into his office to discuss how I could overcome my failing grade.  He all but gave me a subway token so that I could get to Penn Station and take the train home from New York. 
 
            But before he reached into his pocket, he asked a question, “How did you do in your other classes?” 
 
            I replied, “In Professor Telford Taylor’s Constitutional Law class, I got an A.” 
            Brigadier General Telford Taylor was Chief Counsel for 12 cases during the Nuremberg trials of the Nazis. 
 
            I thought of him often as I worked on the bill this session to require the French national railroad company to make available online the records of its deportation of Jews and others to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps. 
 
            Today, Governor O’Malley signed that legislation into law. 
 
            At a reception afterwards, I thanked all of those who helped get the bill passed: the survivors and their descendants, our lobbyists, the Maryland State Archivist, and my legislative colleagues.
 
            I told the story about my grades in Civil Procedure and Constitutional Law. 
 
            “This past session,” I concluded, “we all got an A.”
 
            Normally, the last bill signing means that the next legislative session is eight months away but not this year.  

            We must meet this fall to adopt new boundaries for Maryland’s 
eight Congressional districts, consistent with the one person, one vote 
principle. 
 
             We may also consider legislation addressing the state’s ongoing 
revenue needs. In the next two weeks, I’ll be meeting with advocates 
to discuss how that can be done in a way that is fair and environmentally sound. 
 
             
 

A grocery store, favorable amendments, and not a planned trip

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2011 Legislative Diary | No Comments

           You need to sweat the details – at home and in Annapolis.

           That’s what I told the people at a community meeting in Howard Park this weekend. 

            The subject was the long awaited and much anticipated grocery store at Hillsdale and Liberty Heights Avenues.  The community is very interested in employment opportunities there, as well as the positive effect it could have on redevelopment of the nearby Ambassador Theatre, where Barry Levinson first went to the movies. 

             “We will sweat the details on these issues for you,” I said, on behalf of myself, my 41st District colleagues, and the two City Councilwomen who represent the area. 

             In Annapolis, favorable amendments were added to the Senate version of one of my bills.  I described the changes in a memo that I will be hand delivering and discussing with each of the members of the Education subcommittee on my committee. 

              Sweating the details and taking nothing for granted.

              I’ve been in several meetings to iron out amendments to my bill requiring the French railroad to make available on the Internet its records from the deportation of Jews to the Nazi concentration camps. 

             The bill defines property as “any personal belongings owned or controlled by victims.”

              “Why what does ‘controlled’ mean?  Isn’t ‘owned’ sufficient?” someone asked.

              “People brought whatever they could put in one piece of luggage or just a knapsack,” I responded.  “This wasn’t a planned trip.”

March 21

  • My Key Issues:

  • Pimlico and The Preakness
  • Our Neighborhoods
  • Pre-Kindergarten
  • Lead Paint Poisoning