Nazi concentration camps – Sandy Rosenberg

137-0!!

That was the message I sent to Aaron Greenfield, the lead lobbyist for the survivors and the descendants of those who perished in the Nazi concentration camps after being transported there by the French national railroad.

That was the vote this afternoon as the House passed the amended version of my bill requiring the company to make its records of those transports Internet accessible.

A lot of work preceded that unanimous vote.

Extraordinarily moving hearings prompted the Senate committee to give the bill a unanimous favorable report right after the testimony concluded. That is a very rare occurrence.

Shortly thereafter, the railroad company changed its position on when it could make these records available. What had been impossible to do became something that could be done in four-to-six months.

Our negotiations over the amendments to accomplish that lasted two weeks. They would have not succeeded without the exceptional efforts of Delegate Pete Hammen, chairman of the committee to which my bill had been referred, and Ed Papenfuse, the state archivist.

There were times when I had to remind myself not to be too anxious to seek a compromise but to let the discussions follow their natural course.

After the bill passed, I called the press and Bill Pitcher, the lobbyist for the railroad company.

I said to him, “The end product is something we can be proud of.”

March 28

“There was one bucket in the middle of the cattle car for 50 people,” Leo Bretholz told me.

Leo was sitting next to me at the witness table today.

Seventy years ago, he was in a railroad car, heading from France to the Nazi death camps. Leo escaped, but thousands of others did not.

They were transported on cars owned by the Railroad of France. That business now owns a majority interest in a company that has bid to run the MARC train commuter line.

My legislation would require the company to disclose information in its records relating to the jewelry, books, family heirlooms, and other precious property, such as Leo’s stamp collection, that it confiscated from these people.

Leo testified that he was given a receipt when he surrendered his belongings. The company said it had no records of anyone’s possessions.

Committee members had many questions, far more than the norm at a hearing in Annapolis. They reflected a great understanding of and interest in the issues raised by my bill.

The chairman asked company officials, “Why don’t you make the investment that would make the information in your archives available to the people who are requesting it?”

Two hours after the hearing began, someone asked Leo if he was tired.

“I’ll survive it,” he responded.

March 3