Restitution

Making amends

by Seth Gitell

Speaker Tom Finneran welcomed a special visitor to the Massachusetts House of Representatives floor on Tuesday -- Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel.

Wiesel addressed the House on the day the Commonwealth recognized Holocaust Remembrance Day and passed into law a new bill that makes World War II-era restitution tax-exempt. The law, which will affect about 3500 state residents, is the legislative aftermath of the effort to hold accountable those Swiss banks into which Nazis deposited the assets of Holocaust victims during World War II and those German companies that used slave labor during the same period.

"The Holocaust is not about money. It's about life and death," said Wiesel, author of a number of books, including the autobiographical novel Night, which draws on his experiences as an inmate at Auschwitz. "Money is simply a byproduct."

During his speech to the House, Wiesel said he could not "represent" anyone. Afterward, Finneran told Wiesel he represented the "best of everyone in their most noble aspirations." The day marked a degree of bridge-building for the Speaker. Among those Finneran paid tribute to before Wiesel's speech were Robert and Myra Kraft -- with whom he clashed in the fight to build a new football stadium in Foxborough.