[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 41 (Friday, April 15, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 15, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
   COMMEMORATION OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HOLOCAUST IN HUNGARY

                                 ______


                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 14, 1994

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, March 19 marks the tragic 50th anniversary 
of the Holocaust in Hungary. Fifty years ago on March 19, 1944, Nazi 
German military forces occupied Hungary and established complete 
control of Hungary, although the Hungarian government at that time was 
already an ally of Germany.
  Even before the Nazi occupation of Hungary, Adolf Eichmann was 
personally preparing to supervise the extermination of the Jews in 
Hungary. Eichmann was the notorious SS officer who headed the Nazi 
``Jewish Department'' and had been involved in implementing the ``final 
solution'' in a number of other areas before he arrived in Budapest in 
the spring of 1944. By this time, Eichmann and his henchmen had become 
particularly skillful and efficient in their hellish task. Women, 
children, old people and the few men who had not already been pressed 
into forced labor to serve the Hungarian and German military forces on 
the Russian front were packed into sealed boxcars and forced to stand 
for days in damp, cold and searing heat, without food or drink or 
sanitary facilities. The lucky ones died, the strong survived to reach 
the death camps.
  It was in July of 1944 that Raoul Wallenberg, at the request of the 
United States War Refugee Board, arrived in Budapest in a last effort 
to rescue as many as he could save. During the final seven months of 
the nightmare--at a time when the rest of the world was blind and deaf 
to the suffering millions--Wallenberg's selfless and heroic acts saved 
the lives of tens of thousands of his fellow women and men. Mr. 
Speaker, as many of my colleagues know, my wife Annette and I were 
among those fortunate individuals who were saved through the efforts of 
Raoul Wallenberg and others who were inspired by his example to fight 
against the vicious evil unleashed by Hitler and his henchmen like 
Eichmann.
  Mr. Speaker, I am fortunate enough to have 15 grandchildren, and 
every time I look at them, play with them, talk to them--and I do that 
every spare moment I have--I see the tens of thousands of little 
Hungarian children--the infants, the toddlers, grade schoolers, high 
schoolers, the ones who were university age--and I think what the world 
has lost as this mindless insanity devoured these beautiful and 
promising lives.
  I knew that this year would be a year of commemoration of the tragic 
events. For me that commemoration started a little early--just a year 
ago, President Clinton called me and asked me to be his representative 
and take a remarkable group of men and women, leaders of the American 
Jewish and American Polish community, to Warsaw for the commemoration 
of the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It was an 
incredible experience to walk through the streets of that ghetto with 
Yitzhak Rabin and Al Gore to pay tribute to that incredible Jewish 
community. It is now the time to remember the Hungarian Jews.
  We commemorate, but that is not enough. We must also make a 
commitment to fight with every conceivable weapon at our command every 
sign of bigotry and hatred, whether it involves Jews or not. I commend 
Warren Christopher for telling the Chinese leadership that the rape of 
Buddhist nuns must come to an end, so must the incarceration of people 
who have committed no crime except to articulate the basic views of the 
founders of this republic, and I look with disdain upon some members of 
the business community who feel that pragmatic considerations must have 
the upper hand. By pragmatic considerations I understand that you sell 
them the gas chambers and that improves the bottom line. When Saddam 
Hussein said that he will burn down half of Israel, he had on his side 
some of the industrial and financial leadership of Western Europe. It 
is not without risk to speak out against these things, but we must 
speak out.

  We have the mission to commemorate and educate upcoming generations 
about what it means when the forces of evil are unleashed and prevail. 
The Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers--it began with words, 
hatred and bigotry. It began with Austria's population cheering as 
Hilter's troops entered Vienna. If you have any doubt of that, go to 
the Holocaust Museum and see newsreel film of that time. I was ten 
years old at that time, and I remember the day because the headlines of 
the newspapers in Budapest spoke of the Anschluss. I bought a newspaper 
with my own money that day. I took it home and I felt, as a 10 year old 
boy, that something fundamentally had changed in the lives of millions 
of people in Europe. And it did.
  Our mission is to fight. There is no room in 1994 in the United 
States for silent Jews or silent citizens of any kind. The bystander 
who chooses not to notice or participate in the perpetration of hatred 
is almost as guilty as the perpetrator of hatred. We have seen them 
throughout Europe. A few days ago I was telling President Kravchuk of 
Ukraine that we are anxious and eager to build a new relationship with 
his country, but not at the cost of sweeping under the rug the 
nightmarish history of the past. We will not remain silent when a 
German court in 1994 considers German public figures innocent when they 
deny that the Holocaust ever occurred. Denial is the first step towards 
the commission of crimes of unspeakable proportions.
  As we commemorate, as we educate and as we are determined to fight, 
we should be filled with the knowledge that long after the Hilters, the 
Saddam Husseins, and Kadhaffis of this world have been thrown into the 
dust heap of history, every single one of our loved ones and what they 
stood for, what they preached, and what they fought for will remain 
forever as a beacon to humankind.
  Mr. Speaker, to observe the 50th anniversary of the unspeakable 
tragedy and horror of those who suffered in Hungary, a special 
commemoration was held on March 20 in New York City. This observance 
was sponsored by the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's 
Heritage Abroad, the World Federation of Hungarian Jews, the American 
Gathering/Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, and the Emanuel 
Foundation.
  Mr. Speaker, I am placing in the Record the outstanding remarks of 
the participants on that occasion: Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Chairman of 
the Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad and 
Senior Rabbi of the Park East Synagogue in New York; remarks of 
Ambassador Andre Erdos, Permanent Representative of Hungary to the 
United Nations; and remarks of Tsuriel Raphael, Deputy Consul General 
of Israel in New York.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to give serious and thoughtful 
attention to these remarks.

  Address by Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Chairman, U.S. Commission for the 
               Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad

       Congressman Lantos, your excellencies, Ambassador Erdos, 
     distinguished clergy, dear friends, first I would like to 
     introduce the representatives of the diplomatic corps because 
     during the darkest days there was some light--there were 
     embassies in Budapest who in the fall of '44 tried to rescue 
     some Jews. Raul Wallenberg is a great hero, but so there were 
     others: I'd like to call on representatives of Swiss, Sweden, 
     Spain, Portugal, the Vatican, also the Ambassador of Romania 
     to the U.N.
       I remember that on the eve of my birthday on Sunday, March 
     19, 1944 I was in Budapest on a rainy afternoon when I saw 
     the first Nazi troops marching on the streets of Budapest. 
     That caused a total change in my life and in all our lives, 
     survivors who are here today. Life was never the same. You 
     remember the law that was passed, if you can call it a law, 
     ordering that every Jew wore the yellow star and all those 
     other laws that were enacted to deprive Hungarian citizens of 
     rights that belonged to them, only because they were Jews. 
     And what was remarkable, friends, that Adolph Eichmann, the 
     Beast, with a 150 Gestapo aided and abetted by the 
     Gendarmerie and the Fascist cohorts of Hungary, were able to 
     cleanse the Hungarian country side--within three months 
     Hungarian Jews of the country side with the exception of 
     Budapest were deported first to ghettos, just like my 
     grandparents from Korozsmezo the Mateszalka ghetto, that in 
     cattle cars to Auschwitz to be gassed and never to be seen 
     alive.
       We, who survived, went through hell of persecution and 
     oppression, we lost our dear and loved ones in the gas 
     chambers of Auschwitz and Treblinka and the death marches to 
     Mauthausen. I am glad Cantor Malovany chose Psalm 16, because 
     it was God who saved us, and he saved us not because you and 
     I were any better, but because he extended our lives for a 
     purpose: we have to be the conscience and we have to remind 
     the world that indeed the human tragedy of the Holocaust took 
     place. Never mind the revisionist historians who challenge 
     it, we are the witnesses, many of us still carry the 
     numbers on our arms and the stark haunting memories. How 
     dare they challenge the tragedy of our people. So, 
     unfortunately the clock is ticking--we are 50 years older, 
     but what we must do today in memory of those of our loved 
     ones who didn't make it, is to make a pledge, to a 
     resolution that as long as God gives us life, we will make 
     sure that their memory is not forgotten.
       Furthermore, we pledge ourselves on this 50th Anniversary 
     that the neo-nazis and those who are spreading venom and 
     hatred that divide man from man, that they will not have 
     their day on earth. Who would have thought after the loss of 
     600,000 Hungarian Jews that in democratic Hungary today there 
     are forces who are trying to undermine that fragile 
     democracy, who use code names that we are all familiar with: 
     bolshevik which is a code word for Jew, for they claim that 
     too many non-Hungarians are in the press and the television. 
     And what about some of the antisemitic onslaught by 
     extremists, by fascists who once brought about the disaster 
     to the Hungarian nation and to the Hungarian Jewish community 
     and are tempering with the destiny and the future of 
     Hungarian democracy.
       So, it is a painful commemoration: we see ethnic cleansing 
     in our days, we see antisemitism, xenophobia, hate the 
     stranger, and it is all happening 50 years after the tragic 
     days of the Holocaust. And finally my friends, another 
     painful recollection: I fled Vienna as a child in Budapest 
     and I can tell you that I spoke German in Vienna and because 
     I spoke German and Hungarian I worked as a messenger for the 
     Jewish community and I carried some of the correspondence to 
     the headquarters of the Beast Eichmann and that black uniform 
     is still before me for as long as I live. And I also met the 
     Knight of Righteousness on a white horse, Raul Wallenberg. 
     The Beast of Men and the Best of Men. Human nature hasn't 
     changed, my friends: there is the beast of us and the best of 
     us and the beasts are raising their voices and too many of 
     the best are keeping silent. Let us make sure that the beasts 
     will not prevail, let us make sure that the Eichmanns will 
     not prevail again. That is your task and my task.
       But the world has changed; we carry the pain, we carry the 
     scars . . . . look at these two flags. There is a state of 
     Israel--had there been a state of Israel at that time many of 
     our loved ones would have been spared. Had there been a 
     Hungary at that time based on democratic institutions, those 
     laws couldn't have been enacted. Then the greatest bastion of 
     democracy, the United States; had America at the time taken 
     the same position on human rights that Tom Lantos is taking 
     in Congress and that the U.S. President is taking today, Nazi 
     Germans and their Hungarian collaborators would not have 
     dared do what they did. A world of silence, but no longer. 
     Human rights is a basic corner stone of the American policy 
     today and let that be understood by any nation who wants to 
     enter the international community. The only way there is an 
     entry to that standard is a commitment to human rights and 
     religious freedom.
       So the world has changed and we say in our prayers . . . to 
     life and not to death. Hungarian Jews were transplanted to 
     different parts of the world: here in the U.S., Israel, 
     Australia, Canada, Sweden. They have made their contribution 
     to those countries and we are committed and determined to 
     work for life not for destruction.
                                  ____


  Address by Ambassador Andre Erdos, Permanent Representative of the 
               Republic of Hungary to the United Nations

       We are gathered here today to commemorate events that took 
     place half a century ago. Fifty years is a rather long period 
     of time. It definitely is by human standards. And so much can 
     change and has, indeed, changed in the course of five 
     decades, the ranks of those who went through hell are wearing 
     thin with each passing day. As the number of survivors 
     dwindles, the need to recall seems to grow. To recall hell, 
     to recall the darkest pages of mankind's history, of 
     Hungary's history.
       I feel privileged to be able to address you on this day as 
     Permanent Representative of the Republic of Hungary to the 
     United Nations. I feel honored to join in and add democratic 
     Hungary's voice to the solemn commemoration of the fiftieth 
     anniversary of the holocaust of Hungarian Jewry. Fifty years 
     ago, it was 1944, a particularly dramatic year in 
     contemporary Hungarian history, fateful for the German 
     occupation of the country, for the deportation of hundreds of 
     thousands of Hungarians of Jewish faith or descent, for the 
     beginning of devastating military operations on Hungarian 
     territory, for the last minute desperate and unsuccessful 
     attempt at extricating Hungary from the war, and for the 
     seizure of power by thugs of the Hungarian Nazi Arrow-Cross 
     Party and the introduction of a reign of terror unparalleled 
     in Hungarian history in its consistency and brutality.
       The world has definitely changed since then. Even that 
     somber year of 1944, after its procession of destruction and 
     sufferings, ended with more than a glimmer of hope: as a 
     result of the combined efforts of the Allied Powers both from 
     the East and the West, the last chapter in the crushing of 
     the German war-machine finally began, the Hitlerites and 
     their Hungarian accomplices were being driven out of the 
     country, the siege of Budapest to rid it of the Nazi presence 
     commenced and the Provisional National Assembly of a new, 
     free Hungary held its first session in Debrecen. In the 
     course of this last half a century, we have seen the 
     emergence of an alliance of powerful and democratic States, 
     the establishment and consolidation of Israel, a member State 
     of the United Nations, the collapse of totalitarian States 
     and ideologies, and the triumph worldwide of the ideas of 
     democracy and human rights. As a result of epochal changes 
     that, like a whirlwind, swept across the globe 4-5 years ago, 
     our conviction about the power of truth, the power of freedom 
     and justice have become stronger than ever.
       However the optimistic predictions about a new world order 
     after the euphoric transformations in the international 
     landscape have proven painfully premature. The simultaneous 
     assault of old and new problems has brought about a world 
     that might seem, on sowing division amongst us, on turning 
     neighbor against neighbor and on contaminating people's, 
     especially young people's minds with the venom of 
     exclusion and unbridled fundamentalism. And we sure know 
     that those who, half a century ago, were killed and 
     exterminated, who perished in the flames of a well-
     planned, methodic barbarism are with us today, they are 
     here in this synagogue, their sacrifices and their 
     memories won't go away, making our commitment ever 
     stronger not only to be sensitive to violations of 
     fundamental human rights, of the rights of national, 
     religious, linguistic, racial or other minorities, not 
     only to raise awareness of such infringements and 
     discriminations, but also to be ready to act, not in 
     words, but in deeds, by sending out the only right message 
     at the end of this much-suffering century; the world, the 
     powerful forces of democracy reaffirm faith in the dignity 
     and worth of the human being and they shall simply not 
     tolerate attempts at undermining the very foundations upon 
     which our civilization rests.
       To make good on this promise is the best we all can do in 
     Hungary, in the United States, in Israel and elsewhere to 
     keep alive the names and faces, the smiles and tears, the 
     humanity of the millions of martyrs, so that their fate, long 
     after the holocaust, would continue to inspire and keep alert 
     generations to come.
                                  ____


 Address by Tsuriel Raphael, Deputy Counsul General of Israel, New York

       Rabbi Schneier, Congressman Lantos, Ambassador Erdos, 
     distinguished guests and friends, on behalf of Medinat 
     Yisrael and the Consulate of Israel, I am honored to bring 
     you greetings on this solemn occasion.
       On the eve of World War II, 650,000 Jews lived in Hungary 
     and in the areas under Hungarian control. In March 1944, 
     Germany invaded Hungary and Eichmann marched into Budapest to 
     begin the ``final solution'' for the Jews of Hungary. By the 
     end of the war, most of the Jews who had lived in Hungary 
     were no more. They had joined the other 5.5 million Jews, 
     altogether 6 million Jews--men, women, and children--who were 
     murdered by Nazi Germany and its supporters. A once vibrant 
     community was torn asunder and destroyed.
       Today we honor the memory of the Jews of Hungary, as, 
     indeed, we honor the other victims of the Holocaust.
       Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, it is called in English 
     the Holocaust, in Hebrew Hashoah--but the immensity of the 
     crime and the evil that was perpetrated, the intensity and 
     depth of the horror and despair, the massiveness of the 
     destruction and slaughter cannot be contained in just one 
     word.
       At the time, most of the world cast a blind eye to the 
     horrors of what was happening to the Jews in the ghettos and 
     in the death camps. The nations of the world convened in 
     Bermuda in 1943 and decided to do nothing. Quotas barring 
     Jewish refugees from entering the democratic countries forced 
     them to turn back to their deaths. The gates of Palestine 
     were kept closed by the British.
       Some even helped the Nazis do the devil's handiwork. The 
     fascist allies and collaborators of the Nazis in Hungary and 
     elsewhere assisted in the process of murdering Jews.
       But there were the others: the Righteous Gentiles--Hasidei 
     Umot Haolam--who are their very own peril, risking their 
     lives and the lives of their own families, acted to save the 
     Jews.
       Heading this effort in Hungary was the Swedish diplomat, 
     Raoul Wallenberg. His courage saved many Jewish lives. We 
     shall never forget him. He shall always be remembered as a 
     hero in our history. He did not deserve his ultimate fate, 
     and someday, hopefully, light will be shed on what befell 
     him.
       Although the State of Israel did not yet exist, the Yishuv 
     in Eretz Yisrael was determined to do its part--despite the 
     obstacles set by others--to fight Hitler and help the Jews in 
     peril. Young men and women were parachuted into Europe. One 
     such person was Hannah Senesh, a brave and talented young 
     woman who immigrated to Israel from Hungary in 1939. After 
     parachuting into Hungary, she was captured, imprisoned, 
     tortured and finally executed. Her heroism and courage have 
     forever earned her a very special place in the history and 
     memory of the Jewish people. Today she rests along with the 
     other heroes of Israel on Har Herzl.
       The Jewish people suffered a calamity, a horrible and 
     traumatic loss of one-third of our people. But in the end it 
     was the Nazis who were defeated, and it is we who have 
     survived.
       The Holocaust meant death. The State of Israel means life. 
     Israel rose like a phoenix from the ashes--home to many of 
     the survivors of the Holocaust, from Hungary and from the 
     other lands of war-torn Europe.
       It is incumbent upon us to remember what happened so that 
     we will honor the memory of the victims--for it is only their 
     memory that they have left.
       We also must not forget, because the Holocaust has a vital 
     lesson for the future. Hatred and fanaticism are evils that 
     must never be ignored. What may begin only as words, in the 
     writings or speeches of extremist demagogues, can lead to 
     horrible atrocities, mass murder, and genocide.
       The antisemitism and extremism of Zhirinovsky, Pamyat, 
     HAMAS, Hizbollah, Islamic Jihad, Farrakhan, the Nation of 
     Islam, Khaddafi, Teheran, the skin-heads and the neo-Nazis 
     follows the path set by the Nazis a half century ago. Those 
     who deny that the Holocaust ever happened are allies of these 
     hatemongers.
       We applaud the decision taken by the UN Human Rights 
     Commission in Geneva this month to condemn antisemitism as a 
     form of bigotry and racism, and to include the monitoring of 
     antisemitism as one of the Commission's tasks.
       Israel will continue to fight its own battle against 
     antisemitism and the violence of extremism. We believe that 
     in our part of the world--in the Middle East--the quest for 
     peace with security will enable us ultimately to defeat the 
     advocates of hate and the perpetrators of terror, murder, and 
     aggression--from wherever they come.
       This we owe to the memory of our brothers and sisters in 
     Hungary and throughout Europe who perished in the Holocaust. 
     This we owe to the survivors who made their home in Israel.
       Dear friends, on behalf of the State of Israel and the 
     Consulate General here in New York, I thank you for holding 
     this commemoration today. The flags of the United States, 
     democratic Hungary, and Israel here today symbolize the 
     friendship between our three nations, and the values in which 
     we believe.
       Next week we shall be celebrating Passover (Pessah) and 
     three weeks after that Yom Haatzmaut, rejoining in our 
     liberation from bondage in ancient Egypt and in modern times 
     the rebirth of the State of Israel.
       As we remember the Jews of Hungary who had nowhere to turn, 
     losing first their freedom and then their lives in the 
     Holocaust, let us cherish our own freedom and be thankful 
     that we live in a time when there is a State of Israel in 
     which Jews can find refuge and a home.

                          ____________________