[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 72 (Friday, June 10, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
  ADDRESS BY HON. RUTH B. MANDEL, VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE U.S. HOLOCAUST 
         MEMORIAL COUNCIL, AT THE DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE CEREMONY

                                 ______


                            HON. DICK SWETT

                            of new hampshire

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 10, 1994

  Mr. SWETT. Mr. Speaker, recently in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, 
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council organized the annual National Civic 
Commemoration to remember the victims of the Holocaust. The ceremony 
was held in connection with the annual Days of Remembrance and is a key 
part of that yearly observance in memory of the 6 million victims of 
Nazi Germany.
  Mr. Speaker, one of the principal speakers on that solemn occasion 
was Hon. Ruth Mandel, the vice chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial 
Council. Dr. Mandel has a distinguished academic career, during which 
she has made substantial contributions to the study of women in 
politics. Presently, Dr. Mandel serves as director of the Center for 
the American Woman and Politics of the Eagleton Institute of Politics 
at Rutgers University.
  During the National Civic Commemoration, Vice Chairman Ruth Mandel 
introduced the lighting of the six candles during the ceremony--a 
symbolic gesture performed each year on this occasion in memory of the 
6 million who died during the Holocaust.
  Mr. Speaker, a number of our colleagues were not able to attend this 
important solemn occasion because the Congress was in recess at the 
time. For this reason, I ask that the remarks of Hon. Ruth Mandel, vice 
chairman of the Holocaust Council, be placed in the Record, and I urge 
all of my colleagues to read and reflect upon her remarks.

                        Days of Remembrance 1994

                          (By Ruth B. Mandel)

       Mr. Vice President, Distinguished Guests and Friends, of 
     the millions silenced forever, some few poetic voices 
     survived even when the writers themselves did not. These 
     precious monuments to memory are in our charge to preserve 
     and share with others. It is fitting that we do so on the 
     Days of Remembrance.
       Especially poignant are the voices of young victims. Robbed 
     of their years in the sun, they achieve another kind of 
     longevity through the words they left behind.
       Today, I echo two such voices. First, Hannah Senesh. Fifty 
     years ago, in 1944, at age 23 she was executed in a prison in 
     Budapest.
       In her diary, Hannah Senesh had written: ``There are stars 
     whose radiance is visible on earth though they have long been 
     extinct. There are people whose brilliance continues to light 
     the world though they are no longer among the living. These 
     lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They 
     light the way for Mankind.''
       A few years earlier, Lajos Gabor, a thirteen year old 
     Gypsy, expressed his awareness of the fate that awaited him 
     and other Roma, and the awful loneliness of confronting one's 
     mortality.

     Little bird, Little bird
     Fly far, carry the message
     Say that I am always afraid.

     German camp, how painful it is.
     The guards so cruel.
     Oh Hitler may you be damned,
     And may God blacken your face
     Like a chimney sweep

     The big guns go off
     They follow me too close.
     God, send me a little luck

     Give me some of yours
     Help me on the road not traveled.

     God, send a little soft rain
     Mix it with snowflakes
     So that the soft grass will grow
     so that it will cover my track
     That I may find some peace

     My God, how you've punished me,
     No one else has ever endured so much

     German camp, German camp
     The guns still rumble there
     My family was killed there

     I lost my family
     I lost my family
     What to do, alone I remained
     What to do, alone I remained.

       ``They light the way for Mankind,'' these people who are no 
     longer with us--A twenty-two year old and a thirteen year 
     old, Hungarian Jew, and Gypsy. Martyred voices of youth 
     sounding across the decades from a past of unspeakable horror 
     into our present--a present in which we must remember and 
     give honor. The words fuel the torch of memory which is our 
     obligation and our privilege to carry forward. We pass it on 
     as a sign of our commitment to a future in which the voices 
     of youth and the words of poetry can celebrate life and hope 
     and love.
       Will the candlelighters please rise and encircle the candle 
     holder.
       Today we are assisted in the memorial candle lighting by 
     another thirteen year old, Theresa Godla, an American Rom of 
     Hungarian Gypsy heritage. She carries a rose in memory of the 
     Rom and Sinti.

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