[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 139 (Thursday, September 29, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 29, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                     GINETTA SAGAN: A HEROIC WOMAN

                                 ______


                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 29, 1994

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and honor Ginetta 
Sagan for her lifelong work to promote and ensure basic human rights 
for people everywhere. Her voice raised against tyranny and human 
cruelty has saved many from death, torture, imprisonment, and other 
suffering, and her now legendary story serves to inspire many others to 
work and care for the cause of human rights. On October 2, 1994, a 
special luncheon is being held by Amnesty International and her friends 
in order to honor Ginetta for all that she has done.
  My wife, Annette, and I have known and worked with Ginetta for over a 
decade. She is a person of great courage, dignity, and compassion, and 
her efforts have immeasurably advanced both the concept of the need for 
guaranteed human rights, and their actual realization in many places 
and situations.
  Ginetta was a member of the Italian Resistance during the Second 
World War. She helped run an underground railroad that smuggled many 
Jews and other persecuted groups out of Italy to safety. In 1945, while 
she continued with this work, she was captured by Fascist secret 
police, imprisoned, and then brutally tortured. She was 19 years old. A 
doctor who had also been tortured and knew he would die wrote Ginetta a 
letter. It said, ``Do everything you can to survive. There will be 
other human beings in the same condition as we are. Let your voice be 
heard.'' As we all know, there were others, and since then Ginetta has 
continuously spoken out to the world on their behalf.
  In 1967, Ginetta was one of the founders of Amnesty International 
USA, and several years later she was instrumental in the development of 
the organization on the west coast. Since then, on two separate 
occasions she has served on the national board of directors, and in 
1994 was named honorary chair. Also in recognition of her 
contributions, Amnesty International has created an annual award in her 
name that is given to people who have furthered the power and 
commitment of membership-based human rights organizations.
  Ginetta also founded and runs the Aurora Foundation, which she 
created following the Vietnam war to document, study, and monitor the 
situation of political prisoners and reeducation camp detainees in the 
Socialist Republic of Vietnam. She was one of the first to bring 
attention to the needs of those who continued to be persecuted in 
Vietnam. Since then Ginetta has broadened the work of the Aurora 
Foundation to intervene on behalf of human rights all over the world 
often at great risk to herself.
  Ginetta has been honored extensively for her work. She was named 
Italo-American Woman of the Year, has received an Honorary Doctorate of 
Humane Letters from the Starr King School of Religion, and is a 
recipient of the Jefferson Award, the Humanist Distinguished Service 
Award, and the Albert Schweitzer Award. In addition, she was recently 
nominated by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus for the Presidential 
Medal of Freedom, considered the Nation's highest civilian honor.
  It is with great pleasure that I invite my colleagues to join me in 
paying tribute to this wonderful person, who dedication and respect for 
human life has helped and touched so many.

                          ____________________