[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 47 (Monday, April 15, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E523]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E523]]


                       COMMEMORATING YOM HASHOAH

                                 ______


                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 15, 1996

  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, we will all gather in the 
majestic setting of the Capitol rotunda to carry out our solemn annual 
obligation to commemorate Yom HaShoah--Holocaust Remembrance Day.
  The length of time to pass since the Holocaust is now more than half 
a century, and it is even more incumbent upon us to ensure that the 
lessons and legacies of this dark period in history are never 
forgotten. As the Holocaust survivors themselves grow older and pass 
away, we must ensure that the phrase ``zachor''--remember--does not 
become a mere slogan. Preventing such a catastrophe from ever occurring 
again is only possible if we continue to pass on the memories of the 
Nazi era to our children.
  Mr. Speaker, yesterday I was privileged to attend the Annual 
Holocaust Commemoration in New York City. This ceremony, which took 
place at the beautiful Temple Emanu-El in my district, included a 
stirring speech by Benjamin Meed, the president of the Warsaw Ghetto 
Resistance Organization. As he does each year, my friend Ben Meed 
delivered a moving tribute to those who perished and those who 
survived. I commend Ben's remarks to my colleagues.

   An Address by Benjamin Meed, President, Warsaw Ghetto Resistance 
  Organization, 53d Annual Commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

       We are together again--the entire Jewish people, men, 
     women, and children, to commemorate the murder of the Jewish 
     people by the Germans and their collaborators. They made no 
     distinctions among Jewish people at the gates of hell. 
     Together we were all pushed to the gas chambers. For one 
     reason only--we were born as Jews.
       This commemoration, which I have the honor to chair for the 
     35th year, is deeply emotional for me as it is for many of 
     you. For many years, the survivors alone remembered. We kept 
     reliving our nightmares in the hope that the world would pay 
     attention to our past, and now, the world has heard our 
     story.
       People have started to understand that what happened was 
     real. When we testified collectively, the world began to take 
     our tragic experience seriously--and to heed our warning.
       Or perhaps it is because all humanity is frightened that 
     the tragic, unique lesson that we Jews experienced, can 
     happen again--this time on a cosmic scale--to all people. And 
     it is all because survivors kept faith with the final command 
     imparted to us by the Kedoshiml Zachor--Gedenk--Remember.
       We accepted that obligation and took it with us to our 
     adopted homes throughout the world. In Israel or Argentina--
     in Sweden or France--throughout the United States and 
     Canada--survivors remember. How can we forget? How can we 
     allow others to forget? How betrayed and isolated we were by 
     the high and the mighty--and the ordinary people. The so 
     called ordinary people were not so ordinary. Many highly 
     educated were nevertheless motivated to murder us.
       Immediately after the Holocaust they said they did not 
     know. How could they not have known? On the cattle cars to 
     Auschwitz and Treblinka--throughout Poland, Czechoslovakia, 
     and Hungary on the way to death--we criss-crossed all of 
     Europe--day after day after day--screaming for help in 
     Yiddish and Polish, Greek and German, Dutch and Flemish, 
     Russian, and French. But the world would not listen as we 
     were herded together from the four corners of Nazi Europe to 
     be murdered--only because we were Jews.
       We Jews now speak other languages. And on Yam Hashoah we 
     gather from every part of the world--to remember together. 
     And Jews are united--not by death--but by memory and by a 
     love of Israel. To us survivors, the State of Israel is not 
     only a political entity. It is a homeland--a realized dream--
     a bright beacon of light in a world desperate for hope.
       And yet we are still afraid--but it is a different fear. 
     Those who were fortunate enough not to have experienced the 
     Holocaust do not and cannot understand how we survivors feel 
     when we see how our tragic past is remembered by others. We 
     are deeply hurt when we see the way the Holocaust is 
     portrayed as only dead bodies--piles and piles of corpses and 
     mass graves. We survivors shudder, for in a way we fear that 
     Hitler succeeded because the world is not aware of the 
     vibrant Jewish life that was before the Holocaust--or of the 
     cultural heritage of 1,000 years of Jewish history in Europe. 
     It does not hear the songs of the shtetl, the theme of 
     Warsaw, the Yeshivot of Vilna, the Hasidim of Belz, or the 
     poets of Lodz and Krakow.
       All it recognizes is death. Yet we remember the life that 
     was destroyed--the world that is no longer. The world of 
     Yiddishkeit and Menchlichkeit.
       We are still asking the questions--how did it happen? Who 
     failed? What failed? But these questions should not distract 
     our attention from the real murderers--the Germans and their 
     collaborators--or from the profound failure of world leaders 
     and church leaders. Their silence has yet to be judged by 
     history.
       And we think not only of the past but also of the future. 
     To you--our children assembled here, we would like to entrust 
     our memories--as part of our last will and testament. You are 
     the last generation to be blessed with the memories of the 
     survivors--the living witnesses to the kingdom of night. This 
     is your heritage, which we are transmitting to you. You must 
     know your roots. You must remember that your very birth was 
     testimony of the triumph of hope over despair--of dreams over 
     pain. You are our response to those who tried to destroy us.
       We also want to protect the truth from innocent and well-
     meaning people who speak only of the good--of the rays of 
     hope and goodness--the righteous Gentiles whose memories we 
     cherish with gratitude. But where was the reality? For every 
     righteous person, there were thousands who collaborated or 
     who shared the enemy's desire to murder the Jews or who, at 
     best, stood idly by and did nothing.
       Let us remember the Holocaust as it was. It was painful. It 
     was bitter. It was ugly. It was inhuman. But it was real. Let 
     us not permit it to be diluted or vulgarized. Let us not 
     diminish its meaning by treating every event in human 
     history--every instance of human suffering or discrimination 
     as a Holocaust.
       We survivors know that time is growing short, we are 
     getting older and we need each other more than ever before, 
     and we need you--our children and our fellow Jews to continue 
     our legacy.

                          ____________________