[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 5, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E997-E998]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




BENEDICTION BY RABBI ALEXANDER SCHINDLER, NATIONAL DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE 
                             COMMEMORATION

                                 ______


                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 5, 1996

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, on April 16, Members of Congress, members of 
the Diplomatic Corps and hundreds of survivors of the Holocaust and 
their friends gathered here in the Capitol Rotunda for the National 
Days of Remembrance commemoration. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council 
was established by Congress to preserve the memory of the victims of 
the Holocaust. I commend the Council and the members of the Days of 
Remembrance Committee, chaired by my good friend Benjamin Meed, for 
their vigilant and genuine adherence to their extraordinarily important 
task.
  One of the first acts of the Council was to establish the annual Days 
of Remembrance commemoration to mirror similar observances held in 
Israel and throughout our Nation and elsewhere in the world. This year, 
the commemoration centered on the 50th anniversary of the Nuremberg 
trials. The observance was a reminder of the difficult process of first 
coping and then healing that all survivors and their families and loved 
ones had to endure.
  Rabbi Alexander Schindler's benediction closed the commemoration with 
a reminder of the tragedy that we must not forget. In his typically 
elegant prose, his prayer instructed us how to turn remembrance into 
strength, how to turn sadness and horror into hope for a better future. 
Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to read Rabbi Schindler's prayer 
and hear his frank but hopeful words of wisdom.

       Prayer Offered by Rabbi Schindler, Holocaust Commemoration

     Once again, a sacred hour of remembrance summons us to these 
           time-hallowed halls.
     Not that we really need such an occasion lest we forget.
     We need no reminders.
     We remember too well.
     Memories come * * * to interrupt our sleep * * * to still our 
           laughter * * * to fill our silence with the voices of 
           the past.
     Oh, would that we could forget.
     But quick forgetting is not the reality of a people who lost 
           one-third of their number in half a decade;
     Who lost one and one-half million of their children, during 
           those tear-stained years.
     No, we cannot, we will not, forget these martyrs.

[[Page E998]]

     All those who perished through the cruelty of the oppressor.
     Not punished for any individual guilt, but indiscriminately,
     Men and women * * *
     Young and old * * *
     The learned and the simple * * *
     Were ``driven in multitudes along the road of pain and 
           pitiless death.''
     They lie in nameless graves.
     Their places of everlasting sleep are not known to us.
     Yet we will not forget them.
     We take them into our hearts and give them a place beside the 
           treasured memories of our own beloved.
     May their remembrance give us the strength
     To turn from death to life,
     To love where others hate,
     To hope where others despair,
     To retain our belief in humankind and in the conviction that,
     In spite of everything, there is meaning in life and in human 
           history.

       Thus will we give substance to the words of our tradition, 
     those words which we repeat six million times--and more.
       Yitgadal, V'yitkadash sh'mey rabba * * *
       Magnified and sanctified be thy Name of God.

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