[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 132 (Monday, September 29, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1885-E1886]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    ADDRESS OF REYNOLD LEVY, PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL RESCUE 
 COMMITTEE, AT THE EXHIBIT IN BUDAPEST ON THE LIFE AND WORK OF VARIAN 
                                  FRY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 29, 1997

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I call the attention of my colleagues to an 
excellent address given earlier this month in Budapest, Hungary, at the 
opening of an exhibit on the Life and Work of Varian Fry by Mr. Reynold 
Levy, the new President of the International Rescue Committee. I am 
asking that Mr. Levy's address be placed in the Record.
  Mr. Speaker, on July 1st of this year, Mr. Levy assumed the position 
of President of the International Rescue Committee (IRC). This 
organization was founded over half a century ago by a number of 
distinguished Americans in an effort to help mitigate the tragedy of 
dislocation and destruction which accompanied World War II. Since its 
founding the IRC has been one of the leading organizations in the world 
in helping to deal with the problem of refugees and those seeking 
political asylum, and the organization has been a major provider of and 
advocate for humanitarian assistance.
  It is most appropriate that one of the first public responsibilities 
of Mr. Levy as the new president of the IRC was to speak at an exhibit 
honoring the activities of Varian Fry. Mr. Fry was designated by the 
IRC to go to France in 1940 in an effort supported by the United States 
government to bring to the United States 200 prominent Jewish 
intellectuals--writers, scientists, academics, journalists, historians, 
musicians, opposition political leaders, and others--who were in 
southern France, having fled the advancing Nazi forces and were seeking 
to escape. In recognition of Varian Fry's outstanding efforts in Europe 
in 1940 with the IRC, he is the only American who has received the 
honor ``Righteous Among the Nations'' from Yad Vashem, the Israeli 
memorial to Holocaust victims, for risking his own life to save the 
lives of Jews during the Holocaust.
  Mr. Levy is a graduate of Hobart College, and he holds a Ph.D. in 
government and foreign affairs from the University of Virginia and a 
degree in law from Columbia University. His distinguished career 
includes a period of service as Executive Director of the 92nd Street 
Y, a leading cultural, educational and social service institution on 
Manhattan's upper east side. He later was a senior officer of AT&T 
Corporation, serving first as founder and chief executive officer of 
the AT&T Foundation, and later as Corporate Vice President, and 
Managing Director of International Public Affairs. After leaving his 
position at AT&T, he spent a nine-month sabbatical writing two books--
one on the exercise of corporate and social responsibility and the 
other on what he sees as a renaissance in American philanthropy.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that Mr. Levy's address at the opening of the 
exhibit in Budapest, Hungary, on the Life and Work of Varian Fry be 
placed in the Record. I urge my colleagues to carefully consider the 
thoughts of Reynold Levy, a distinguished American philanthropist and 
humanitarian.

                        Remarks of Reynold Levy

       Congressman Lantos and Mrs. Lantos, Ambassador and Mrs. 
     Blinken, distinguished guests.
       As President of the International Rescue Committee, I'd 
     like to accomplish two objectives with some brief remarks.
       My first objective is to explain why it is important to 
     remember Varian Fry's life and work. A very distinguished 
     Board member colleague of Congressman Lantos and Mrs. 
     Blinken, Elie Wiesel, explains the matter definitively in 
     this passage from his book All Rivers to the Sea.
       ``Memory is a passion no less powerful or pervasive than 
     love. What does it mean to remember? It is to live in more 
     than one world, to prevent the past from fading and to call 
     up the future to illuminate it. It is to revive fragments of 
     existence, to rescue lost beings, to cast light on faces and 
     events and to drive back the sands that cover the surface of 
     things, to combat oblivion and to reject death.''
       In recognizing Varian Fry we ``Rescue a lost being . . . 
     and drive back the sands that cover the surface of things.''
       My second objective is to offer a perspective on Fry's 
     legacy.
       For his heroic work and that of the Emergency Rescue 
     Committee did not end with

[[Page E1886]]

     his expulsion from France in 1941. It continues to this day 
     through the ERC's successor organization, the International 
     Rescue Committee. It has, to its credit, over 56 years of 
     unbroken service to refugees and victims of oppression.
       With the end of World War II and the defeat of fascism, the 
     IRC assisted hundreds of thousands of displaced persons in 
     Europe to re-build their shattered lives. Many came to the 
     United States and were helped by the IRC to resettle and to 
     become self-sufficient citizens in their new country.
       The Iron Curtain that fell across Europe after the war 
     produced a whole new set of refugees--those fleeing Stalin's 
     dictatorship in the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern 
     Europe that had fallen under communist domination, not least 
     the wonderful country of Hungary. The IRC, following in the 
     steps of Varian Fry, was there to rescue them in flight, 
     including, of course, tens of thousands of Hungarians.
       Since the fall of the Berlin wall, the IRC has been 
     involved in every major refugee crisis up to this day--making 
     it the largest non-sectarian refugee relief organization in 
     the world. Rescue teams are now at work in Bosnia, in Rwanda, 
     in Cambodia and in 20 more countries, bringing life-saving 
     humanitarian aid, medical care, shelter and education to well 
     over a million refugees. In addition, the IRC continues to 
     resettle large numbers of political refugees coming to the 
     United States. And, the IRC remains a strong voice advocating 
     for refugees, their rights and their needs.
       This, then is a powerful legacy of Varian Fry. His heroic 
     exploits are the inspiration for the International Rescue 
     Committee in its world-wide efforts to bring help, aid and 
     comfort to the world's refugees. His light, which shone so 
     dimly in the Hotel Splendide and on the rue Grignan, shines 
     brightly today, relieving human suffering and providing 
     refuge to so many who seek freedom and protection from a 
     well-founded fear of persecution.
       I thank you for being here today to pay tribute to a 
     selfless hero whose rescue of endangered lives inspires so 
     many of my colleagues at the International Rescue Committee. 
     Each of us endeavors to honor in our work his 
     resourcefulness, courage and fortitude.

     

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