[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 46 (Thursday, April 23, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S3557]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

 Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I rise today, April 23, as the 
United States Congress joins hands with the United States Holocaust 
Memorial Museum and conducts a Day of Remembrance ceremony in the 
Rotunda of the Capitol. This ceremony, and those in each of the 50 
State capitols and in some 200 cities and towns throughout the nation, 
honors the memory of those 11 plus million Holocaust victims and the 
millions more who survived but found their pre-WWII lives in shambles 
and in all too many cases, irretrievable.
  This year's ceremony pays special tribute to the children, those 
innocent victims of the war and the Nazis' persecution. That they 
survived is remarkable. In some instances, they bear the physical 
markings of their plight. Others carry their wounds in their hearts and 
heads.
  That this great nation mandates a Day of Remembrance ceremony is an 
indication of its commitment to historical memory. But an equally 
important part of our effort to learn from the past is the presence of 
the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Its mission is to advance 
Holocaust memory, education and scholarship. This week marks its 5th 
anniversary.
  Five years ago, no one would have predicted the reaction of the 
United States to the opening of the Holocaust Museum. Estimates of 
visitation, even those most rosy, were low by a factor of more than 
two. Expecting 750,000 visitors under the highest estimate, the museum 
welcomed over 2 million in its first year and every year since. Just 
drive by the Holocaust Museum any morning and see the line stretching 
around the building.
  While I reflect on the Holocaust Museum, I feel it appropriate to 
mention the work of a distinguished Vermonter, Professor Raul Hilberg. 
Professor Hilberg spent many years educating students at the University 
of Vermont about the Holocaust, but few people know how instrumental he 
was in furthering Holocaust related research as a real serious 
enterprise. It wasn't until Raul Hilberg began his study of this 
important subject that historians began to take it seriously, and his 
research preceded the concept of the Holocaust Memorial Museum. 
Professor Hilberg was instrumental in furthering the Museum's research 
programs and many feel that he serves as a father figure to the 
institution.
  Americans care about the past and want the world they leave to their 
children to be a better and safer place. They have learned well the 
lessons from the fall of German democracy and the rise of Nazism. They 
look around the world today and see acts of genocide and crimes against 
humanity and rightly worry about our future.
  They come to the Holocaust Museum because it informs and educates. It 
makes disregarding the past and even contemporary acts of genocide and 
crimes against humanity more difficult.
  We as a nation benefit greatly from this institution which stands as 
a testament to the horrors of the past and guards against a 
reoccurrence in the future.

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