[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 54 (Tuesday, May 5, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E755]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E755]]
ADDRESS OF MR. BENJAMIN A. MEED AT THE NATIONAL CIVIC COMMEMORATION OF 
                        THE DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 5, 1998

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, April 23, Members of Congress 
joined with representatives of the diplomatic corps, executive and 
judicial branch officials, and hundreds of Holocaust survivors and 
their families to commemorate the National Days of Remembrance in the 
rotunda of the United States Capitol. The touching words of Mr. 
Benjamin Meed, one of the most prominent and active survivors in the 
United States, reflected the emotional and poignant focus of the 
ceremony: ``Children of the Holocaust: Their Memories, Our Legacy.'' 
Through poetry and personal reflections, Mr. Meed affected us all.
  As a survivor of the Holocaust myself, I was especially moved by Mr. 
Meed's remarks. He delicately spoke:

       Many survivors became part of this great country that 
     adopted us, and we are grateful Americans. Although we are 
     now in the winter of our lives, we look toward the future, 
     because we believe in sharing our experiences--by bearing 
     witness and educating others--there is hope of protecting new 
     generations of men, women and children--who might be 
     abandoned and forgotten, persecuted and murdered. . . . . 
     Knowing that the impossible is possible, there is the chance 
     that history can be repeated--unless we are mindful.

  Mr. Speaker, I share this mission with Mr. Meed. We must never, ever 
forget.
  Benjamin Meed was born in Warsaw, Poland. He worked as a slave 
laborer for the Nazis, survived in the Warsaw Ghetto and was an active 
member of the Warsaw Underground with his wife, Vladka. A member of the 
United States Holocaust Memorial Council since its inception, he chairs 
the Museum's Days of Remembrance Committee. He is President of the 
American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and a leader of a 
number of other organizations. Mr. Meed founded the Benjamin and Vladka 
Meed Registry of Jewish Holocaust Survivors permanently housed at the 
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
  Mr. Speaker, insert Benjamin Meed's Days of Remembrance address for 
the Record.

         Children of the Holocaust: Their Memories, Our Legacy

       Members of the diplomatic corps, distinguished members of 
     the United States Senate and House of Representatives, 
     members of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 
     distinguished guests, fellow survivors and dear friends, 
     welcome to the 19th national Days of Remembrance 
     commemoration.
       First, let me take this opportunity to express our 
     gratitude to the members of the United States Congress for 
     their strong support of the Holocaust Memorial Museum. The 
     enormous success of the Museum and its educational and 
     Remembrance programs is due, in large part, to your efforts 
     on our behalf. Thank you.
       We gather together again to remember those whom we loved 
     and lost in the pit of hell--the Holocaust. We dedicate this 
     commemoration to all the precious children of the Holocaust, 
     their memories, our legacy. More than a million and a half 
     children--almost all of them Jewish--were struck down without 
     pity. They we murdered simply for who they were, Jews.
       The young ones, who were silenced forever, were the hope 
     and future of our people. We will never know the extent of 
     human potential that was destroyed--the scientists, the 
     writers, the musicians--gifted talent burned to ashes by 
     German Nazi hate.
       At such tender ages, our children grew old overnight. They 
     quickly learned how to conceal pain and how to cover up fear. 
     More importantly, with natural compassion, they comforted 
     those around them. The writer and educator Itazek Katznelson 
     was so touched by an abandoned little girl caring for her 
     baby brother in the Warsaw Ghetto that he composed a poem 
     about her. And I quote:

     Thus it was at the end of the winter of 1942
     in such a poor house of shelter for children,
     I saw the ones just gathered from the streets.
     In this station, I saw a girl about five years old.
     She fed her younger brother--and he cried.
     The little one was sick.
     In a diluted bit of jam, she dipped tiny crusts of bread
     and skillfully inserted them into his mouth.
     This my eyes were privileged to see see--
     to see this mother of five years, feeding her child
     and to her soothing words.

       How can we survivors forget these martyred children? Their 
     lives, their laughter, their gentle love, their strength and 
     bravery in the face of certain death are still part of our 
     daily lives. Their acts of courage and resistance remain a 
     heroic inspiration. Their cries to be remembered ring across 
     the decades. And we hear them. They are always in our 
     thoughts in our sleepless nights, in our pained hearts.
       Like all survivors, there are many horrible events that I 
     witnessed, but one particular event deeply troubles me and 
     hounds me. It was in April, fifty-five years ago, almost to 
     this day. Passing as an ``Aryan'' member of the Polish 
     community, I was in Krasinski Square near the walls of the 
     Warsaw Ghetto. Inside the Ghetto, the uprising was underway. 
     Guns and grenades thundered; the ghetto was ablaze. From 
     where I was standing, I could feel the heat from the fires. 
     There were screams for help from the Jews inside the walls. 
     But the people surrounding me outside the walls went about 
     their daily lives, insensitive and indifferent to the 
     tragedy-in-progress. I watched in disbelief as, across the 
     Square, a merry-go-round spun around and around to the joy of 
     my Polish neighbor's children, while within the Ghetto only a 
     few yards away, our Jewish children were being burned to 
     death. To this day, the scene still enrages me. How can one 
     forget the agony of the victims? How can we explain such 
     moral apathy of the bystanders?
       Many of us were children in the Holocaust. Whether by luck 
     or by accident, we survived. Liberation by the Allied Armies 
     restored us to life, and our gratitude to the soldiers will 
     always remain. The flags that stand behind me from the 
     liberating divisions of the United States Army and from the 
     Jewish Brigade are far more than cloth. In 1945 and today, 
     they are the symbols of freedom and hope for us survivors. 
     Today we are bringing history together.
       Liberation offered new opportunities and we seized them. 
     The transition was very brief. We helped to create a new 
     nation--the State of Israel, which celebrates its 50th 
     anniversary this year. Our history might have been very 
     different if only Israel had existed 60 years ago. 
     Nevertheless, we are here, and Israel is our response and 
     Remembrance of the Holocaust. Mr. Ambassador Ben Elissar, 
     please convey to the people of Israel our commitment and 
     solidarity with them.
       Many survivors became part of this great country that 
     adopted us, and we are grateful Americans. Although we are 
     now in the winter of our lives, we look toward the future, 
     because we believe in sharing our experiences--by bearing 
     witness and educating others--there is hope of protecting new 
     generations of men, women and children--who might be 
     abandoned and forgotten, persecuted and murdered. We remember 
     not for ourselves, but for others, and those yet unborn. 
     Knowing that the impossible is possible, there is the chance 
     that history can be repeated--unless we are mindful.
       The task of preserving Holocaust memory will soon pass to 
     our children and grandchildren; to high school and middle 
     school teachers; to custodians of Holocaust centers; and, 
     most importantly to the United States Holocaust Memorial 
     Museum. But monuments of stone and well-written textbooks are 
     not enough. Personal dedication to Remembrance--to telling 
     and retelling the stories of the Holocaust with their lessons 
     for humanity--must become a mission for all humankind, for 
     all generations to come.
       In these great halls of Congress, we see many symbols of 
     the ideals that America represents--liberty, equality and 
     justice. It was the collective rejection of such principles 
     by some nations that made the Holocaust possible. Today, let 
     us--young and old alike--promise to keep an ever watchful eye 
     for those who would deny and defy these precious principles 
     of human conduct. Let us remember. Thank you

     

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