[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 54 (Tuesday, May 5, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E756-E757]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   ``THE LONG WAY HOME''--ACADEMY AWARD WINNER FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY 
                                FEATURE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 5, 1998

  Mr. LANTOS: Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my colleagues to join me 
in congratulating the artists responsible for the Holocaust film ``The 
Long Way Home,'' which recently won the Academy Award for Best 
Documentary Feature. This magnificent project, which reflects the 
splendid talents of some of Hollywood's most brilliant geniuses, 
approaches the Holocaust from an angle often ignored by historians and 
storytellers alike, recounting the moving and tumultuous experience of 
Jewish refugees from the time of Hitler's fall in 1945 to the birth of 
the State of Israel fifty years ago last week.
  It is a history of a three year period marked by the tragedy of its 
horrific origin and guided by the hope that the suffering of Jews 
would, at long last, end in the ultimate victory of the Zionist cause. 
It is an account of a numerically (but not spiritually) depleted people 
trying to cope with the destruction of its families and lives, 
struggling to shape its future against the mountainous obstacles of 
poverty, bigotry, and confusion. Most of all, ``The Long Way Home'' is 
a story about the dignity and determination of survivors who refused to 
surrender their values and ideals, regardless of the costs.
  During the Spring of 1945, the Third Reich came to end. Advancing 
American, British, and Russian forces rolled across Europe, freeing its 
citizens from years of tyranny and liberating the most notorious 
centers of Nazi crimes, the concentration camps. One by one they fell, 
Buchenwald, Dachau, Mauthausen, Bergen-Belsen, providing Allied 
soldiers with vivid and unfiltered evidence of the atrocities of 
Hitler's ``Final Solution.''
  Even after the extent of the German crimes became known, however, 
several questions remained unanswered, most notably: Where could the 
survivors go? How could they put their lives back together? How would 
they be accepted by Germans and the rest of the world community?
  Many of the persecuted Jews remained in ``Displaced Persons Camps'' 
for many months, some to be rehabilitated under the watchful care of 
American and British doctors and others simply because they had no 
other place to live. While the conditions were no doubt preferable to 
the concentration camps, many Jews were left in a continued state of 
danger, homelessness, and confusion. The barbed wire remained, and 
overcrowding and destitute living conditions prevailed throughout the 
DP sites. Former Nazis and other displaced German nationals were often 
mixed together with the Jewish population, causing violence and bitter 
bigotry.
  For those Jews who attempted to return to their pre-war homes, the 
situation was even worse. Their families had been murdered by Hitler's 
thugs; their former neighbors were embittered by years of war and 
suffering; and, as in Germany during the Depression, the temptation of 
a Jewish scapegoat was often too great. In a village near Vilna, 
Lithuania, five Jewish survivors were found murdered. Found in their 
pockets was a message written in Polish stating that ``this will be the 
fate of all surviving Jews.''
  While many Holocaust survivors, including myself and my wife, were 
fortunate to be welcomed into this wonderful country, not all refugees 
were blessed with this option. Due to xenophobia and fears of Communist 
infiltration, even the existing legal immigration quotas were not 
filled. In other nations, outright bigotry prevented Jewish 
resettlement. Most Jews remained in Europe, locked behind the gates of 
DP camps or wandering amidst the remains of their pre-war lives, 
looking beyond the horizon for a land of their own, a homeland where 
they would be free from the struggles that had so painfully burdened 
them and their ancestors. They longed to create an independent Jewish 
state in their biblical mandate of Palestine.
  ``The Long Way Home'' tells the beautiful and inspiring story of the 
achievement of the Zionist dream. With exceptional archival footage and 
gripping first-person interviews, it recounts the struggle from the 
concentration camps to the kibbutz, from Auschwitz to Jerusalem. It 
stirringly documents the attempts of refugees to enter Palestine, and 
the unyielding British opposition to the Zionist movement, which showed 
itself in the Royal Navy's interception of refugee ships and its 
deportation of their occupants to camps located in the 100-degree heat 
of Cypress. To the great credit and pride of the American people, it 
also documents the courageous and unabated support which President 
Harry S. Truman exhibited in his support of the Jewish people and their 
future State of Israel. As ``The Long Way Home'' inspiringly 
chronicles, this great man rejected anti-Semitic pressures and, guided 
by his most noble principles, led the fight in the international 
community for the establishment of a Jewish homeland.
  This extraordinary film is a tribute not only to Holocaust survivors 
and the founders of Israel, but also to the outstanding talents of 
Hollywood's finest and most creative individuals. Writer-director Mark 
John Harris possesses an understanding of history matched only by his 
superior film making talents. Co-producer Richard Trank, 
cinematographer Don Lenzer, and editor Kate Amend also contributed to 
this masterpiece, as did the moving score of composer Lee Holdridge. 
Some of

[[Page E757]]

the most celebrated stars of the motion picture industry devoted their 
time, energy, and prodigious abilities to ``The Long Way Home,'' most 
notably narrator Morgan Freeman and featured voices Edward Asner, Sean 
Astin, Martin Landau, Miriam Margolyes, David Paymer, Nina Siemaszko, 
Helen Slater and Michael York. Together they created, in the words of 
the Los Angeles Times, ``an eloquent saga of historical importance'' 
and ``a major accomplishment.''
  Most of all, I would like to recognize my dear friend Rabbi Marvin 
Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the co-
producer of ``The Long Way Home.'' Rabbi Hier has devoted his life to 
ensuring the eternal remembrance of the Holocaust, and it was most 
appropriate that he accepted the film's Academy Award. As he looked out 
to the many prestigious guests and the hundreds of millions of 
worldwide viewers, he let no soul forget the purpose and meaning of his 
documentary: ``This is for the survivors of the Holocaust, who walked 
away from the ashes, rebuilt their lives, and helped create the state 
of Israel. G-d bless them.''
  Mr. Speaker, the Kennedy Center, in cooperation with the Simon 
Wiesenthal Center, will present a screening of ``The Long Way Home'' 
tonight. I encourage my colleagues to attend, and I ask them to join me 
in celebrating the inspiring men and women to whom ``The Long Way 
Home'' is dedicated.

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