[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 67 (Thursday, May 25, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E836]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING MILES LERMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. JOE BACA

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 24, 2000

  Mr. BACA Mr. Speaker, after 22 years of dedicated service, Miles 
Lerman will soon step down as Chairman of the United States Holocaust 
Memorial Council. At the end of this month, the Museum will be honoring 
his extraordinary commitment and dedicated leadership.
  I would like to join with Mr. Lerman's fiends and colleagues in 
saluting his years of service not just to our Nation, but for the cause 
of justice throughout the world.
  During World War II, Mr. Lerman fought the Nazis as a partisan in the 
forests of southern Poland. Upon liberation, he returned to his native 
town only to discover that his mother and siblings had been murdered.
  After the War, he rebuilt his life in the United States, with his 
wife Chris, a survivor of Auschwitz.
  Mr. Lerman has long been prominent in Jewish leadership, for which he 
received the medal of achievement from the Prime Minister of the State 
of Israel.
  In 1980 he was appointed by President Carter to the United States 
Holocaust Memorial Council, to build a national Holocaust Memorial 
Museum in tribute to the victims of Nazi atrocities. He has been 
reappointed repeatedly by subsequent presidents. The United States 
Holocaust Memorial Museum is now the largest single repository of 
Holocaust artifacts in the world outside of the Nazi death camps.
  In recognition of these achievements, President Clinton appointed 
Miles Lerman as Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial 
Council, the governing body of the United States Holocaust Memorial 
Museum.
  Mr. Lerman has also received numerous honors throughout his 
distinguished career, including the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, 
Department of the Army, May 15, 1996; The Inaugural Israeli Bonds 
Freedom Award, the State of Israel Bonds, Washington D.C. June 5, 1994; 
the Jules Cohen Memorial Award, Jewish Community Relations Council, 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for commitment to international human 
rights and holocaust education, March 3, 1994; Commander's Cross (the 
highest award for a non-citizen of Poland), presented by Lech Walesa, 
President of the Republic of Poland, April 3, 1993; the Partisans 
Cross, for bravery in combat with the Nazi invaders, presented by the 
Order of Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland, July 14, 1989; 
Prime Minister's Medal of Achievement, the State of Israel Bonds, June 
10, 1973.

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