[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 87 (Friday, June 13, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1241]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  MEMORY AND ACTION: RUTH MANDEL'S REMARKS COMMEMORATING THE DAYS OF 
                              REMEMBRANCE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 12, 2003

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, last month leaders and citizens from 
throughout America gathered in the Capitol Rotunda to commemorate the 
Days of Remembrance. This annual ceremony assumed special significance 
this year, as it took place during the 60th anniversary of the Warsaw 
Ghetto Uprising, an event that epitomizes the true meaning of bravery 
and honor.
  In April 1943, the Gestapo set out to liquidate the surviving Jews of 
Warsaw. Most ghetto residents--over 300,000--had been deported to 
Treblinka the previous year, where they faced immediate death in the 
gas chambers of the notorious extermination camp. Those left in Warsaw 
vowed not to meet a similar fate.
  The Gestapo expected the clearing out of the ghetto to be a simple 
operation. How could a small number of Jews, poorly fed and with few 
arms, even think about fighting back against thousands of machine gun-
toting storm troopers? When the Nazis entered the ghetto on the early 
morning of April 19th, this question met with an emphatic answer. Young 
Jewish fighters greeted the Gestapo with a hail of bullets and homemade 
Molotov cocktails, forcing the Nazis into a panicked retreat. ``Juden 
haben waffen,'' they yelled at the top of their lungs. ``Juden haben 
waffen.'' Translated literally: ``The Jews have arms.'' The men and 
women of the ghetto would not die quietly.
  For the next month, the Jews of Warsaw fought with a fierce 
determination that stunned the Nazi leaders and inspired the world. Few 
expected to survive, and few did. Nevertheless, the courageous men and 
women of the Warsaw Ghetto live on through the power of their heroism 
and the strength of their sacrifice.
  Mr. Speaker, the Days of Remembrance ceremony included moving remarks 
on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Ruth B. Mandel, the Vice Chair of the 
United States Holocaust Memorial Council (USHMC) since 1993. Professor 
Mandel is the Director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics and Board 
of Governors Professor of Politics at Rutgers, The State University of 
New Jersey. Her contributions to the USHMC have been extraordinary, and 
I'm honored to enter her remarks into the Congressional Record.

                      Days of Remembrance Remarks


  ruth b. mandel, vice chair united states holocaust memorial council 
                  april 30, 2003--the capitol rotunda

                           Memory and Action

       Honored guests, one and all: It is April 30, 2003. We 
     gather to Remember and to pay our respects. To light a candle 
     in memory.
       The memory of a past we wish not to repeat is tantamount to 
     a hope. Hope can be uplifting or comforting, an expectation 
     that something positive might happen--I hope for good luck; I 
     hope for a cure; I hope for happiness. Yet in itself, hope is 
     a passive stance, a rather weak force.
       For memory to be a strong force, it must be the fuel for 
     action. An active stance can be inspired by memory, but it 
     cannot linger in memory. It must move beyond memory.
       Thus, as we observe this Day of Remembrance, as we recall 
     our personal nightmares and once again revisit our losses, 
     even as we honor those we memorialize--the millions in the 
     human family, our families, annihilated by guns and gas in 
     the unspeakably grotesque collapse of civilized society, let 
     us each consider how to link memory to action.
  In these frightening, worrisome times, the understandable question of 
despair--``But what can I do?''--s a perfectly rational individual 
response to the magnitude of pain and threat humanity visits on itself 
regularly. But it is not an adequate response.
       Honoring memory as an active stance requires some effort to 
     use it. Even in the smallest ways, use memory.
       Honored guests, one and all: It is April 30, 2003, and we 
     are here to memorialize children . . . and men . . . and 
     women--millions annihilated by guns and gas in the grotesque 
     collapse of civilized society.
       Today we pay special tribute to some of those who defied 
     evil with heroic action. Their actions offer lessons, 
     warnings, and even inspiration for the issues we face in our 
     own times. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 60 years ago is just 
     such an event. At the beginning of a new and, so far, 
     troubled century, the uprising's power to inform, enlighten, 
     and challenge our own choices remains strong.
       On April 23, 1943, determined to uphold the honor of the 
     Jewish people in the face of odds they knew they could not 
     overcome, the Warsaw Ghetto fighters wrote:
       Let it be known that every threshold in the ghetto has been 
     and will continue to be a fortress, that we may all persist 
     in this struggle, but we will not surrender; that, like you, 
     we breathe with desire for revenge for the crimes of our 
     common foe. A battle is being waged for your freedom as well 
     as ours. For your and our human, civic, and national honor 
     and dignity.
       That battle was waged not only in Warsaw. Although Warsaw 
     is most well known, throughout occupied Europe there were 
     many brave individuals who took up arms against their 
     oppressors in order to affirm their humanity, and ours.
       These brave fighters bequeathed the memory of heroic action 
     to a people. Reflecting on the future of the Jewish people, 
     they realized that the memory of their efforts would be as 
     important as the struggle itself.
       The Warsaw revolt began in desperation; ultimately, it was 
     an act of inspiration. They spoke about fighting for their 
     freedom and ours; they taught us a lesson for their time and 
     for ours. In lighting a candle to remember those who stood 
     against the Nazis, we honor those who perished and are in 
     turn reminded that the moral conscience of the individual can 
     be a great weapon against evil. This was a lesson of the last 
     century; this is a warning for the present one.

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