[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 25, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S1583]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       PETER VLCKO, HUMANITARIAN

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I note with sadness the passing of Peter 
Vlcko, a hero for all of humanity. When immense love and bravery 
coalesce in one person, as they did in Mr. Vlcko, amazing things are 
bound to happen.
  And they did.
  Mr. Vlcko's love for humankind manifested itself in his brave fight 
against evils such as totalitarianism, fascism, and anti-Semitism. 
During the dark days of World War II, at huge and constant risk to his 
own life, he fought against the pro-German Slovak Government and 
rescued over 20 Jews from deportation and death by the Nazis.
  His heroic efforts have not gone unnoticed. Among other awards and 
recognitions, in 1981, Mr. Vlcko received the Silver Medal for 
Righteous Gentiles from Israel. With descendants of the Jews he saved 
looking on, he stood witness as a tree was planted in his honor at the 
top of a hill in Jerusalem. His name has also been forever memorialized 
in a large granite relief in the Garden of the Righteous at the 
Holocaust Memorial center in West Bloomfield.
  Born in a Slovak village in 1912, Mr. Vlcko volunteered for military 
service immediately upon completion of his secondary education. He rose 
quickly through the ranks until the invasion and occupation of 
Czechoslovakia by the German military in 1939 forced him to be disarmed 
and reassigned to a war college in Bratislava. He took a break from his 
studies to serve a tour of duty on the Russian front, but his service 
was cut short when he sustained shrapnel wounds and an injury to his 
left leg from the heavy mortar fire. Returning to his studies, he met 
his future wife, Georgina Reichsfeld.
  The strict anti-Semitic laws could not deter his love for Georgina, 
who was of Jewish ancestry. At a risk to Mr. Vlcko's life, the two 
entered into wedlock.
  As the danger to his young bride and her family mounted, he hid them 
until he could obtain false identification papers. His perilous efforts 
did not stop with his bride's family. He continued on, obtaining false 
papers for twenty other Jews, which identified them as ``essential 
personnel,'' preventing certain deportation and death.
  Summoning more courage still, Mr. Vlcko offered his assistance to an 
attempt to overthrow the Nazi-friendly regime in Slovakia. Through a 
variety of disguises, such as a shoemaker and a woman, Mr. Vlcko 
managed to evade German forces and twice to escape capture. Forced into 
hiding for the remainder of the war, he was separated from his family 
for a year when he escaped into Bavaria.
  Once reunited, Mr. Vlcko and his family immigrated to the United 
States, where they began a new life in Michigan. After attending a 
community college, he went to work for Ford Motor Company.
  His new surroundings, however, could not make him forget his violent 
past. Through his narrative, he tried to educate people on the horrors 
of fascism and anti-Semitism. To do so, he both lectured throughout the 
United States and Canada and published an 860-page autobiography. 
People needed to know and, thanks to him, we do.
  In 1991, Mr. Vlcko was granted honorary Israeli citizenship, and both 
he and his wife regained their Czechoslovakia citizenship, which was 
taken from them when they fled Czechoslovakia after the Communists 
seized power in the 1948 coup. In fact, he had been living under a 
death sentence issued by the Czech government until 1989. He has been 
honored by the Czech President and Czech Minister of Defense and has 
often been the guest of honor of the Czech and Slovak Ambassadors to 
the United States.
  Mr. Vlcko is survived by his wife, Georgina, and their four children. 
Despite what severe images a background as a soldier might evoke, his 
wife affectionately describes the full picture: ``He loved his family 
very much and worked his whole life to keep them safe.''
  Mr. Vlcko left behind more than a family, however; he left behind a 
legacy of love and hope embodied in the children of the Jews he saved 
and an outstanding example of courage and decency in the face of 
darkness and tyranny.
  It is that legacy that I am sure will surround him as he rests in 
peace.

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