[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 5 (Tuesday, January 25, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H149-H170]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




COMMENDING COUNTRIES AND ORGANIZATIONS FOR MARKING 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF 
                        LIBERATION OF AUSCHWITZ

  Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the 
resolution (H. Res. 39) commending countries and organizations for 
marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and urging 
a strengthening of the fight against racism, intolerance, bigotry, 
prejudice, discrimination, and anti-Semitism.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H. Res. 39

       Whereas on January 27, 1945, the Nazi concentration camp at 
     Auschwitz, including Birkenau and other related camps near 
     the Polish city of Oswiecim, was liberated by elements of the 
     Soviet Army under the command of Field Marshal Ivan Konev;
       Whereas, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial 
     Museum, at a minimum 1,300,000 people were deported to 
     Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945, and of these, at least 
     1,100,000 were murdered at that camp;
       Whereas an estimated 6,000,000 Jews, more than 60 percent 
     of the pre-World War II Jewish population of Europe, were 
     murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators at Auschwitz 
     and elsewhere in Europe;
       Whereas in addition, hundreds of thousands of civilians of 
     Polish, Roma, and other nationalities, including in 
     particular handicapped and retarded individuals, homosexuals, 
     political, intellectual, labor, and religious leaders, all of 
     whom the Nazis considered ``undesirable'', as well as Soviet 
     and other prisoners of war, perished at Auschwitz and 
     elsewhere in Europe;
       Whereas the complex of concentration and death camps at 
     Auschwitz has come to symbolize the brutality and inhumanity 
     of the Holocaust;
       Whereas on January 24, 2005, the United Nations General 
     Assembly, in response to a resolution proposed by Australia, 
     Canada, New Zealand, Russia, the United States, and the 
     European Union, convened its first-ever special session 
     marking the liberation of Auschwitz and other concentration 
     camps on the 60th anniversary of that event;
       Whereas on January 27, 2005, the Government of Poland will 
     host a state ceremony at Auschwitz/Oswiecim, Poland, to mark 
     the anniversary of the liberation of the camps in which the 
     Presidents of Israel, Germany, Poland, and Russia, and the 
     Vice President of the United States, and leaders of many 
     other countries will participate;
       Whereas January 27 of each year is the official Holocaust 
     Memorial Day in many European countries, including Denmark, 
     Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Sweden, and the United 
     Kingdom, and has been designated by Israel as a National Day 
     to Combat Anti-Semitism; and
       Whereas the Department of State in the Report on Global 
     Anti-Semitism transmitted to Congress in December 2004 noted 
     that ``anti-Semitism in Europe increased significantly in 
     recent years'', ``Holocaust denial and Holocaust minimization 
     efforts'' have found increasingly overt acceptance in a 
     number of Middle Eastern countries, and anti-Semitism has 
     appeared ``in countries where historically or currently there 
     are few or even no Jews'': Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
       (1) recalls with gratitude the sacrifices made by Allied 
     soldiers, as well as partisans and underground fighters, 
     whose service and dedication resulted in the defeat of the 
     Nazi regime and the liberation of Auschwitz and other 
     concentration camps during World War II;
       (2) expresses gratitude to those individuals and 
     organizations that assisted and cared for the survivors of 
     Nazi brutality and helped those survivors establish new 
     lives;
       (3) commends those countries that are marking the 60th 
     anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, as well as the 
     United Nations General Assembly and other international 
     organizations, for honoring the victims of the Holocaust and 
     using this tragic anniversary to increase awareness of the 
     Holocaust;
       (4) urges all countries and peoples to strengthen their 
     efforts to fight against racism, intolerance, bigotry, 
     prejudice, discrimination, and anti-Semitism; and
       (5) urges governments and educators throughout the world to 
     teach the lessons of the Holocaust in order that future 
     generations will understand that racial, ethnic, and 
     religious intolerance and prejudice can lead to the genocide 
     carried out in camps such as Auschwitz.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Hyde) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde).


                             General Leave

  Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on H. Res. 39, the resolution under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Illinois?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

[[Page H150]]

  Mr. Speaker, it is, of course, difficult to describe the horrors of 
the death camp at Auschwitz, the 60th anniversary of whose liberation 
occurs this week. One wonders if it is even appropriate to try. A 
commemorative reading widely used in the Jewish community suggests 
refraining ``from dwelling on the deeds of evil ones lest we defame the 
image of God in which man was created.''
  Rather, it is better when marking this anniversary to allow ourselves 
to be directed forward, to be more inspired by a recollection of the 
liberation of the camps and heroic deeds of combat and resistance that 
eventually defeated the Nazis than we are repulsed by the Nazis' deeds.
  This pending resolution is drafted by my esteemed colleague, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), the ranking Democratic member 
of our committee, and it expresses sentiments that I trust are widely 
shared in the House:
  That we recognize that we should fight against racism, intolerance, 
bigotry, prejudice, discrimination and anti-Semitism which, if 
unchecked, can lead to mass murder;
  That we thank the liberators of the camps and those who cared for the 
survivors of the Nazi death machine;
  And that we commend those states which now, at last, are willing to 
recognize an anniversary of the liberation of the camps in a body such 
as the United Nations General Assembly.
  The administration and the governments of the allies in World War II 
and of the European Union deserve our thanks for their efforts to 
arrange for a session of the U.N. General Assembly to commemorate this 
anniversary, and I also thank the U.N. Secretary General for his 
important, personal support for the special session and for his remarks 
yesterday.
  Yesterday's U.N. meeting did not take place on January 27, the 
precise anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, because many of the 
leaders participating at the U.N. are traveling to Auschwitz for a 
special commemoration at that site, where well over a million souls 
perished.
  I commend the President for asking Vice President Cheney to lead the 
American delegation to that commemoration. The President demonstrated 
additional insight by naming Mrs. Lynne Cheney, as well as our friends, 
the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) and his wife Annette 
Tillemann Lantos, both Holocaust survivors, among the other members of 
the delegation.
  When the House passes this resolution, it will endow the delegation 
with a specific sense of the House for it to convey to the others 
participating in the commemoration at Auschwitz. I know that the entire 
delegation will represent the highest values of our Nation with great 
skill and sensitivity, and I wish them Godspeed on their mission.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  First, I want to express my sincere thanks to my friend, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), the distinguished chairman of the 
Committee on International Relations, for his steadfast support for 
this important resolution and for the ideas and values on which it is 
based and for his efforts to bring it to the floor today. I also want 
to thank him for his powerful and moving statement.
  Mr. Speaker, I spent yesterday at the General Assembly of the United 
Nations which met in extraordinary session to mark the 60th anniversary 
of the liberation of Auschwitz, one of the horror camps of Hitler, and 
I had the opportunity of meeting with delegates from scores of 
countries across the globe which came to New York to pay their tribute 
to innocent victims and the heroic liberators of Nazi death camps.
  The special session had the strong support of my friend, United 
Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. I should mention that there are 
191 members of the United Nations, and for a long time, many of us have 
made special efforts to have all of them support the calling of this 
extraordinary session. Over 150 countries have responded in the 
affirmative, and I will put in the Congressional Record what I can only 
refer to as a roll call of shame and hatred of those who failed to 
recognize that 6 million innocent people were put to death by Hitler, 
and some countries have chosen not to pay honor to their memory and 
tribute to the heroic liberators of the death camps.

                              {time}  1445

  After a moment of silence in memory of the more than 6 million 
victims of Nazi brutality, delegates from nations around the world paid 
tribute to our and other allied troops who made ultimate sacrifices to 
defeat the Nazi regime and to liberate the innocent victims in these 
death camps. They also honored those who helped the survivors of Nazi 
brutality to return to civilized life and reaffirmed their commitment 
that such a nightmare will never again be repeated.
  The General Assembly session marked the beginning of this week of 
solemn observances around the world commemorating the unspeakable 
tragedy of the Holocaust. The final event will take place the day after 
tomorrow, January 27, at Auschwitz. The President of Poland, Aleksander 
Kwasniewski, will host an international assembly, including the 
President of Israel, President of Russia, and a host of other heads of 
state and government.
  Vice President and Mrs. Cheney will lead the United States delegation 
on this occasion; and I am deeply honored that my wife, Annette, and I, 
along with Elie Wiesel, the conscience of the Holocaust, will be 
members of this delegation.
  Mr. Speaker, this resolution today and the commemorative activities 
all this week are not merely remembering the horror of the distant 
past. Unfortunately, the memories of mankind are all too short and new 
generations have been born who cannot remember, and unfortunately have 
not been taught, about these horrors.
  A recent survey reported that 63 percent of passersby on a street in 
Orlando, Florida, had no idea what Auschwitz was. A survey in Britain 
reported that 45 percent of the respondents had never heard of 
Auschwitz. We are all too familiar with the recent controversy over 
Prince Harry appearing at a party wearing a uniform with an arm band 
emblazoned with the Nazi swastika.
  Mr. Speaker, the conditions that led to the Holocaust are still very 
much with us today. Just 3 weeks ago, as mandated by my legislation 
adopted by this body last fall, the Department of State submitted to us 
its first annual ``Report on Global Anti-Semitism.'' Its findings, in 
the context of the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the 
liberation of Auschwitz, were chilling: ``Hatred of Jews is on the 
increase by hate mongers of all types; anti-Israel sentiment crosses 
the line between criticism of Israeli policies and anti-Semitism; 
Holocaust denial and Holocaust minimization find increasingly overt 
acceptance as sanctioned historical discourse in a number of Middle 
Eastern countries.''
  The report also identifies ``the recent phenomenon of anti-Semitism 
appearing in countries where historically or currently there are no 
Jews.''
  Mr. Speaker, this chilling report and the shocking lack of knowledge 
about the Holocaust only reaffirm the importance of our resolution 
today and the importance of the educational events that are taking 
place in Auschwitz and elsewhere around the globe.
  Our resolution calls for governments and teachers to use this 
occasion to speak to young people about the unspeakable brutality of 
the Holocaust: the gas chambers and all they imply. Not because we are 
remembering the past, but because it is vital to our own future that we 
remember why Auschwitz happened, why the horrors of the Holocaust 
occurred, and why we must fight bigotry, intolerance, racism, and anti-
Semitism in order to make the world safer and better and more civilized 
for our children and our grandchildren.
  Yesterday, I had occasion at the United Nations to point out that 
genocides are not just matters of events of 60 years ago. In Cambodia, 
in Rwanda, and as we meet here today in Darfur, there is a genocide 
going on; and it is long overdue for all governments and all 
international organizations and all of us as individuals to take 
responsibility to terminate the ongoing nightmare. I urge all of my 
colleagues to support my resolution.

[[Page H151]]

  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield such time as he may 
consume to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), and 
one of the leading crusaders for human rights.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished 
chairman for yielding me this time and for his leadership on this 
resolution. I also want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Lantos), who along with his wife is a survivor of the Holocaust. He is 
to be commended for his clear and unmistakable and nonambiguous 
condemnation of these horrific occurrences that occurred 60 years ago 
and before; and for his leadership today in Congress and around the 
world on behalf of the plight of Jews, who are still subjected to a 
gross anti-Semitism all over the world.
  Mr. Speaker, perhaps no other single word evokes the horrors of the 
Holocaust as much as the name Auschwitz, the most notorious death camp 
in the history of humanity. On January 27, the Government of Poland 
will mark the liberation of that camp by the Soviet Army some 60 years 
ago. Leaders from across the globe, including our Vice President Dick 
Cheney, will rightly and solemnly remember the victims of Auschwitz and 
the sacrifices of those who fought against Nazism.
  This resolution, H. Res. 39, recognizes the 60th anniversary of the 
liberation of Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland. We also seek to 
strengthen the fight against racism, intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, 
discrimination, and anti-Semitism. The Congress of the United States 
joins those in Poland and elsewhere who are marking this solemn 
occasion.
  I particularly support, Mr. Speaker, this resolution's call for 
education about what happened during the Holocaust in general and at 
Auschwitz in particular. At that single camp, an estimated 1.1 million 
men, women, and children were slaughtered. All in all, more than 60 
percent of the pre-World War II Jewish population perished during the 
Holocaust. Others drawn into the Nazi machinery of death included 
Poles, Roman and other nationalities, religious leaders and religious 
minorities, the mentally or physically handicapped individuals, those 
who were considered inferior by the Nazis. The lives of countless 
survivors were forever broken.
  When Soviet troops entered Auschwitz, they found hundreds of 
thousands of men's suits, more than 800,000 women's suits, and more 
than 14,000 pounds of human hair, a silent and grim testimony to the 
magnitude of the crimes that had been committed there.
  Mr. Speaker, throughout the last several years, the Helsinki 
Commission, which I chaired during the last 2 years, has tried to focus 
on this terrible rising tide of anti-Semitism that has been occurring 
throughout Europe, among the OSCE's 55 countries, and really throughout 
the world. I am very glad that the Global Anti-Semitism Awareness Act 
of 2004, which the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), and I and Senator Voinovich and the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cardin) all worked so hard to enact, now 
has given us its first installment, including a very comprehensive 
report, which the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) just read 
from, and which I would like to make a part of the Record as well.
  Members need to read this, Mr. Speaker. Anti-Semitism is on the rise, 
and it must be countered. A tourniquet must be put on this hate every 
time it reappears.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I will be happy to yield to the gentleman 
from Maryland.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. First of 
all, I want to congratulate him on the extraordinary work he has done 
in leading the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe on 
behalf of the Congress and on behalf of the American people known as 
the Helsinki Commission. The gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) has 
been a stalwart, steadfast, strong voice on behalf of making sure that 
we confront anti-Semitism; that we confront prejudice; that we confront 
hate; that we confront the adverse effects of all of those human 
emotions, and has been a strong voice within the Parliamentary Assembly 
of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe dealing with 
this issue of anti-Semitism.
  In fact, the gentleman from New Jersey and the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Cardin), and others, but primarily the gentleman from New 
Jersey and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cardin), have been 
responsible for the seminars that have been held in Europe raising the 
consciousness of all Europeans, as we need to raise the consciousness 
of all Americans and all peoples of the world to be aware of the 
invidious, tragic, horrific consequences of prejudice and hate.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate the gentleman from New Jersey on 
his extraordinary leadership. He has been a giant in this effort, and I 
thank him.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the 
distinguished Democrat whip for his very kind remarks; but note that 
this has been a very strong bipartisan effort, and he has been very 
much a part of that Parliamentary Assembly.
  When we first began to raise this issue, one of the focuses we 
brought to bear on the Parliamentary Assembly was the importance of 
Holocaust education. And I would ask every American when they visit 
Washington to go down to the Holocaust Museum and walk through that 
museum. Look at the pictures of the people doing the hail to Hitler, 
the Hail Hitler salute. Seemingly normal, everyday people who, whether 
they knew it or not, were buying into this extermination campaign that 
is the most horrific in all of human history.
  We would hope that when the Parliamentary Assembly comes to 
Washington in July that the 220-plus members of Parliaments from each 
of the countries will spend at least half a day going through the 
Holocaust Museum to remember so that the past does not become prologue.
  I would also point out to my colleagues that my own sense of 
Holocaust remembrance and education began when I was a young teenager, 
and a man who used to visit a store right next to my family's sporting 
goods store who was a survivor himself. I will never forget when he 
rolled up his sleeve one day and showed us that tattooed mark, the 
number. He was one of the lucky ones, like our good friend and 
colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), who survived 
this terrible time when hell was in session.
  So, again, this is another one of those issues that we all are deeply 
concerned about. There is no division between Democrat or Republican. 
And again I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) for 
his leadership on this as well. It has been extraordinary.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit herewith the ``Report on Global Anti-Semitism'' 
referred to earlier.

                     Report on Global Anti-Semitism

       July 1, 2003-December 15, 2004, submitted by the Department 
     of State to the Committee on Foreign Relations and the 
     Committee on International Relations in accordance with 
     Section 4 of PL 108-332, December 30, 2004. Released by the 
     Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, January 5, 
     2005.

                           Executive Summary


                            I. anti-Semitism

       Anti-Semitism has plagued the world for centuries. Taken to 
     its most far-reaching and violent extreme, the Holocaust, 
     anti-Semitism resulted in the deaths of millions of Jews and 
     the suffering of countless others. Subtler, less vile forms 
     of anti-Semitism have disrupted lives, decimated religious 
     communities, created social and political cleavages, and 
     complicated relations between countries as well as the work 
     of international organizations. For an increasingly 
     interdependent world, anti-Semitism is an intolerable burden.
       The increasing frequency and severity of anti-Semitic 
     incidents since the start of the 21st century, particularly 
     in Europe, has compelled the international community to focus 
     on anti-Semitism with renewed vigor. Attacks on individual 
     Jews and on Jewish properties occurred in the immediate post 
     World War II period, but decreased over time and were 
     primarily linked to vandalism and criminal activity. In 
     recent years, incidents have been more targeted in nature 
     with perpetrators appearing to have the specific intent to 
     attack Jews and Judaism. These attacks have disrupted the 
     sense of safety and well-being of Jewish communities.
       The definition of anti-Semitism has been the focus of 
     innumerable discussions and

[[Page H152]]

     studies. While there is no universally accepted definition, 
     there is a generally clear understanding of what the term 
     encompasses.
       For the purposes of this report, anti-Semitism is 
     considered to be hatred toward Jews--individually and as a 
     group--that can be attributed to the Jewish religion and/or 
     ethnicity. An important issue is the distinction between 
     legitimate criticism of policies and practices of the State 
     of Israel, and commentary that assumes an anti-Semitic 
     character. The demonization of Israel, or vilification of 
     Israeli leaders, sometimes through comparisons with Nazi 
     leaders, and through the use of Nazi symbols to caricature 
     them, indicates an anti-Semitic bias rather than a valid 
     criticism of policy concerning a controversial issue.
       Global anti-Semitism in recent years has had four main 
     sources:
       Traditional anti-Jewish prejudice that has pervaded Europe 
     and some countries in other parts of the world for centuries. 
     This includes ultra-nationalists and others who assert that 
     the Jewish community controls governments, the media, 
     international business, and the financial world.
       Strong anti-Israel sentiment that crosses the line between 
     objective criticism of Israeli policies and anti-Semitism.
       Anti-Jewish sentiment expressed by some in Europe's growing 
     Muslim population, based on longstanding antipathy toward 
     both Israel and Jews, as well as Muslim opposition to 
     developments in Israel and the occupied territories, and more 
     recently in Iraq.
       Criticiam of both the United States and globalization that 
     spills over to Israel, and to Jews in general who are 
     identified with both.


            II. harassment, vandalism and physical violence

     Europe and Eurasia
       Anti-Semitism in Europe increased significantly in recent 
     years. At the same time it should be noted that many European 
     countries have comprehensive reporting systems that record 
     incidents more completely than is possible in other 
     countries. Because of this significant difference in 
     reporting systems, it is not possible to make direct 
     comparisons between countries or geographic regions. 
     Beginning in 2000, verbal attacks directed against Jews 
     increased while incidents of vandalism (e.g. graffiti, fire 
     bombings of Jewish schools, desecration of synagogues and 
     cemeteries) surged. Physical assaults including beatings, 
     stabbings and other violence against Jews in Europe increased 
     markedly, in a number of cases resulting in serious injury 
     and even death. Also troubling is a bias that spills over 
     into anti-Semitism in some of the left-of-center press and 
     among some intellectuals.
       The disturbing rise of anti-Semitic intimidation and 
     incidents is widespread throughout Europe, although with 
     significant variations in the number of cases and the 
     accuracy of reporting. European governments in most countries 
     now view anti-Semitism as a serious problem for their 
     societies and demonstrate a greater willingness to address 
     the issue. The Vienna-based European Union Monitoring Center 
     (EUMC), for 2002 and 2003, identified France, Germany, the 
     United Kingdom, Belgium, and The Netherlands as EU member 
     countries with notable increases in incidents. As these 
     nations keep reliable and comprehensive statistics on anti-
     Semitic acts, and are engaged in combating anti-Semitism, 
     their data was readily available to the EUMC. Governments and 
     leading public figures condemned the violence, passed new 
     legislation, and mounted positive law enforcement and 
     educational efforts.
       In Western Europe, traditional far-right groups still 
     account for a significant proportion of the attacks against 
     Jews and Jewish properties; disadvantaged and disaffected 
     Muslim youths increasingly were responsible for most of the 
     other incidents. This trend appears likely to persist as the 
     number of Muslims in Europe continues to grow while their 
     level of education and economic prospects remain limited.
       In Eastern Europe, with a much smaller Muslim population, 
     skinheads and other members of the radical political fringe 
     were responsible for most anti-Semitic incidents. Anti-
     Semitism remained a serious problem in Russia and Belarus, 
     and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, with most incidents 
     carried out by ultra-nationalist and other far-right 
     elements. The stereotype of Jews as manipulators of the 
     global economy continues to provide fertile ground for anti-
     Semitic aggression.
       Holocaust and tolerance education as well as teacher 
     training provide a potential long-term solution to anti-
     Semitism; however, the problem is still rapidly outpacing the 
     solution. At the end of 2003, and continuing into this year, 
     some Jews, especially in Europe, faced the dilemma either of 
     hiding their identity or facing harassment and sometimes even 
     serious bodily injury and death. The heavy psychological toll 
     in this increasingly difficult environment should not be 
     overlooked or underestimated.
     Middle East
       Jews left the countries of the Middle East and North Africa 
     in large numbers near the mid-point of the last century as 
     their situation became increasingly precarious. This trend 
     continues. Today few remain, and few incidents involving the 
     remaining members of the Jewish community have been reported. 
     Nonetheless, Syria condoned and, in some cases, even 
     supported through radio, television programming, news 
     articles, and other mass media the export of the virulent 
     domestic anti-Semitism. The official and state-supported 
     media's anti-Zionist propaganda frequently adopts the 
     terminology and symbols of the Holocaust to demonize 
     Israel and its leaders. This rhetoric often crosses the 
     line separating the legitimate criticism of Israel and its 
     policies to become anti-Semitic vilification posing as 
     legitimate political commentary. At the same time, 
     Holocaust denial and Holocaust minimization efforts find 
     increasingly overt acceptance as sanctioned historical 
     discourse in a number of Middle Eastern countries.
     Other Regions
       The problem of anti-Semitism is not only significant in 
     Europe and in the Middle East, but here are also worrying 
     expressions of it elsewhere. For example, in Pakistan, a 
     country without a Jewish community, anti-Semitic sentiment 
     fanned by anti-Semitic Articles in the press is widespread. 
     This reflects the more recent phenomenon of anti-Semitism 
     appearing in the countries where historically or currently 
     there are few or even no Jews.
       Elsewhere, in Australia, the level of intimidation and 
     attacks against Jews and Jewish property and anti-Zionist and 
     anti-Semitic rhetoric decreased somewhat over the past year. 
     This year, New Zealand experienced several desecrations of 
     Jewish tombstones and other incidents. In the Americas, in 
     addition to manifestations of anti-Semitism in the United 
     States, Canada experienced a significant increase in attacks 
     against Jews and Jewish property. There were notable anti-
     Semitic incidents in Argentina and isolated incidents in a 
     number of other Latin American countries.


                               III. Media

       The proliferation of media outlets (television, radio, 
     print media and the Internet) has vastly increased the 
     opportunity for purveyors of anti-Semitic material to spread 
     their propaganda unhindered. Anti-hater laws provide some 
     protection, but freedom of expression safeguards in many 
     western counties limited the preventive measures that 
     governments could take. Satellite television programming 
     easily shifts from one provider to another and Internet 
     offerings cross international borders with few or no 
     impediments.
       In June, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in 
     Europe (OSCE) organized a separate meeting in Paris dealing 
     with intolerance on the Internet, and subsequently approved a 
     decision on ``Promoting Tolerance and Media Freedom on the 
     Internet.'' The decision is prescriptive in nature and 
     carefully caveated to avoid conflict with the varied legal 
     systems within the countries of the OSCE. It calls upon 
     Participating States to investigate and fully prosecute 
     criminal threats on violence based on anti-Semitic and other 
     intolerance on the Internet, as well as to establish programs 
     to educate children about hate speech and other forms of 
     bias.
       Critics of Israel frequently use anti-Semitic cartoons 
     depicting anti-Jewish images and caricatures to attack the 
     State of Israel and its policies, as well as Jewish 
     communities and other who support Israel. These media attacks 
     can lack any pretext of balance or even factual basis and 
     focus on the demonization of Israel. The United States is 
     frequently included as a target of such attacks, which often 
     assert that U.S. foreign policy is made in Israel or that 
     Jews control the media and financial markets in the United 
     States and the rest of the world. During the 2004 United 
     States presidential campaign, the Arab press ran numerous 
     cartoons closely identifying both of the major American 
     political parties with Israel and with Israeli Prime Minister 
     Sharon.
       ``The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,'' a text debunked 
     many years ago as a fraud perpetrated by Czarist intelligence 
     agents, continued to appear in the Middle East media, not as 
     a hoax, but as established fact. Government-sponsored 
     television in Syria ran lengthy serials based on the 
     Protocols. The representations emphasized blood libel and the 
     alleged control by the Jewish community of international 
     finance. The clear purpose of the programs was to incite 
     hatred of Jews and of Israel. Copies of the Protocols and 
     other similar anti-Semitic forgeries were readily available 
     in Middle Eastern countries, former Soviet republics and 
     elsewhere. Similarly, allegations that Jews were behind 
     the 9/11 attacks were widely disseminated.
       In November 2004, Al-Manar, the Lebanon-based television 
     network controlled by Hizballah featuring blatantly anti-
     Semitic material, obtained a limited 1-year satellite 
     broadcast license from the French authorities. This was 
     revoked shortly thereafter due to Al-Manar's continued 
     transmission of anti-Semitic material. Al-Manar is now off 
     the air in France. Other Middle East networks with 
     questionable content, such as Al-Jazeerah and Al-Arrabiya, 
     maintain their French broadcast licenses.


                       IV. actions by governments

       In Europe and other geographic regions, many governments 
     became increasingly aware of the threat presented by anti-
     Semitism and spoke out against it. Some took effective 
     measures to combat it with several countries, including 
     France, Belgium, and Germany, now providing enhanced 
     protection for members of the Jewish community and Jewish 
     properties.
       For the most part, the police response to anti-Semitic 
     incidents was uneven. Most law

[[Page H153]]

     enforcement officials are not specifically trained to deal 
     with hate crimes, particularly anti-Semitic hat crimes. 
     Police sometimes dismissed such crimes as hooliganism or 
     petty crime, rather than attacks against Jews because of 
     their ethnicity or religion, or because the assailants 
     identified the victims with the actions of the State of 
     Israel.
       In countries where anti-Semitism is a serious problem, 
     specialized training for police and members of the judiciary 
     remains a pressing need. Many nations still do not have hate 
     crimes laws that address anti-Semitic and other intolerance-
     related crimes. In some instances where such laws already 
     exist, stronger enforcement is needed.


                         V. multilateral action

       Anti-Semitism is a global problem that requires a 
     coordinated multinational approach. Thus far, the most 
     effective vehicle for international cooperation has been the 
     OSCE, comprised of 55 participating states from Europe, 
     Eurasia and North America plus Mediterranean and Asian 
     partners for cooperation. The OSCE organized two 
     groundbreaking conferences on anti-Semitism--in June 2003, in 
     Vienna and in April 2004, In Berlin. These were the first 
     international conferences to focus high-level political 
     attention solely on the problem of anti-Semitism. The Vienna 
     Conference identified anti-Semitism as a human rights issue.
       OSCE Foreign Ministers gave further high-level political 
     acknowledgment to the seriousness of anti-Semitism at their 
     December 2003 meeting in Maastricht. There they took the 
     formal decision to spotlight the need to combat anti-Semitism 
     by deciding to task the OSCE's Office of Democratic 
     Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to serve as a 
     collection point for hate crimes information. ODIHR is now 
     working with OSCE member states to collect information on 
     hate crimes legislation and to promote ``best practices'' in 
     the areas of law enforcement, combating hate crimes, and 
     education. ODIHR established a Program on Tolerance and Non-
     Discrimination and now has an advisor to deal exclusively 
     with the issue.
       At their December 2004 meeting in Sofia, OSCE Foreign 
     Ministers welcomed the Chair-in-Office's decision to appoint 
     three special representatives for tolerance issues, including 
     a special representative for anti-Semitism, to work with 
     member states on implementing specific commitments to fight 
     anti-Semitism. In addition, the Foreign Ministers accepted 
     the Spanish Government's offer to host a third anti-Semitism 
     conference in June 2005 in Cordoba.
       The United Nations also took important measures in the 
     fight against anti-Semitism. One was a June 2004 seminar on 
     anti-Semitism hosted by Secretary General Kofi Annan. Another 
     measure was a resolution of the United Nations Third 
     Committee in November 2004, which called for the elimination 
     of all forms of religious intolerance, explicitly including 
     anti-Semitism.
       Education remains a potentially potent antidote for anti-
     Semitism and other forms of intolerance. Following the first 
     Stockholm Conference in 1998, convoked out of concern for the 
     decreasing level of knowledge of the Holocaust particularly 
     among the younger generation, Sweden, the United Kingdom and 
     the United States decided to address the issue 
     collaboratively. The Task Force for International Cooperation 
     on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (ITF) 
     emerged from this initial effort.
       Today the ITF, an informal international organization 
     operating on the basis of consensus, and without a 
     bureaucracy, consists of 20 countries. ITF member states 
     agree to commit themselves to the Declaration of the 
     Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust and to its 
     implementation. Current members of the ITF include Argentina, 
     Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary 
     Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the 
     Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, 
     United Kingdom, and the United States. In addition four other 
     countries (Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Slovakia) maintain a 
     liaison relationship with the ITF.


    vi. U.S. Government Actions to Monitor and combat anti-semitism

       The U.S. Government is committed to monitoring and 
     combating anti-Semitism throughout the world as an important 
     human rights and religious freedom issue. As President Bush 
     said when he signed the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act on 
     October 16, 2004, ``Defending freedom also means disrupting 
     the evil of anti-Semitism.''
       Annually, the U.S. Department of State publishes the 
     International Religious Freedom Report and the Country 
     Reports on Human Rights Practices. Both detail incidents and 
     trends of anti-Semitism worldwide. The State Department's 
     instructions to U.S. Embassies for the 2004 Country Reports 
     on Human Rights Practices explicitly required them to 
     describe acts of violence against Jews and Jewish properties, 
     as well as actions governments are taking to prevent this 
     form of bigotry and prejudice.
       In multilateral fora, the Department of State called for 
     recognition of the rise of anti-Semitism and the development 
     of specific measures to address it. The Department played a 
     leading role in reaching agreement in the OSCE to hold the 
     two conferences on combating anti-Semitism noted above in 
     Section V. Former New York City Mayors Rudolph Giuliani and 
     Edward Koch led the United States delegations to the 
     conferences in Vienna and Berlin, respectively. Each brought 
     a wealth of knowledge and experience in fostering respect for 
     minorities in multicultural communities. Key NGOs worked 
     productively with the Department to prepare for these 
     conferences. In his address to the Berlin Conference, 
     Secretary Powell said: `` We must not permit anti-Semitism 
     crimes to be shrugged off as inevitable side effects of 
     inter-ethnic conflicts. Political disagreements do not 
     justify physical assaults against Jews in our streets, the 
     destruction of Jewish schools, or the desecration of 
     synagogues and cemeteries. There is no justification for 
     anti-Semitism.'' At the United Nations, the United States has 
     supported resolutions condemning anti-Semitism both at the 
     General Assembly and at the UN Commission on Human Rights.
       An important lesson of the Holocaust is that bigotry and 
     intolerance can lead to future atrocities and genocides if 
     not addressed forcefully by governments and other sectors of 
     society. The United States is committed to working 
     bilaterally to promote efforts with other governments to 
     arrest and roll back the increase in anti-Semitism. President 
     Bush affirmed that commitment during his visit to Auschwitz-
     Birkenau in 2003, stating: ``This site is a sobering reminder 
     that when we find anti-Semitism, whether it be in Europe, in 
     America or anywhere else, mankind must come together to fight 
     such dark impulses.''
       U.S. Embassies implement this commitment by speaking out 
     against anti-Semitic acts and hate crimes. Ambassadors and 
     other embassy officers work with local Jewish communities to 
     encourage prompt law enforcement action against hate crimes. 
     In Turkey, the U.S. Embassy worked closely with the Jewish 
     community following the November 2003 bombing of the Neve 
     Shalom Synagogue. In the Middle East, our embassies have 
     protested to host governments against practices that have 
     allowed their institutions to promote anti-Semitism, such as 
     the heavily watched television series Rider Without a Horse 
     and Diaspora that respectively promoted the canard of the 
     blood libel, and ``The Protocols of Elders of Zion.'' U.S. 
     bilateral demarches were effective in specific instances, but 
     more remains to be done to encourage national leaders to 
     speak out forcefully against anti-Semitism and in support of 
     respectful, tolerant societies.
       Building on the success achieved to date, the Department of 
     State is accelerating its efforts with its partners globally 
     to improve both monitoring and combating anti-Semitism in 
     three specific areas: education, legislation, and law 
     enforcement. The Department will continue to promote the 
     development of Holocaust education curricula and teacher 
     training programs. A successful program in this area has been 
     summer teacher training partially funded through U.S. 
     Embassies in cooperation with the Association of American 
     Holocaust Organizations (AHO) and the United States Holocaust 
     Memorial Museum (USHMM). At the October 2004 OSCE Human 
     Dimension Meeting, the United States and France hosted a 
     seminar on methodologies for teaching the Holocaust in 
     multicultural societies. The United States also supports the 
     work of NGOs in promoting educational programs abroad, in 
     part based on successful seminars in the United States that 
     teach respect for individuals and minority groups. 
     Additionally, the U.S. State Department has supported efforts 
     to promote tolerance in the Saudi educational system 
     including by sponsoring the travel of religious educators to 
     the United States to examine interreligious education.
       The roots of anti-Semitism run deep and the United States 
     does not underestimate the difficulty of reversing the recent 
     resurgence of this ancient scourge. The legislative and 
     executive branches, together with NGOs, constitute an 
     important partnership in continuing the vital effort to find 
     creative ways to monitor, contain, and finally stop anti-
     Semitism.

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to 
express my deepest admiration to both my friend, the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Smith), and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), who 
not only on the Helsinki Commission and in this body but in their own 
personal activities have provided extraordinary leadership in fighting 
bigotry and hatred in all its forms.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the Democratic whip and my good 
friend.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this 
time, and I rise as well to say that no Member of this body has been 
any more personally affected, and certainly no Member of this body has 
more consistently raised the consciousness of the American people and, 
indeed, the international community on the importance of never 
forgetting.

                              {time}  1500

  Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Hyde), 
who is committed to this issue and has been a leader and has traveled 
and headed the delegations of the Helsinki Commission to the 
Parliamentary Assembly and raised our voice in foreign lands.

[[Page H154]]

  I also thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), the ranking 
member, the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to Congress. In 
particular, I want to say to the gentleman from California, his 
indefatigable commitment to human freedom and basic human dignity is a 
source of inspiration to all of us privileged to serve with the 
gentleman. It should be emulated by us all.
  Madam Speaker, 60 years ago at 3 p.m. on January 27, 1945, Soviet Red 
Army soldiers entered Auschwitz concentration camp. Those of us who 
visited Auschwitz long after that date but who saw the horrible 
implements of death constructed there by the Nazi regime can only 
imagine, knowing the horror that we felt, the horror and revulsion that 
those Soviet soldiers, human beings, must have felt as they entered 
that camp in a village in southern Poland 30 miles west of Krakow. What 
they discovered there haunts us today and should haunt us every day.
  A Russian Army officer described the reaction to the sight of the 
camp's remaining 7,000 prisoners, who had been too ill or weak to move 
and were left to die in the cold by the fleeing Germans. He said, ``The 
soldiers from my battalion asked me, `Let us go. We cannot stay. This 
is unbelievable.' It was so terrible, it was hard for the mind to 
absorb it.''
  But the mind, Madam Speaker, must never forget it. The Nazis had 
spent weeks moving the most able-bodied prisoners, destroying documents 
and bulldozing buildings. But the liberation of the largest Nazi 
concentration camp, where 1.5 million innocent souls were murdered, 
women and children, young and old, opened the world's eyes to the 
unspeakable evil of the Holocaust.
  While it is appropriate that this somber day be marked in ceremonies 
all around the globe, it will be a further tragedy if on this occasion 
we only look back without also looking ahead. The gentleman from 
California (Mr. Lantos) did that.
  We cannot remember the liberation of the concentration camps and the 
defeat of the Nazis in World War II and at the same time cast a blind 
eye toward the growing problem of anti-Semitism that still infects the 
world today, and tragically grows today. Nor can we ignore the hatred 
and prejudice that fuels the genocide in Sudan today. The gentleman 
from California (Mr. Lantos) mentioned Darfur.
  Hatred knows no gender, no race, no ethnicity. It lurks in man's 
heart today as surely as it did during the Holocaust. Even today in 
this country we talk about some people in our country in a way that 
demeans them and dehumanizes them and gives to others the 
misapprehension that they can act against those people, whoever they 
might be. We see tragic instances of that. And that reality, as painful 
as it is to accept, compels us to use this solemn occasion to restate 
our commitment to freedom and basic human rights. And it compels us to 
fight hatred and prejudice wherever it rears its head.
  Our President spoke just a few days ago in his Inaugural Address 
about the commitment of this country to freedom, to liberty and, yes, 
to human rights. He was right to do so. We owe those souls who perished 
at the hands of Nazis at Auschwitz, who perished at the hands of 
Milosevic, who died at the hands of those in Sudan and in every other 
place where hate and prejudice was the motivation for murder. We owe 
those souls our unremitting pledge to never, never, never permit these 
horrific periods in human history to be repeated. I was one of those 
who felt that we waited too long as we saw the genocide in Serbia and 
in Kosovo and in Bosnia. We must not delay our response. If we do so, 
we remember Auschwitz, but we remember it without learning its lesson.
  Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to 
the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Schwartz), a new Member of the 
House who has already made her mark on this institution.
  Ms. SCHWARTZ of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I rise with profound 
gratitude to the people of Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District 
for electing me to represent them in Congress. As the daughter of a 
Holocaust survivor, I am honored that my first opportunity to speak on 
the House floor is on an issue so close to my heart.
  My colleagues, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) and the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), I and so many others stand today 
in remembrance of the 6 million Jews who lost their lives during the 
Second World War, many of whom were our aunts and uncles, mothers and 
fathers, friends and loved ones.
  My mother, Renee Perl, was one of the many who fled their homeland. 
Forced to start anew at the young age of 14, she left Austria alone, 
spending time in Holland and England before arriving in Philadelphia at 
the age of 16 in 1941. Once arriving on the shores of America, my 
mother, like so many Jews, was hesitant to tell her story, hoping that 
by trying to forget about the war, the violence, the dislocation, the 
fear she could move on. Yet once in the United States, those who 
survived the Holocaust could not hide their gratitude and love for this 
country, relishing the opportunity and freedom granted to them as new 
Americans. My own love and respect for our country and my belief in our 
responsibility to each other stems in great part from this strong sense 
of patriotism.
  Elie Wiesel once said, ``We should all respect the uniqueness, the 
originality, the specificity in one another.'' It was leaders like Mr. 
Wiesel who inspired Jews to acknowledge the importance of remembering, 
of telling the stories, so as to never let a Holocaust happen again.
  My colleagues, what makes our country great is we respect 
differences: ethnic, religious, race, gender, geographic and political; 
that we have a government that reflects and embraces our Nation's broad 
diversity; and that we, as a community, are afforded opportunities to 
recall the good and the dark times in our shared history.
  Madam Speaker, I am tremendously grateful for being able to share my 
family's story, to know my mother would be proud to know that we were 
not only paying tribute to those who suffered tremendous pain and 
hardship, but to recall the Jewish people's great spirit to survive, 
continued faith in God, and unwavering belief in freedom and democracy.
  Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cardin), the Democratic leader on the 
Helsinki Commission.
  (Mr. CARDIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. CARDIN. Madam Speaker, as we commemorate the 60th anniversary of 
the liberation of Auschwitz, I want to acknowledge how fortunate we are 
in this body to have the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) as one 
of our Members. His passion on human rights is so welcomed in this 
body. He has been the champion on these issues for many years. We thank 
the gentleman for everything he has meant to our sensitivity on human 
rights issues. The gentleman has seen it firsthand and has helped us 
understand the need for activism in this body.
  I also acknowledge the gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Hyde) for 
his leadership on human rights issues, and the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Smith) who is our leader on the Helsinki Commission, not 
only on this issue, but on anti-Semitism generally. He has led the 
effort in the international body to make sure that we pay attention to 
the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe today.
  Last year I had an opportunity to visit Auschwitz and see firsthand 
where a million people lost their lives in the factory of death. It has 
an impact on all of us who have seen how inhumane people can be.
  Madam Speaker, in 1991 the participating states of the Organization 
for Security and Cooperation in Europe agreed in Krakow, Poland, to 
``strive to preserve and protect these monuments and sites of 
remembrance, including extermination camps, and the related archives, 
which are themselves testimonials to their tragic experience in their 
common past. Such steps need to be taken in order that those 
experiences may be remembered, may help to teach present and future 
generations of these events, and thus ensure that they are never 
repeated.''
  Auschwitz is just such a site of remembrance. With this resolution, 
we mourn innocent lives lost and vibrant communities destroyed. We 
honor

[[Page H155]]

those who fought fascism and helped liberate Auschwitz and other Nazi 
camps.
  This resolution also goes further and speaks to the compelling need 
for Holocaust education throughout the globe. In the words of the 
Krakow Document, we must ``teach present and future generations of 
these events, and thus ensure that they are never repeated.'' This 
chilling rise of anti-Semitism in recent years tells us that more must 
be done.
  Madam Speaker, I can speak a long time on this subject. This 
resolution calls on all nations and people to strengthen their efforts 
to fight against racism, intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, 
discrimination and anti-Semitism. I am proud that this body is bringing 
forward this resolution. I commend my colleagues and the leadership of 
the committee for bringing it forward. I urge all of my colleagues to 
support the resolution.
  Madam Speaker, Yad Vashem exhibits the sketches of Zinovii 
Tolkatchev, a Soviet soldier who was among those who liberated Majdanek 
and Auschwitz, under the fitting title, ``Private Tolkatchev at the 
Gates of Hell.'' For surely that is what he saw and what Auschwitz was. 
As ranking member of the Helsinki Commission, I visited Auschwitz last 
year and saw for myself the furnaces that took the lives of more than 
one million human beings at the camp. These furnaces stoked hatred and 
intolerance to a degree never before seen in human history.
  Today, I rise as a cosponsor and in strong support of this 
resolution, which seeks to join the voices of this body to all those 
gathered in Poland and elsewhere in our common remembrance of the 
liberation of Auschwitz 60 years ago, on January 27, by Soviet Army 
troops.
  I commend Congressman Lantos, the ranking member of the International 
Relations Committee, for introducing this resolution and for his 
steadfast leadership in his work against anti-Semitism and for 
Holocaust education and awareness. I am also deeply heartened that the 
United Nations General Assembly, at the request of many governments and 
with the support of Secretary General Kofi Annan, convened a special 
session on January 24 to mark the liberation of the Auschwitz and other 
death camps.
  Madam Speaker, in 1991, the participating State of the Organization 
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) agreed in Cracow, Poland, 
to ``strive to preserve and protect those monuments and sites of 
remembrance, including most notably extermination camps, and the 
related archives, which are themselves testimonials to their tragic 
experiences in their common past. Such steps need to be taken in order 
that those experiences may be remembered, may help to teach present and 
future generations of these events, and thus ensure that they are never 
repeated.''
  Auschwitz is just such a site of remembrance. With this resolution, 
we mourn innocent lives lost and vibrant communities destroyed. We 
honor those who fought fascism and helped liberate Auschwitz and other 
Nazi camps.
  This resolution also goes further and speaks to the compelling need 
for Holocaust education throughout the globe. In the words of the 
Cracow Document, we must ``teach present and future generations of 
these events, and thus ensure that they are never repeated.'' The 
chilling rise of anti-Semitism in recent years tells us that more must 
be done. This resolution calls on all nations and peoples to strengthen 
their efforts to fight against racism, intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, 
discrimination, and anti-Semitism.

  In the last Congress I was pleased to join with Mr. Lantos and 
Helsinki Commission Chairman Chris Smith in working to enact the Global 
Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004. Earlier this month the U.S. State 
Department issued its first-ever global report on anti-Semitism, as 
mandated by the legislation. We now have a roadmap to build upon in the 
future, which details both best practices by states as well as areas in 
which participating States are still falling short of their OSCE 
commitments.
  In April 2004 I attended the Conference on Anti-Semitism of the OSCE 
in Berlin with Secretary of State Colin Powell. The 55 Participating 
States of the OSCE adopted a strong action plan, the Berlin 
Declaration, which lays out specific steps for states to take regarding 
Holocaust education, data collection and monitoring of hate crimes 
against Jews, and improved coordination between nongovernmental 
organizations and European law enforcement agencies.
  During our conference, on the evening of April 28, President Johannes 
Rau of Germany hosted a dinner for the President of the State of Israel 
Moshe Katsav. President Katsav spoke powerfully about the need to 
combat the rising tide of anti-Semitism throughout the world. I cannot 
tell you how powerful it was to listen to the German President and the 
Israeli President address the issue of anti-Semitism together in 
Berlin.
  Let me just highlight one section of President Katsav's remarks:
  ``The violence against the Jews in Europe is evidence that anti-
Semitism, which we have not known since the Second World War, is on the 
rise. This trend of the new anti-Semitism is a result of the aggressive 
propaganda, made possible by modern technologies, globalilzation and 
abuse of democracy and which creates an infrastructure for developing 
and increasing anti-Semitism, of a kind we have not known before . . . 
Many times I have heard voices saying that anti-Semitism is not unique 
and that it is no different from other kinds of racism. Anti-Semitism 
should indeed receive special attention. Hatred against the Jews has 
existed for many generations and it is rooted in many cultures and 
continents through the world. However, now anti-Semitism has become an 
instrument for achieving political aims . . . The genocide of the Jews 
was the result of anti-Semitism and was not caused by a war between 
countries or a territorial conflict and, therefore, anti-Semitism is a 
special danger for world Jewry and the whole of Europe.''
  I urge others here today to join me in supporting this resolution.
  Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee), a courageous fighter for human rights in all 
realms.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Lantos), the ranking member, and the gentleman from 
Illinois (Chairman Hyde).
  I could spend my 2 minutes speaking about the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Lantos) and the defining stature that he represents in 
this body and in this Nation. This resolution today on Auschwitz really 
helps to confirm all of the teaching that the gentleman from California 
(Mr. Lantos) has been able to provide to those of us who have been 
willing to be tutored.
  Today we acknowledge the 6 million murdered and the terrible tragic 
loss of life in all the other concentration camps throughout WWII. 
Today we stand in support of a resolution that acknowledges that 
brutality, but does not accept it. Although it existed in human 
treatment, we stand today against it. Today we also acknowledge and 
humbly pray over the souls who lost their lives and make a pledge on 
the floor of the House: Never, never again.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today simply to be one of those who would never 
ignore this horrific tragedy and terrible brutality, and to be able to 
lift my voice in support of H. Res. 39 by, first, thanking the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) for bringing the personal 
inhumane experience that he faced and confronted to this Congress and 
to America so that we might learn to be better.
  I am very grateful that the resolution stands against bigotry and 
speaks to the world that we must do better. I ask my colleagues to 
support this resolution and, of course, to acknowledge the fact that we 
can be a better Nation if we are reminded of the fact that we are all 
fighters against inhumane treatment to others around us.

                              {time}  1515

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Biggert). The time of the gentleman 
from California has expired.
  Mr. HYDE. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Lantos), and I ask unanimous consent that he be 
permitted to control that time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Illinois?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield such time as he 
may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) who has been an 
indefatigable fighter for human rights for all people.
  (Mr. OWENS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. OWENS. Madam Speaker, this 60th anniversary observance of the 
liberation of Auschwitz presents the people of all civilized nations 
with an opportunity to focus a searing light of exposure on one of the 
deadliest landmark events of human history. More than 1 million human 
beings died in this hellish extermination factory which was part of a 
system that murdered more than 6 million Jews.
  As often as possible, in every way conceivable, the leaders of the 
present

[[Page H156]]

must be forced to gaze with thorough and undivided attention upon the 
horror of the Holocaust. The observance of this 60th anniversary is an 
empty, useless ceremony if it does not arouse massive, worldwide anger, 
pity, and fear. The anger must be directed not only at Hitler and the 
SS; but also the anger should be focused on the millions who helped to 
maintain the poison fog of racism, anti-Semitism, and religious hatred. 
The pity levels must be raised high to envelop all of the more than 6 
million individual souls whose opportunities to breathe and live, to 
develop their potential and to pursue happiness were so brutally 
snuffed out. The fear must be shared by us all as we contemplate our 
unforgivable impotence in the face of other epidemics of genocide that 
have been allowed since the landmark lesson of the Holocaust.
  Stalin and his gulags; Pol Pot and his killing fields; the Hutu 
intelligentsia and their exhortation to ``cut the tall trees'' with 
machete executions. All of this competition with Hitler has occurred 
within the last 60 years. We applaud the civilized governments of the 
world for drawing a line at Kosovo. But we are burdened with a great 
fear that more mass slaughters are coming because we still have not 
learned this most profound lesson of modern history.
  On the occasion of this 60th anniversary, we must remember that the 
lesson of history is that perpetrators of genocide must have us come 
down on them with an uncompromising, righteous wrath; and we must 
trumpet their punishment throughout the Earth. The message for future 
mass murderers with their convoluted rationale and twisted theories is 
that there will be swift and universally supported punishment. The 
message for the populations that support them is that there will be no 
acceptance of sentimental schemes for truth and reconciliation. For 
ignoring Auschwitz, there can be no pardons, no acceptance of 
sentimental schemes for truth and reconciliation. For permitting their 
leaders to violate the most important principles of human society, the 
citizens of any nation must be collectively judged and their nation 
must be forced to pay a special debt to civilization.
  Madam Speaker, this sixieth anniversary observance of the liberation 
of Auschwitz presents the people of all civilized nations with an 
opportunity to focus a searing light of exposure on one of the 
deadliest landmark events of human history. More than one million human 
beings died in this hellish extermination factory which was part of a 
system that murdered more than six million Jews.
  As often as possible, in every way conceivable, the leaders of the 
present must be forced to gaze with thorough and undivided attention 
upon the horror of the holocaust. Auschwitz and all of the similar 
death camps document the levels to which civilized men can descend. No 
savage and primitive tribe could ever have engaged in such monumental 
and systematic slaughter. That these crimes were committed by one of 
the most scientifically advanced, well educated, culturally 
sophisticated, thoroughly organized nations that the world has ever 
seen is a fact that magnifies the need to forever study this bloody 
man-made tsunami.
  The observance of this sixieth anniversary is an empty, useless 
ceremony if it does not arouse massive worldwide anger, pity and fear. 
The anger must be directed not only at Hitler and the SS; but also the 
anger should be focused on the millions who help to maintain the poison 
fog racism, anti-Semitism and religious hatred. The pity levels must be 
raised high to envelope all of the more than six million individual 
souls whose opportunities to breathe and live, to develop their 
potential and to pursue happiness were so brutally snuffed out. The 
fear must be shared by us all as we contemplate our unforgivable 
impotence in the face of other epidemics of genocide that have been 
allowed since the landmark lesson the holocaust.
  Stalin and his gulags; Pol Pot and his killing fields; the Hutu 
intelligentsia and their exhortation to ``cut the tall trees'' with 
machete executions; all of this competition with Hitler has occurred 
within the last sixty years. We applaud the civilized governments of 
the world for drawing a line at Kosovo. But we are burdened with a 
great fear that more mass slaughters are coming because we still have 
not learned this most profound lesson of modern history.
  On the occasion of this sixtieth anniversary let us remember that the 
trials of the major killers at Nuremberg also failed to take place, 
that Nazi scholars are still daring to deny the reality of the 
holocaust. We must remember that new statutes are being contemplated 
for Stalin. We must also note the fact the Pol Pot died of natural 
causes. We must show fear in the face of our present inability to 
advance the trials and convictions of many of the obvious architects of 
the genocide in Rwanda.
  The lesson of history is that we must come down on the perpetrators 
of genocide with an uncompromising righteous wrath and trumpet their 
punishment throughout the earth. The message for future mass murders 
with their convoluted rational and twisted theories is that there will 
be swift and universally supported punishment. The message for the 
populations that support genocide in the future must be that there is 
no acceptable excuse for your actions. For ignoring Auschwitz there can 
be no pardons, no acceptance of sentimental schemes for truth and 
reconciliation. For permitting their leaders to violate the most vital 
principles of human society the citizens must be collectively judged 
and their nation must be forced to pay a special debt to civilization.
  Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 2 minutes to 
the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gene Green) who has fought against 
discrimination, bigotry and anti-Semitism throughout his entire career.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of 
this resolution. January 27, 2005, marks the 60th anniversary of the 
liberation of Auschwitz and serves as a reminder to each of us where 
racism, bigotry, and religious intolerance can lead.
  Poles, Soviets, and prisoners of other nationalities were imprisoned 
and died in this camp; but it was the mass murder of millions of 
European Jews by Hitler that made Auschwitz the symbol of inhumanity 
and brutality during the Holocaust.
  From 1940 to 1945, the Nazis deported over 1 million Jews, 150,000 
Poles, 23,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet POWs, and over 10,000 prisoners of 
other nationalities to Auschwitz. Nearly 1.5 million prisoners perished 
in gas chambers or died of starvation and disease. Overall, 6 million 
Jews died in the Holocaust.
  Sixty years after Allied troops liberated Auschwitz, it is important 
to remember what lessons can be taken from the unspeakable atrocities 
that took place during the Holocaust. It was racism, bigotry, anti-
Semitism, and general religious intolerance that drove Hitler to pursue 
the destruction of the Jewish people.
  To honor the victims who lost their lives in the Holocaust and ensure 
that such acts never happen again, there must be a concerted effort to 
fight intolerance and discrimination. That is what this resolution 
does.
  Madam Speaker, I have not had the opportunity to visit Auschwitz; but 
before I was elected to Congress in 1990, my family and I and our two 
children visited Dachau in southern Germany, not only for my wife and I 
but also for our, at that time, 14- and 15-year-old children to see 
what inhumanity mankind could do to itself and not only for our 
generation but for that next generation to make sure that that never 
happens again.
  Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz).
  Mr. HYDE. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz).
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Biggert). The gentlewoman from Florida 
is recognized for 2 minutes.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, Libusa Breder, a Jewish 
prisoner, said, ``There was no God in Auschwitz. There were such 
horrible conditions that God decided not to go there.''
  With the passage of time, it has become more difficult for my 
generation to grasp what happened 60 years ago. The contributions and 
courage of the Greatest Generation enabled my generation of Americans 
to grow up in peace and be the first generation in decades to live 
without facing conscription.
  In Auschwitz, at least 1.5 million innocent people suffered 
unfathomable pain and ultimate death. They were from many different 
nations, over 90 percent of them Jews. South Florida, where I am from, 
is home to the second largest population of Holocaust survivors in 
North America, the majority of whom live in my home county of Broward.
  The concept of ``never again'' was instilled in me for my entire 
life. Unfortunately, in recent times, we have had vicious criminal acts 
against humanity, and we must remember that we

[[Page H157]]

must stay vigilant and not let the passage of time weaken our resolve. 
We are all proud of the Greatest Generation; but with today's 
resolution and the anniversary approaching, we focus on the Lost 
Generation.
  It is our solemn responsibility to make sure that these lost souls 
did not die in vain. We must never forget what happened to them, and we 
must use the lessons of Auschwitz to stop modern-day atrocities such as 
the ethnic cleansing in Sudan. History can and will repeat itself 
unless we stand in the way and fight against evil.
  Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
  This is one of the finest moments of this body. We stand together 
without any difference as to party or geographic region in our 
determination that human rights throughout our land and throughout this 
globe be honored and respected.
  I urge all of our colleagues to vote for this resolution.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. HYDE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I would like to say to the gentlewoman from Florida who remarked that 
God forgot to come to Auschwitz, if she would read Elie Wiesel's book 
``Night,'' she would find an instance where the Nazis lined up the 
Jewish prisoners in front of the gallows and they were having a hanging 
of some person who tried to escape and a low voice said, ``Where is 
God?'' Someone said, ``He's up there on the gallows.'' He was there. He 
was just being punished.
  The gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Smith), the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cardin), the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. 
Wolf), there is a long, honorable list of people who are really the 
conscience of this Congress and, hence, of our country on this matter 
of human rights.
  God must look down on this globe and see the killing that goes on in 
the Sudan, that went on in the gulag, that goes on in China. We just 
honored Ukraine's accession to democracy. Well do we remember the 
collectivization of the farms in the early thirties when millions of 
Ukrainians were starved to death. Life is very cheap. I think every 
human being should visit Auschwitz. It is an education. It makes you 
understand the depths to which human nature can sink.
  Someone said when Napoleon died it was because God got bored with 
him. I wonder that God is not bored with us, the cheapening of life. 
Democracy is more than a way of establishing rules for lawsuits, for 
litigation. It ascribes value to every human being, intrinsic value. 
That is the important thing about democracy.
  I remember as a young man, I thought education was the cure for 
bigotry, but Germany had one of the highest literacy rates in Europe 
when Hitler ruled that country and they marched with their swastikas. 
So it is a little more than education. It is, as President Bush said in 
his inaugural, we have to change hearts.
  This has been a good debate. We are going back to principles. We are 
going back to the value of human life and how capable we are of abusing 
it and of denigrating it. Let us hope that this resolution elevates 
people's ideas, focuses on how terrible we have treated other human 
beings, and resolve to do better.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I would like to place in the Record the 
compelling story of Mr. Marian Wojciechowski, now a U.S. citizen, who 
is an Auschwitz survivor. The book ``Seven Roads to Freedom'', in which 
his chapter is included, traces the tragic journey of 6 million human 
beings who perished in Nazi death camps. Mr. Wojciechowski and his wife 
Wladyslawa survived, by a series of miracles and brave encounters. 
History must record these noble stories so their vast sacrifice shall 
be remembered and honored. May the world save itself in the future from 
this horrific suffering. This story, translated into English, from the 
original Polish publication deserves our attention and respect on this 
60th anniversary commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz.

                         Seven Roads to Freedom

          (Edited by Miroslawa Zawadzka and Andrzej Zawadzki)

            The Martyrology of Poles in Hilter's Death Camps

                  (Translated by: Anna Wojciechowski)

       (A Presentation delivered by Marian Wojciechowski on May 8, 
     1998 to the Discussion Club at the American Polish Cultural 
     Center in Troy, Michigan, USA).
       ``Who is victorious shall be free, and who has died is 
     already free.''--words from ``Warszawianka''
       6 million victims of the Holocaust in Poland in the years 
     1939-1945: 3 million Christian Poles; 3 million Jewish Poles.
       The historians of future generations will research the 
     archives, evaluate and then write how many additional 
     hundreds of thousands of Polish Christians--on whose orders, 
     where, by whom and under what circumstances--were murdered in 
     the years 1939-1989 by the henchmen of communist authorities.


                            1. introduction

       I'm very happy that I came here, because I see that I have 
     already met here many colleagues and friends from past 
     times--now pleasant ones, in America--as well as from the 
     times of our national martyrology: the occupation and the 
     concentration camps. I was in three concentration camps, in 
     Auschwitz, Gross Rosen and Leitmeritz, and here I meet after 
     many years my colleague, Mr. Romanski, who was in the same 
     camps and we knew each other in Gross Rosen and met there 
     together quite frequently; and with the husband of Mrs. 
     Romanska, who is here today--Zbyszek Romanski and I were 
     friends, and we talked for many hours during the time free 
     from labor in the Gross Rosen camp.
       At the beginning I would like to make clear, that I am 
     describing my wartime and concentration camp experiences not 
     for the purpose of inciting any hatred in anyone, or anger, 
     or a desire for revenge. Absolutely not. For a long time, I 
     was unable either to speak or to write on this subject, 
     because there stood before my eyes all the macabre scenes 
     which one saw then, as well as deaths, which took away many 
     of my friends and acquaintances under horrible camp 
     conditions. I was afraid of these memories; I did not want to 
     talk about them.
       But time heals wounds, and in the end, we see that it is 
     necessary to touch on this subject, because history repeats 
     itself. History repeats itself especially there, where it is 
     forgotten. We pass it on, to avoid forgetting it and 
     repeating its horrible moments. Some of us (for example, my 
     colleague Romanski) are still in the possession of authentic 
     notes written in the heat of the moment, in the camps, in 
     pencil, already faded today. These historical artifacts 
     should not be allowed to disappear; we have to take care of 
     their conservation.
       My narration pertains to my own experiences. As those who 
     survived the concentration camps also know very well, in the 
     same camp, and even during the same time period and 
     commando--it was possible to have more luck or less, to 
     encounter better or worse conditions and treatment, to 
     survive or to perish. My reminiscences then cannot be related 
     exactly to the fate of other prisoners. Almighty God helped 
     me in these oppressions, and I survived.
       I will begin with my youth, which has a connection with the 
     main topic of my story. I come from the region of Sandomierz. 
     Forty some kilometers to the south of Sandomierz, there is a 
     small town called Polaniec, laid out on sandy soil. In the 
     area, there were two or three mills, and at that time there 
     was no factory or work establishment, besides the Ruszcza 
     estate where one could get agricultural work. I remember, 
     that in those difficult times after the First World War, the 
     local small landowners ate bread only on such important feast 
     days like Christmas and Easter, or during the harvest. For 
     everyday meals, there was barszcz and potatoes for breakfast, 
     lunch and supper. Not until somewhat later, around 1937, did 
     construction begin there (for example, the embankments near 
     the Wisla river). which gave people work and better 
     conditions for living. Besides, these people worked very well 
     and the results were very beautiful. Afterwards, industrial 
     centers (COP--Centralny Okreg Przemyslowy) were also built, 
     and the situation was systematically improved.
       After finishing elementary school in Polaniec, in 1939 I 
     received my high school diploma in Busko-Zdroj (in the 
     beautiful newly constructed building) and went to the Szkola 
     Glowna Handlowa in Warsaw (Warsaw School of Economics). My 
     parents, who were small farmers, did not have the funds to 
     pay for my tuition, clothes, and room and board. That's why, 
     during the four years of high school, my brother and I earned 
     money for our keep by tutoring for money. I would get up at 
     around 5, no later than 6 in the morning, and I would go to 
     bed after 11 in the evening. During the last two years I was 
     a so-called ``Marszalek'' (the chairman of chairmen) of the 
     high school. During my college studies in Warsaw, I was able 
     to get a job as the assistant of the secretary in the Union 
     of Agricultural and Economic Cooperatives (Zwiazek 
     Spoldzielni Rolniczych i Zarobkowo-Gospodarczych), with the 
     benefit of being able to do my work during the day or at 
     night, during the workweek, as well as on Saturdays and 
     Sundays.
       Even before the beginning of my studies I belonged to the 
     Polish Scouting movement, I participated in military 
     preparation, I was interested in various political directions 
     and social problems, trying to find answers to the question, 
     how we should manage our country, in order to improve the 
     welfare of the people. During my college studies. I had many 
     colleagues with various persuasions.

[[Page H158]]

     There were many forms of the so-called ``sanacja'' of the 
     former Pilsudski camp, such as Straz Przednia, Legion 
     Mlodych, BBWR, OZON, various shades of the Stronnictwo 
     Narodowe, Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, Stronnictwo Ludowe. 
     There were some who communized (Jerzy Wuensche, Roman Ujma). 
     There were also a few who usually played cards in the 
     restrooms of the library, and some who were not interested in 
     anything beyond their studies.
       I studied two faculties simultaneously: cooperatives and 
     business education; and of the required foreign languages, 
     German and English. I joined the group of friends of the 
     Stronnictwo Ludowe.
       In discussions then we searched for the appropriate road to 
     improve the conditions in the country. While still in high 
     school, I read a copy of Kapital by Marx, translated into 
     Polish, which I borrowed from the local Jewish library. By 
     such searching around, I came to the conclusion that in 
     Poland we must work out our own way, and I found--the 
     cooperative movement. Working in the co-op movement, first as 
     the secretary's assistant, and later as an auditor of the 
     agricultural-cooperatives, I made contacts with many people 
     of the Warsaw and Lodz provinces, which helped me very much 
     during WWII in the underground resistance.
       Immediately after my studies, I performed my military 
     service in the School of Ensizns of the Cavalry (Szkola 
     Podchorazych Kawalerii) in Grudziadz, and after finishing 
     there, I was assigned to the 21st Regiment of the 
     Nadwislanski Lancers (21-szy Pulk Ulanow Nadwislanskich) in 
     Rowne Wolynskie, in the Luck province.
       During military service in the cavalry military college in 
     Grudziadz, I taught evening courses after service hours about 
     cooperatives for the non-career soldiers in Grudziadl. I 
     organized courses in wheat-product (``zbozowo-towarowe:'' 
     purchase. cleaning, milling, revision, storage, sale as well 
     as basic bookkeeping). The point was that after returning to 
     their homes from the army, they could join in the co-op work 
     in their hometowns.
       That's a broad view of what my prewar past looked like.


                           2. THE WAR OF 1939

       During the war in 1939 I was with my regiment in the Lodz 
     Army, in the Wolynska Cavalry Brigade, in the region around 
     the locality of Mokra near Czestochowa. History appraises our 
     battles there very positively.
       During the retreat towards Warsaw, my platoon was in the 
     rear guard that is in shielding formation, Before reaching 
     Warsaw, I received the order to march on Garwolin and further 
     on east for regrouping. But other detachments of my regiment, 
     walking behind us, received an order to remain in the 
     vicinity of Warsaw to defend the capital (I learned about 
     this from the leadership of the regiment after the military 
     actions of 1939 were over). Because Garwolin was already 
     burning, my platoon and I joined in with various detachments 
     of the Army of General Kleeberg--the grouping, of 
     Lieutenant-Colonel Mossor (Czas Ulanow, Bohdan 
     Krolikowski, page 217 and we took part in the successful 
     cavalry charge of Cavalry Captain Burtowy (ibid, page 221) 
     at the same time that Lieutenant-Colonel Mossor 
     surrendered to the Germans with the rest of the grouping 
     in the forest near Osuchowo.
       The disbanding of our detachment did not take place until 
     the area near Uchnowo or Rawa Ruska at night, when the 
     Germans were attacking us from one side of the forest, and 
     Soviet detachments were attacking from the other side. The 
     order was: bury the weapons and ammunition, give the horses 
     and uniforms to the peasants, change into civilian clothes, 
     march home and await further orders.
       Over half of the soldiers of my platoon came from Wolyn. 
     The entire detachment was a well-harmonized group, fought 
     bravely, heroically. The losses in human lives were large. My 
     deputy, a Wolynian, Corporal Szkurski was killed in the first 
     week of the war. I filled the losses in this way, by putting 
     always-willing volunteers, stray infantrymen, on the horses 
     left by those who were killed. I named as my deputy one of 
     the leaders of the section, a senior lancer. He fulfilled his 
     function very well.
       After changing into civilian clothes, groups of people 
     started to form in a loose march towards different 
     directions: to their homes, to nearby relatives and 
     acquaintances. I proposed a march through Hungary or Rumania 
     to the Polish Army in France. Two colleagues joined in: one a 
     second lieutenant of the reserve of a different detachment, 
     who was originally from Warsaw, and one ensign of the career 
     school of cavalry. As I recall, his name was Bratkowski or 
     Bartkowski, having finished his second year. We agreed to go 
     to Stanislawow, stay there with a colleague of Bratkowski's 
     and look for a way to cross the border. After a few hours the 
     Russians detained us, and added us to a group of demobilized 
     soldiers headed for Lwow.
       After various difficulties we were able to leave the 
     barracks in Lwow and get to the colleague's house in 
     Stanislawow. We were received hospitably, but with fear that 
     the Soviets might find us, because then the whole family was 
     in danger of arrest. After a few days of gathering news, we 
     determined that the Rumanian border was surrounded by the 
     army with dogs, and that crossing the border seemed to be 
     impossible at that time. After about a week, we decided we 
     couldn't place Bratkowski's friend's entire family in danger, 
     we had to return to Warsaw. We reached the new Soviet-German 
     border and there we fell into Germans hands. They packed us 
     into autos and conveyed the entire transport to Radom, where 
     we were unloaded onto an empty field fenced in with barbed 
     wire. During the night, the two of us dug our way out under 
     the barbed wire and fled in the direction of Warsaw.
       Sometime towards the end of October 1939, we got to the 
     locality of Pyry near Warsaw. The farmer let us sleep in the 
     barn. The next day we were invited in for breakfast, and they 
     told us about the destruction and lack of food in Warsaw. 
     After breakfast my colleague and I parted company. He went in 
     the direction of his home, and I towards my rented room on 
     Narbutta Street. A friend of mine from studies in the Szkola 
     Glowna Handlowa (Warsaw School of Economics), Hieronim Tatar 
     and I rented one room, two other student acquaintances rented 
     the second room, and the lanlords took up the rest of the 
     house.
       However, it appeared that the landlords had already signed 
     the volksliste, so that after a few days, my colleague Tatar 
     and I moved in with a colleague from school--Andrzejewski, on 
     Mokotowska Street. The two of us took up one room. The rest 
     of the house was occupied by our colleague Andrzejewski, his 
     mother and his elderly grandfather Jakubowski (the mother's 
     father).


                3. PROFESSIONAL WORK AND THE UNDERGROUND

       Immediately the next day after returning to Warsaw, I went 
     to my place of employment, the Zwiazek Spoldzielni Rolniczych 
     i Zarobkowo-Gospodarczych (the Union of Agricultural and 
     Economic Cooperatives) in Warsaw, 11a Warecka Street. The 
     Kasa Spoldzielcza (Cooperative Cashier) occupied the first 
     floor, the second floor was taken up by the Okreg w Warszawie 
     (Warsaw District), the sections Rolniczo-Handlowy, 
     Jajczarsko-Mleczarski (agricultural-commerce and ovo-dairy), 
     as well as the cashiers and Banki Spoldzielcze (Cooperative 
     Banks). The third floor was occupied by the Zarzad Centrali 
     (Central Administration), and the Institytut Spoldzielczy 
     (Cooperative Institute) was on the fourth floor. Many workers 
     ``camped out'' there with their families, because family 
     members were slowly finding each other.
       During the siege of Warsaw food supplies were exhausted, 
     the prices on the black market were very high, and a large 
     part of the populace was starving. Situations were especially 
     difficult in hospitals, children shelters and so on. Many of 
     my coworkers denied themselves part of what were rightfully 
     their own rationed portions to jointly gather food supplies, 
     for example for the hospitals. The director of the section of 
     agricultural-commerce cooperatives was senior colleague 
     Franciszek Kielan, a very honest individual, unusually 
     generous and universally much respected. He convinced the 
     German commissar on cooperative matters in Warsaw to 
     transport food for the employees from the cooperative in 
     Kutno (the largest cooperative in the Warsaw district).
       Along with fellow friend Jan Boniuk, we set out for Kutno 
     and brought to Warsaw, to our office, a food-filled ladder 
     wagon harnessed to three horses. Part of the food was 
     designated for hospitals, and the rest was divided according 
     to the number of members in each family, regardless of the 
     employee's position. A majority of the younger co-op 
     employees began to carry food to the hospitals. In this way, 
     I found in the hospital (probably the Ujazdowski Hospital) 
     the leader of my regiment, the 21st Regiment of the 
     Nadwislanski Lancers from the Wolynska Cavalry Brigade 
     Lieutenant-Colonel Kazimierz Rostwosuski, as well as many 
     officers from our regiment and brigade. I have to admit, that 
     from that time on the food situation in the hospital improved 
     very much.
       After a certain time, we learned that the officers in the 
     hospital were going to be transported somewhere, and that the 
     Germans were already examining the lists of patients. I had 
     the most acquaintances in the municipal offices in the former 
     Sandomierski district. So I set out on a circuit and brought 
     back as many as possible of clean unfilled personal 
     identification documents (identity cards) and municipal 
     seals. I brought all these back to Warsaw and handed them 
     over to the reconnaissance liaison from Sluzba Zwyciestwu 
     Polski (SWP--Service for the Victory of Poland). I already 
     belonged at that time to the underground group ``Raclawice.'' 
     After a few days, the sick officers were released from the 
     hospital and directed to an agreed upon residence location. 
     The new identity cards turned out to be very good--they 
     passed the test.
       One day, the wife of Lieutenant-Colonel Rostwosuski 
     contacted my office to let me know not to spend the night at 
     home, because her husband was arrested during a street 
     roundup (lapanka) and would be interrogated by the Gestapo 
     that night. Luckily the next day, she advised me that he had 
     already been released on the basis of a previously issued 
     identity card (as I recall, it was issued to an 
     ``agricultural engineer'' from an estate somewhere in 
     Podole).
       After the end of the September campaign, there began the 
     underground phase of the battle. I was very much engaged in 
     two groups. The first one was the group ``Raclawice'' 
     belonging to the peoples' movement (most from the pre-war 
     ``Siew''). In connection with my work in the co-op movement, 
     I was invited to prepare the statutes and to help with the 
     organizational work of

[[Page H159]]

     the newly established restaurant in Warsaw, the ``Wymiana,'' 
     on 73 Mokotowska Street. This was only going to be a cover 
     for the ``Raclawice'' group in its underground resistance 
     work. After a few months there occurred a desconspiration 
     (wpadka) of a cell of our group in Lublin (from where we 
     received printing paper for the underground press). Using 
     torture, the Germans forced information about our Warsaw 
     group from the arrested members of that cell, but for now did 
     nothing to us as yet.
       One day a friend of mine, with the same first and last name 
     besides (we called him Marian Wojciechowski number one, I was 
     number two) came to me and asked if I could help them in the 
     following matter. Apparently there was for sale an entire 
     printing press hidden from the Germans by one of the printer 
     compositors somewhere in a barn in the countryside. But for 
     this printing press, the compositor wanted money--which 
     needed to be organized. I didn't promise anything at first, 
     because I didn't have the money, but I began some efforts in 
     that direction. In Rawa Mazowiecka the director of the 
     agricultural cooperative was my friend, Zygmunt Jedlinski. I 
     went to him, explained the situation and asked for help. Over 
     the time interval of several weeks, Zygmunt sent two ladder 
     wagons loaded with food (all the automobiles were 
     requisitioned by the Germans, and for the Poles they were 
     unattainable). The printing press was purchased for the money 
     received from the sale of this food on the black market. This 
     was one of the first printing presses in service of the 
     Polish underground in Warsaw.
       The Germans depended very much on the agricultural 
     cooperatives that supplied food for them on location, as well 
     as for the residents of the Reich. Because of this, they 
     wanted to have precise reports and inventories regarding 
     existing cooperatives. The execution of such reports also 
     constituted my work. Traveling around to the cooperatives as 
     an inspector, I had special privileges in buying tickets for 
     busses and trains, of course only in work-related matters. I 
     made the most of these trips to contact other organizations. 
     They were given information, and communiques, meetings and 
     terms were discussed, and so on.
       Springtime 1941 was the date set for the meeting of the 
     representatives of the organization ``Raclawice.'' This 
     meeting was to take place in the cooperative restaurant in 
     Warsaw in the evening. I was going to that meeting from Nowe 
     Miasto near Pilica, where I was staying with my brother after 
     recent surgery on my appendix. At departure, my brother asked 
     me to take along his wife, who was going to visit her family 
     in Sandomierz and continue further on to Polaniec, and was 
     going to have to change trains in Warsaw. I agreed readily 
     and promised to help my sister-in-law to transfer from one 
     train station to the other. Meanwhile, my sister-in-law 
     suddenly got sick on the train, so that in Warsaw, instead of 
     escorting her to the second train station, I took her to my 
     place on the Aleje Niepodleglosci. I brought over a woman 
     doctor acquaintance of mine, brought medicine from the 
     pharmacy and gave it to my sister-in-law. She already felt 
     significantly better. I announced to her that in the evening 
     I was going to the meeting. My sister-in-law began to cry, 
     she didn't know my landlords, they didn't know her, she was 
     afraid to remain by herself without my care. She finally 
     convinced me with this lamenting so much, that I resigned 
     from attending the evening dinner meeting of the underground 
     organization ``Raclawice'' in the co-op restaurant. I planned 
     to find out about the details the next day by going there for 
     breakfast.
       At five in the morning I received a phone call from my 
     colleague Wegierski (he was my friend from the cooperative 
     and the ``konspiracja''), who asked me if I was coming for 
     ``breakfast.'' I answered yes, because I wasn't at the 
     ``supper'' yesterday, so I should go for ``breakfast.'' And 
     my friend replied: ``Better don't go there, because last 
     night there was some poisoning with mushrooms.'' In our 
     language, ``mushroom poisoning'' meant deconspiration or 
     betrayal. It turned out that the Gestapo arrived before the 
     hour designated for the meeting in the restaurant, and 
     planted all the halls as well as the stairway with its 
     people, both in uniforms and in civilian clothes. And 
     afterwards, they would admit all incoming guests, but they 
     were not let in. In this way, they arrested about 30 people. 
     From this group of arrested individuals, two women (a cook 
     and her daughter assisting her) survived; all the remaining 
     people died from exhaustion at labor or were executed by 
     shooting--the men in Auschwitz, the women in Ravensbruck. I 
     would undoubtedly have shared their fate, if not for the fact 
     that my sister-in-law's illness and strong pleas kept me at 
     home.
       But I survived luckily for some time afterwards, until the 
     next year, 1942. Because I was informed that at the Gestapo 
     they are inquiring about Marian Wojciechowski, and I didn't 
     know which one, then I would change residences often (more 
     or less every 4-6 months). The last residence I rented in 
     Warsaw was in Zoliborz, in the housing co-op of 
     musicians--the landlord of the residence, who also was a 
     Wojciechowski (but Kazimierz) besides, was a musician.
       I continued to travel around the General Government region. 
     One day, shortly after the arrests at the restaurant, Kazik 
     Wegierski came to me and announced to me, that he would like 
     me to meet his sister who had just arrived from Lodz. I went 
     to visit them, we talked some, and when the family went to 
     bed, Kazik's sister told me that she has a task for me. She 
     worked in reconnaissance and needed a place near the border 
     of the General Government on the train line Lowicz-Zychlin-
     Kutno, where couriers crossing the border could stay the 
     night for some rest and a place to sleep. After a few months, 
     her brother advised her to ask me for help. I promised that I 
     would look around. Under the German occupation Warsaw, 
     Sochaczew and Lowicz still belonged to the General 
     Government, however the next train station--Zychlin--was 
     already on the side of the Reich, or territory incorporated 
     into Germany. As quarters for the woman courier, Lowicz 
     seemed the best fit to me, especially since I had very good 
     relations there in the local agricultural-commerce co-op. 
     That person was a woman courier of the Polish underground 
     (Kazik's sister from Lodz, Wanda Wegierska). Because of the 
     assignment of the liaison of the Polish underground, she took 
     on German citizenship, traveled quite often across the border 
     into German territory, met there with our intelligence 
     personnel and brought back from them information, among other 
     things including the localization of German armament plants. 
     This information was transmitted from Warsaw to London via 
     radio, to be utilized for bombing raids by the British air 
     force. The woman courier (a young girl, about 18-19 years 
     old) realized at one point in Berlin that she was being 
     followed, and she fled to hide in the hotel. Sometimes even 
     very sensible and brave people sometimes do tragically stupid 
     things. She did just such a stupid thing. Back in the hotel, 
     she wrote several letters, addressed the envelopes and mailed 
     them. One of those letters was addressed to me. The Gestapo 
     intercepted the letters and copied them along with the 
     addresses. The woman courier was arrested in Berlin only 
     after three or four months during her third trip. All the 
     recipients of her letters were also arrested. I had already 
     organized for her a point of transfer, everything was 
     prepared, but unfortunately it was too late.
       Sometime during the second half of 1940 or maybe at the 
     beginning of 1941, I believe it was Kazimierz Wegierski 
     himself who came to my office room with his friend and asked 
     me to help him as much as I would be able to, after which he 
     left the room, leaving me alone with his friend. I asked what 
     was it all about? It was about making contact with people 
     through whom he would be able to acquire smaller or larger 
     quantities of every kind of food. In my travels around the 
     co-ops for inspection, before and even during the 
     occupation--I knew the remaining stock products of the co-
     ops, and I tried to get to know people whom I could trust.
       Verifying the percent of so called ``tluczek'' (breakage) 
     of eggs, ``rozsyp'' (spillage) of flour, cereal or grain, I 
     knew roughly how much and of what it was possible to take 
     away without putting people at risk of suspicion by the 
     German authorities. If there were suspicions about the black 
     market, that was only just half the problem. People were in 
     danger of being thrown out of work, being sent to labor in 
     Germany and so on. However, if there was suspicion that the 
     food was being handed over to partisans or to Jews--there was 
     the threat of punishment by death, preceded by torturing all 
     suspects and their families. We had to help, but always we 
     had to be cautious. My colleague Wegierski's friend came to 
     me to the office several times, and if I had them--I always 
     gave him some contacts in the cooperatives of the Warsaw or 
     Radom districts. A contact could be the director of the 
     cooperative, the director of a certain section. the warehouse 
     keeper, the bookkeeper or also even an ordinary laborer who 
     was initiated into the underground.
       Only after the war, looking at a photograph in the press, I 
     recognized that friend of my colleague Wegierski. It was 
     Julian Grobelny, founder of the Council to Assist the Jews, 
     ``Zegota.'' During that time he was buying food and was more 
     than likely providing it for Jews.


                       4. arrested by the gestapo

       I was arrested in Radom, where I had moved, because in 
     Warsaw it was ``too tight'' for me, the Gestapo was tripping 
     over my heels. In Radom, I resided at the local high school 
     teacher's home (as I recall, his name was Oder). On April 23, 
     1942, at night, the Gestapo was battering at the door of the 
     house where I lived. At that time I was not at home, and the 
     landlord tried to open and escape through the back door, but 
     they shot him in the leg. His son died from the wounds 
     received during the shooting. The Gestapo inquired about me 
     and found out that I was working in the cooperative. The next 
     day, they went to the office of the Union of Agricultural and 
     Economic Cooperatives, and without mentioning my name, made a 
     general survey of the employees. They made accusations that 
     the office produced fictional work cards for people who in 
     reality don't work there. Under that pretext, they checked 
     the entire registered personnel ``from a to z,'' what and 
     where a given individual did during a given day. By this 
     method they got to me, and learned at which co-op I was 
     performing an inspection at that point in time. It was in the 
     Wloscianska Agricultural-Commerce Cooperative in Piotrkow 
     Trybunalski. They returned to their headquarters and 
     telephoned the order to arrest me by the local Gestapo. The 
     Gestapo came to the commissar of the cooperative during the 
     dinner hour asking about me. Meanwhile, not expecting 
     anything, I had just had a secret meeting at the cemetery

[[Page H160]]

     and returned at noon to the co-op bureau. There I found a 
     message that the commissar of the cooperative, a German, 
     wanted to see me in his office. This was nothing unusual, so 
     I calmly went to his bureau, and the Gestapo were already 
     there waiting for me. They checked my personal documents and 
     informed me that I was under arrest. The protestations of the 
     German commissar, who needed my help in the work of the 
     cooperative, did not help. I was arrested; the Radom Gestapo 
     demanded my immediate transport to Radom. At the moment of 
     the arrest, I had on my person several ``trefne'' (secret 
     under ground) documents, that is, such that should not, 
     under any circumstances, fall into German hands. Handing 
     over my briefcase to a colleague who was my assistant-
     apprentice, I told him quietly to burn whatever could be 
     damaging to us. Unfortunately, I also had some papers on 
     me in my clothes; I could not get rid of these without 
     attracting the attention of the Gestapo. We arrived in 
     Radom (that was April 24, 1942) around 11 pm at night. And 
     here, fate was kind to me in a most miraculous way.
       Now, about a month earlier I was taking the train from 
     Radom to Warsaw. At the train station, using my cooperative 
     inspector's identification card, I could buy a train ticket 
     without having to wait in line (this was no small matter: 
     there were barely 20 tickets available for about 200 people 
     in the queue). At that time, there walked up to me a stranger 
     in the uniform of a prison guard, asking me to help him to 
     buy a ticket: he had received a telegram that his sister in 
     Warsaw is dying and he desperately wanted to visit her (he 
     was going to be busy at work the next day). I like people and 
     I like to help them. Therefore, I agreed, and I bought him a 
     ticket in the next ticket cashier's window to avoid 
     suspicion. And it so happened, that we were passengers in the 
     same train car and chatted with each other a bit.
       When, in accordance with their received orders the Gestapo 
     brought me to the Radom prison that night, it was this 
     ``acquaintance'' from the train station who was the guard on 
     duty!
       On the first floor of the prison building there was the 
     criminal section (for prisoners accused of theft, etc.) and 
     on the upper floor, I believe either on the second or third 
     story, there was the political section. After bringing me in, 
     the Gestapo led me to the guard on duty and told him to sign 
     a document that I had been delivered. When he signed the 
     receipt for my person, they left, leaving me in his 
     responsibility. We were left alone, and we began a discussion 
     as to what to do next. My eventual escape would risk 
     reparations against our entire families (his and mine), as 
     well as against my colleagues from work and from home. I felt 
     that it was too dangerous not only for my loved ones, but 
     also for the family of the prison guard. I decided that I do 
     not have the right to put so many people in danger, and I 
     decided not to escape. The guard advised me to destroy 
     anything that was ``trefne'' (secret underground documents) 
     that I had with me. In the middle of a large hall on the 
     first floor in which we found ourselves, there stood a huge 
     stove (so called ``koza'') with a fire burning inside. The 
     guard lifted the cover of the stove and said: ``Throw it in 
     here.'' I had with me a notebook with coded names, telephone 
     numbers and addresses. Without knowing the code, it would 
     have been difficult to decode them. However, the Gestapo 
     could come to the conclusion that the information in the 
     notebook is coded, and with additional beatings maybe get 
     that necessary information out of me. Without a moment's 
     hesitation, I took advantage of the ``koza'' and threw in my 
     notebook along with the rest of the ``trefne'' papers into 
     the fire.


                 5. interrogation and torture in radom

       And so I fell into the hands of the Gestapo, but with the 
     exception of what they already knew about me, I did not 
     provide them with any other indications. Everything I 
     possessed was ``clean,'' because anything else had been 
     burned.
       During the first few days of my stay at the prison, I 
     received a package with a large pot of buckwheat cereal. The 
     Gestapo checked this cereal rather thoroughly, but 
     fortunately, they did not find the tiny rolled up ball of 
     paper hidden inside it. It contained only the brief piece of 
     information, that the Wegierskis had been arrested with their 
     entire family. I did not receive any additional information: 
     why, who and how. Kazik Wegierski, a scout instructor (I 
     believe from the scout troop ``Wigry'') was that colleague 
     from work and the underground, who had informed me earlier in 
     Warsaw about the ``mushroom poisoning,'' or ``wpadka'' 
     (deconspiration of a cell of my underground organization). He 
     was very actively engaged in the Polish underground, and his 
     sister was that courier who traveled to Germany for 
     reconnaissance.
       I wasn't sure what the Gestapo already knew or what it 
     didn't know, but just in case, I didn't admit to anything. 
     For the first interrogation, there arrived at the prison a 
     special envoy from German intelligence, who spoke Polish 
     perfectly. As it turned out. he knew Poland, and about two 
     weeks earlier, that is, right before the outbreak of war, he 
     had returned to Germany from a ski trip to Zakopane. He 
     wanted me to tell him everything that I knew about people 
     acquainted with me, where they work, what they do. Naturally, 
     when it came to Wegierski, I pretended not to know anything. 
     At that point, there was not yet any beating or anything of 
     that sort. The person leading the interrogation said, that's 
     too bad, that I don't know anything. and left the prison. 
     About two weeks later at the next interrogation I was beaten 
     so thoroughly, that after finishing they threw me into the 
     cell completely disabled.
       Normal interrogation took place in this way, that in the 
     attic of the Gestapo headquarters, they would put handcuff 
     the prisoner's hands in back of him, tie the handcuffs to a 
     rope hanging from the ceiling, and pull the rope upwards so 
     that one would hang above the floor of the attic at the 
     height of an average chair or table. Then, there would take 
     place a beating over the entire body, including the head and 
     legs. A person would be completely covered in blood. Because 
     I was hanging by my hands with the entire weight of my body, 
     and sometimes pulled downwards by my legs, I lost complete 
     use of my fingers and hands already after the second 
     interrogation. It was possible to prick me in the fingers, 
     and I would not be able to feel it. I could not bend my arms 
     at the elbows, so that when eating, for example, a piece of 
     bread, I had to use a spoon, because I could not reach my 
     mouth with my hand. They maltreated me horribly. Luckily, my 
     prison guard acquaintance alerted the persons indicated by me 
     about my imprisonment. These individuals tried to help me 
     through the commissar of the co-op union where I worked, and 
     also through his secretary. As I learned later in the Gross 
     Rosen camp, where I met the son-in-Law of my Radom landlords, 
     it was that German woman secretary who suggested that one of 
     the stapo (he had a high position and loved to play around) 
     be bribed. Of course, there could in no way be any 
     agreement about my release from prison, but it was about 
     sending me to Auschwitz without a death sentence. Normally 
     in similar incidences the prisoner, after the 
     interrogations were concluded, was executed by shooting in 
     the prison or in nearby forests, or sent to Auschwitz with 
     a death sentence. This sentence was executed by shooting 
     in the camp after a two- or several-month stay. Such a 
     sentence was not sent after me. I was transported to 
     Auschwitz, but all my things were returned to my mother 
     with the announcement of my death. They didn't want to 
     release the body, but they sent a message that I am no 
     longer on this earth.


                              6. AUSCHWITZ

       In the camp I met with a series of events that appeared to 
     be miraculous, or perhaps accidental coincidences ordained by 
     the Providence of God. It is difficult for me to say that God 
     wanted to retain my person, because there were so many who 
     were so much better and so much more needed. But it all 
     happened so that I was saved.
       I arrived at Auschwitz as a complete human ruin: I could 
     not bend or move my hands. At the camp apels, when the orders 
     ``caps off'' or ``caps on'' were issued, I grabbed the cap on 
     my head without feeling it in my fingers. Not obeying the 
     command risked being beaten or even being killed on the spot.
       They took me to Block 11, the block of death. Had they 
     learned about my state and that I was unable to work, a death 
     sentence would have been immediate. I was unfit for work, so 
     there was no reason why I should be kept alive. In such a 
     state, I was held in the death block for a day or two. I was 
     hit over the head with a club several times, but after about 
     a week they sent me, in a group of about 20 prisoners, to the 
     kitchen for food, for the afternoon soup. This soup--a bit of 
     water with some thing like nettle in it--and yet hot, was 
     carried on poles in barrels of various dimensions (25, 50 
     liters) by two prisoners. They sent a few too many people to 
     carry the soup, under the assumption that there would be more 
     barrels. But as it turned out, the barrels were larger and a 
     few of us didn't have to carry anything. I tried to walk in 
     the back, so that they would not choose me when changing 
     carriers, because I knew that I would be unable to carry the 
     barrel. And spilling the soup, especially a barrel of soup--
     that would have been death on the spot for certain, for the 
     reckless denial of food for many people. And after all, I 
     could not tell them that I had no feeling in my hands. So I 
     walked in the back of the group of these carriers down a 
     street leading to Block 11, and suddenly I saw a man in front 
     of me, coming closer, also wearing prison garb, but shaped 
     and well-fitting. We got closer to each other and both of us 
     stood: ``Marian, is that you?'' and I answered, ``Zdzisiek, 
     is that you?'' It turned out that this was my friend, with 
     whom I shared a room in 1937-1938 at the cavalry training 
     center in Grudziadz for a period of about 9 months. At that 
     time, after military service, I returned to work in the co-op 
     movement, and he remained in the army as a candidate or a 
     career officer. During the occupation, he was rounded up 
     along with all the remaining men on a train on the Krakow-
     Tarnow line and sent to Auschwitz. Because the man was strong 
     and healthy, he survived the first few months in the camp not 
     all that badly, and then people like that, if they were able 
     to do something, were assigned various positions in 
     maintaining the camp. My friend Zdzisiek Wroblewski was 
     appointed as the block scribe: he had the responsibility of 
     keeping the prisoners' register up to date, where and what 
     each one was doing at each hour. We briefly recounted to each 
     other our histories; he decided to accompany me. He went with 
     me to block monitor--it was a German criminal, who beat and 
     killed people without hesitation; he told him not to do me 
     any harm, because I was his friend.

[[Page H161]]

       In about a week, Zdzisiek arranged to have me transferred 
     to his block. I don't know how he did that, but at the new 
     place there were many former colleagues and acquaintances 
     from various political parties and factions, from various 
     universities and various cities. They already had formed an 
     entire underground organization Auschwitz, and everyone 
     helped each other as much as was possible. Zdzisiek drew me 
     to him and said that he would make me a ``sztubowy.'' The 
     ``sztubowy'' was responsible for one large camp ward. I told 
     him that I was not suitable for that function; I saw that a 
     ``sztubowy'' beats people, hitting them with a ladle wherever 
     it fell. I was not suited for this. Zdzisiek replied, 
     ``Listen, this is the way it is here, that either you will 
     beat, or you will be beaten.'' But I refused; I wanted to be 
     in the middle, to not beat and not to be beaten. So I bounced 
     here and there, working in different commandos in the camp 
     territory.
       A typhus epidemic broke out. Two blocks were reserved for 
     the sick. The Germans were not at all that concerned about 
     the prisoners, who were dying in masses from the typhus, but 
     they were afraid of getting infected themselves. Because the 
     prisoner worked in many sections, for example, in the 
     canteens where they had contact with SS-men, they could 
     infect them. One day, two large trucks arrived, onto which 
     were loaded all the people in those two ``typhus'' blocks: 
     the sick, the reconvalescing and the orderlies. They were all 
     gassed. Less than a week later, I fell ill with typhus 
     myself. My companions in adversity took me arm in arm and led 
     me to the receiving hall for the sick, and then they 
     themselves had to quickly report to work. The doctor in 
     reception, a young Jew fresh after medical studies (probably 
     from Hungary) had already been alerted about my coming by my 
     colleagues or their acquaintances. At that very moment an SS-
     man appeared. He was an older man, who went about the camp 
     and observed the prisoners, writing down the numbers of those 
     who were working poorly--as well those who were so weak that 
     they could not work. These numbers were then passed on to the 
     camp registry office. All those recorded prisoners were then 
     immediately murdered in the gas chambers or (more frequently) 
     by injection with phenol. At the moment of the SS-man's 
     arrival, I had already been examined by the doctor, with a 
     filled out health card. The SS-man came up and took my card, 
     and noticed the high fever. Seeing this, and knowing that in 
     a moment my number would be recorded and passed on for 
     execution, the doctor quickly reported: ``High fever, for 
     observation.'' In the Auschwitz camp, on Block 10, there 
     were performed various types of observations and medical 
     experiments. German doctors inoculated male and female 
     prisoners with bacteria of various diseases, performed 
     research and observations, and then of course they killed 
     the subjects. In connection with this, the visiting, SS-
     man understood that I would be sent there for observation; 
     he put away his notebook and did not record my number. At 
     that time, I was already semiconscious.
       Next, they sent me to a newly opened ``revier'' for those 
     who were sick with typhus. I was visited there by my friend 
     and one of the leaders of the conspiracy--Kazimierz 
     Wegierski, who was arrested even earlier than I. During his 
     interrogation, the Gestapo beat him so severely that his 
     kidneys, liver and other internal organs were damaged. As a 
     result, this very slender man was so badly swollen that I 
     could not recognize him. He died the next day, without 
     betraying anyone to the very end.
       From the entire group that was arrested along with him, not 
     one person broke under cruel interrogation, no one was 
     betrayed. His sister, Wanda Wegierska, caught by the Germans 
     and accused of spying, was sentenced to death and executed by 
     beheading in the prison in Berlin. Working for the Polish 
     intelligence, she presented herself as a German citizen and 
     that type of death was administered to her. For her 
     achievements in the underground resistance movement, she 
     received the Virtuti Military Cross posthumously after the 
     war, and was also promoted to the rank of second lieutenant. 
     She was the woman courier about whom I spoke earlier at the 
     beginning of my lecture.
       After getting well, I was sent back to the block of my 
     friend Zdzisiek, who started to look for work for me. He 
     found for me the position of bookkeeper for a German 
     civilian--an engineer, assigned to supervise the storage of 
     building and construction materials intended for the camp, as 
     well as for military objectives. At the Auschwitz camp there 
     was a main warehouse of that type. At the beginning, we 
     observed each other: on the third day of such an 
     acquaintance, the engineer placed a piece of bread with 
     marmalade on my table, and later we began to talk with each 
     other. Of course, I did not admit to my underground 
     connections. Our conversations were held cautiously and only 
     inside the building. The German warned me that if our 
     contacts were revealed, then he would become a prisoner like 
     myself, and I would end up in the crematorium. We worked 
     together, we exchanged words of greeting, the relationship 
     between us was arranged on a level plane of not so much as 
     work colleague or friend, but human being nonetheless.
       After about two weeks, my work was changed: at the Sunday 
     morning apel, I was assigned along with about a hundred other 
     prisoners to clean the overgrown drainage ditches outside the 
     camp. Standing on the bottom of the ditch with water up to 
     the knees, one had to deepen the trench and hand the soil up 
     to people located higher. The work assigned to me was at the 
     bottom of the ditch, and any kind of protest would of course 
     risk a beating. At that time I already had enough feeling in 
     my hands so that I could hold a shovel, but my fingers were 
     still not fully functional (moreover, that condition has 
     persisted till this day). I worked this way for a full day; 
     it was already the middle of November, the water was very 
     cold. After returning to the camp I was shaking with the 
     cold, but the next day I went to do the same work, not saying 
     anything to the German engineer with whom I had worked 
     previously. After the second day of working in the ditches. I 
     got a very high fever during the night, and they took me for 
     a medical examination. It was pure luck that there were 
     Polish doctors there, who, even though they had no medicines, 
     were able to do advice what to do. They diagnosed pneumonia, 
     pleurisy, water in the side as well as inflammation of the 
     kidneys. They had no medicinal supplies, because people were 
     held in the camp to be finished off, completely without any 
     care as to their medical treatment. And once again, I met 
     with Divine Providence. In this so-called hospital to which I 
     was taken, there worked a prisoner--called the block tailor, 
     who had been arrested along with one of my friends. This 
     friend, like me, was a recipient of one of the letters from 
     our woman courier, which had been intercepted by the Gestapo. 
     The Gestapo came for him at his place of work--a tailor shop 
     on Wiejska Street right nearby the Sejm. He was arrested 
     along with other workers. A handy tailor from just that group 
     by the name of Wladek Dabrowski was presently in Auschwitz. 
     He performed a series of tailoring tasks for the camp 
     ``dignitaries''--the functionaries and the SS-men. Wladek and 
     I recognized each other and he helped me in the treatment. 
     Once again, God showed His mercy. How was I treated? They cut 
     off a small barrel and installed heating elements in the form 
     of several light bulbs. They would place me on blankets on 
     the ground, they would place the so ``armed'' barrel on my 
     chest, and they would connect the electrical wire conduit to 
     the electrical contact. After a half hour of such heating, I 
     was almost unconscious, but the blanket on which I was laying 
     was completely wet from the water coming out from within my 
     body. Besides this, the water from my side was extracted with 
     the help of a syringe. When the SS-man who was writing down 
     the numbers of the prisoners for execution, because they were 
     very sick and not fit for work, would draw near us, a well-
     organized camp intelligence would warn us ahead of time. Then 
     I would be pulled out of bed, wrapped in a blanket and placed 
     on the ground by a wall. That was done with prisoners who had 
     already died, because at the morning, afternoon and evening 
     apels every man in every block had to be accounted for. After 
     the SS-man left, my friend the tailor, along with his 
     friends, put me back into bed. This would be repeated during 
     my entire stay at the hospital.
       Meanwhile on the block to which I belonged. Zdzisiek had a 
     fatal fallout. He organized contacts from outside the camp 
     for the purpose of bringing in medicines for so many sick 
     prisoners. This was realized in the following way: Some of 
     the specialists (for example, welders, plumbers. and so on) 
     needed in the camp were imported as civilian workers from 
     outside the camp. Zdzisiek would pass on a list of needed 
     medicines to them, which they would bring to the camp at the 
     next opportunity. One of those workers was caught with such a 
     list during inspection, and under torture revealed who had 
     given it to him. Zdzisiek was arrested immediately along with 
     the two ``sztubowy'' who were responsible for the wards, 
     which Zdzisiek frequented most. Despite the tortures, all 
     three did not betray anyone and did not admit to anything; 
     they all perished either from starvation, or by phenol 
     injection. Had it not been for my stay in the hospital, 
     because I was so closely connected to them, I would have 
     probably been also taken, tortured and bestially murdered.
       I stayed in the hospital until the moment that my fever 
     dropped, then I had to go back to work. I was released from 
     the hospital one Sunday and assigned to a different block. 
     This was the block of the so-called ``Zugange'' (prisoners 
     newly-arrived to the camp as well as prisoners discharged 
     from the hospital). The ward of the block I was assigned to 
     was located on the first floor; I was so exhausted by the 
     illness that I would walk up the wide stairs on all fours. I 
     had a card of discharge from the hospital and was assigned to 
     work the next day. This time the work consisted of arranging 
     in layers boards, still wet, freshly brought in from the 
     mill, in tall stacks with some air draft to dry the boards. 
     To accomplish this, some of the workers had to climb upwards 
     and pull up heavy boards handed up from below. I barely 
     managed to drag myself to the place of work; I was assigned 
     the work at the top, but I lacked the strength to climb up 
     the stack. Even if I had been able to do so, with the frosty 
     weather (and it was about the middle of January) I would 
     undoubtedly have frozen to death or, unable to climb down, 
     would have been pushed off to the ground, breaking my bones. 
     I thought to myself then, there is no point in climbing up, 
     better let them kill me here on the ground and it will be the 
     end of it. I decided not to go to the top of the stack--this 
     was a refusal to work, which in the camp meant inevitable 
     death.
       At that time there was in Auschwitz an obercapo of the 
     Bauhoff (building section), a

[[Page H162]]

     German criminal prisoner known as ``Bloody August,'' who was 
     renowned for his cruelty. Tall, thin, with long hands like an 
     ape. It was enough for him to smack a prisoner with such a 
     hand, to make a corpse out of him. I suddenly saw that 
     ``Bloody August'' from a distance of about 10 meters. I 
     thought that this is the end of me; but he suddenly became 
     interested in someone else, jumped to the side and reached 
     him, getting further away from me. However, the other person 
     accompanying him came up to me. Normally, a prisoner of the 
     concentration camp when approached by anyone from the camp 
     administration, was obligated to take off his cap and stand 
     at attention. I did not do this; it was a matter of complete 
     indifference to me whether they would kill me or not. The 
     person approaching me noticed that, came up closer, looked at 
     me and said in German: ``Marian, is that you?'' I recognized 
     that it was the German engineer, for whom I had worked as a 
     bookkeeper. He asked what I was doing here, why I didn't come 
     to him to work. I answered, that they assigned me to 
     different work, that I had been in the hospital and then they 
     told me to report to the present work site. I added, that I 
     could not perform the work, because I did not have the 
     strength to do it, therefore because of that they will kill 
     me. The engineer looked at me and told me to come with him. 
     He took me to a huge storage place for pipes and other 
     plumbing parts. Outside the building there were all kinds of 
     concrete pipes, and inside there were copper and nickel 
     pipes, as well as all sorts of joints for pipes. The director 
     of this whole warehouse was a prisoner from Stalowa Wola, 
     engineer Sledziewski or maybe Sledzinski. The German led me 
     to him and said that he is leaving me with him as his 
     responsibility, turned around and left. Sledziewski knew 
     nothing about me, but he saw that I was barely able to stand 
     on my feet. He told me to sit down, brought me a piece of 
     bread, pointed to the hot water for bread soup. And I sat 
     like that next to him, by the hot stove, not doing anything 
     for about two or three days.
       Under camp conditions this was something completely unheard 
     of and meant inevitable death. Soon we began to talk with 
     each other; I told him everything about myself honestly. When 
     I had rested some, I started to help him more and more. I 
     worked in this way to approximately the middle of March, 
     1943, when the transfer of prisoners from Auschwitz to other 
     camps was begun, because the Auschwitz camp was already 
     overloaded.


                       7. GROSS ROSEN--ROGOZNICA

       I was sent to the camp in Gross Rosen. The stay in Gross 
     Rosen began as usual with a quarantine. Even before it was 
     over, I was sent to Hirshberg (today, Jelenia Gora) to work 
     on the construction of a factory to make products from wood 
     fibers. The task of the workers was construction of timbering 
     for cement walls. I volunteered as a carpenter, trying to 
     avoid work with sand or cement, where one had to work full 
     speed running with wheelbarrows filled with sand or cement; 
     with this, one received a lot of lashes. The work of a 
     carpenter, requiring precision in matching timber or boards, 
     was slower. Later, I was even appointed the secretary of the 
     entire group, because it turned out that the former candidate 
     for the position was unable to write well, and quickly. So I 
     held the position of carpenter and secretary until about 
     November, when they brought us from Hirschberg back to the 
     mother camp of Gross Rosen. There I was again employed as a 
     carpenter in the construction of new barracks. One had to 
     work very fast, because everyday there arrived new transports 
     of thousands of prisoners pulled from many other camps (from 
     Majdanek and others). In the construction of the barracks 
     there were used ready-made slabs which had to be put 
     together, next the windows were mounted, and also finishing 
     work was performed. Part of the work was done in the 
     interiors, where it was hot, and for other types of work one 
     had to run, and fast at that, outside. Under these conditions 
     I caught a very severe cold, I was close to pneumonia, I had 
     trouble with breathing and speaking. My olleagues decided to 
     help me, taking me to the ``revier'' where I could rest. I 
     stayed there, and already on the second day there came to my 
     bed the ``revier'' kapo by the me of Siehsdumich and started 
     a conversation with me. I told him a bit of this and at about 
     myself, of course hiding my activity in the underground; he 
     asked me from here do I know German so well, and learning 
     about my education he proposed a more responsible job. He 
     suggested a project employing me in the camp post office, the 
     parcel section. This change suited me very much and I began 
     the new work of receiving and delivering parcels.
       Some time later there came to Gross Rosen a transport of 
     prisoners from Majdanek. Right after that, a few weeks later, 
     this was followed by a large shipment from Majdanek of food 
     parcels which had been sent to these prisoners by their 
     families. The director of the post office, SS Unterscharfurer 
     Layer, decided to send the packages back to the families, 
     because some of the addresses were no longer current. The 
     parcels were delivered to the prisoners in accordance with 
     their prisoner number as well as the number of the block in 
     which they slept and ate. The first and last names of the 
     prisoners were not important, it was only those numbers that 
     mattered. However, after arrival in Gross Rosen from 
     Majdanek, prisoners were located in a new block and received 
     a new prisoner number, so that finding the original 
     addressees among so many thousands of prisoners was unusually 
     complicated. Therefore, the director of the post office 
     decided to send back the entire transport of parcels to the 
     senders. I knew that with the hunger prevailing in the camp, 
     the return of the food packages constituted a huge loss: in 
     addition, the families of the prisoners receiving the returns 
     will be convinced that the addressees were dead. This type of 
     explanation would not be effective with the director of the 
     post office, who was an SS-man. Certainly he was not 
     concerned with the hunger of the prisoners and the pain of 
     the families. I decided then, to propose other arguments to 
     him. I told him that returning the packages places an 
     additional burden on the communication centers, whose main 
     purpose should be services for the German populace and armed 
     forces. I cited the slogan placed on German trains: ``Die 
     Rader rollen fur den Sieg'' (``The wheels are rolling for 
     victory.'') With this I convinced the German, who asked me 
     for advice what to do, because it would be difficult to just 
     distribute the packages at random. I offered to help: if I 
     received permission from the commandant of the camp and his 
     deputy (Raportfuhrer Eschner) to spend additional hours 
     during the week working in the camp chancellery after normal 
     work hours, then I would attempt to find the addressees of 
     the parcels, by comparing their former registered numbers 
     with the currently assigned numbers, as well as searching for 
     the block in which they were presently residing.
       In the camp registry office, there were card index tiles of 
     the mother camp Gross Rosen and all the subcamps of this 
     region, all living and dead prisoners with their new numbers, 
     occupation, and cause of death in case the prisoners were no 
     longer alive. After receiving the consent of the camp 
     authorities, I spent the next week working additionally until 
     about 11 or 12 at night, in search of the owners of the 
     parcels. The beginning was the hardest, that is, finding the 
     first few. Next, those who were found helped me to find the 
     next addressees. And in this way during the week we unloaded 
     the entire shipment of parcels, additionally earning the 
     confidence of the director of the post office, SS-man Layer, 
     and of Raportfurer Eschner with this work well done.
       Shortly thereafter, this SS-man's goodwill, earned in this 
     way, became very useful to me. For one of the prisoners, it 
     pains me to say--a Pole (he currently resides in Warsaw), 
     supplemented his food rations by stealing the best foodstuffs 
     from some of the packages, for example, pieces of sausage. 
     Noticing this process, of course I did not denounce him, but 
     I sharply called his attention to it to have him stop doing 
     this. I even threatened him, that the next time this offense 
     occurred, he would receive from me a healthy lesson. The 
     angry prisoner, along with another Polish ``volksdeutch,'' 
     wrote a denunciation about me, that I was taking advantage of 
     my work at the post office to send letters outside the camp, 
     even though I was under the so-called ``Postsperre'' 
     (forbidden to write letters, and to receive letters and 
     packages). I knew nothing about this denunciation. One day, 
     when I arrived at work, the SS-man, director of the post 
     office Unterscharfuhrer, called me to his office and told me 
     from whom and what kind of denunciation was deposed about me. 
     The main chief of the political section of the camp, 
     representing the highest authority of the Gestapo in the 
     camp, came to him to verify this and to eventually take me in 
     for interrogation. ``My'' SS-man supervisor guaranteed that 
     it was not true, that I am a very good worker, and that the 
     denunciation was probably caused by jealousy. In the 
     conversation with me he added, that he was not asking me if 
     the accusation is true, but warned me not to do anything like 
     that, and also not to mention our conversation to anyone. 
     This SS-man saved my life then, because the denunciation 
     about me was true. Of course, having correspondence forbidden 
     to me (camp authorities ordered such types of prohibition 
     concerning certain dangerous prisoners). I would occasionally 
     send letters, availing myself of the kindness of my 
     colleagues, who were able to write once or twice a month to 
     their loved ones. From time to time (for example, once a 
     year) they would give up one of their own letters so I could 
     send one of my own, signed with their name and number (and to 
     these same numbers there could also come a reply to me from 
     my family, which they then transmitted to me later).
       Luckily, the matter of the denunciation ended on this note 
     without any consequences. Additionally in my favor there was 
     also the following fact from the recent work time spent 
     building the warehouse in Hirschberg. Due to intervention 
     from the International Red Cross to the highest German 
     authorities in Berlin, it was demanded that all prisoners 
     receive the order one Sunday to write a letter home. I 
     reflected on what I should do. Since I had the ``Postsperre'' 
     (under penalty of death, it was forbidden to send out or 
     receive any kind of correspondence or parcel, which 
     effectively made the prisoner ``dead'' to the outside world), 
     I delayed with writing the letter, in fear of the 
     consequences. So I went to the commandant of the subcamp 
     Hirschberg and asked what I should do. After coming to an 
     agreement with the main camp, he said that the prohibition is 
     binding and that I am not allowed to write. This proof of 
     subordination was registered in my records, and also helped 
     me to survive in face of the denunciation.

[[Page H163]]

       A group of prisoners from Majdanek, who received food 
     parcels thanks to my work, was most grateful to me. Hunger 
     ruled in the camp; food parcels were unbelievably valuable. 
     They invited me most warmly for a tasty treat, but I 
     declined--not accepting even a piece from anyone. At that 
     time, I worked inside the building and not that hard, so it 
     wasn't very bad for me; if they wanted to, then they could 
     share the food products with their friends and colleagues. 
     Helping my colleagues I saw as my duty, without accepting 
     even the smallest payment, not even in the form of food.


                             8. leitmeritz

       In January 1945, the German-Russian battles already moved 
     to the west of Wroclaw. The prisoners were transported by 
     train and on foot to the west. As I recall, on the 4th or 5th 
     of February 1945 there occurred the final liquidation of the 
     concentration camp Gross Rosen. They loaded us on various 
     uncovered train cars (for example, coal cars). They packed as 
     many of us as possible into each train car, putting in one or 
     two SS-men with machine guns. All prisoners were told to 
     kneel or to sit, and who ever raised himself or stood up was 
     immediately shot. The train drew near several locations where 
     there were concentration camps, but they were already 
     overfilled. On some stops, the bodies of dead prisoners were 
     removed from the wagons. Finally we reached Flossenburg, and 
     from there the subcamp Leitmeritz. It was a camp of murderous 
     labor in digging tunnels into the rock walls, into which were 
     then placed machines to produce armaments and ammunition. The 
     mountains protected the production against bombing 
     explosions. Those prisoners who were still alive in the last 
     few train cars, where I also found myself, received orders to 
     take the corpses out of the wagons outside, and lay them out 
     on the embankments along the railroad tracks. This caused a 
     considerable delay in entering the camp itself. Walking in 
     through the gate, I heard someone calling my name. It turned 
     out that they were the former prisoners of the Majdanek camp, 
     and later Gross Rosen, whose parcels from their families I 
     had rescued in Gross Rosen, with that additional night work 
     in the camp registry office.
       After the quarantine, the entire transport of prisoners was 
     sent to set up camp Leitmeritz, and many of them now occupied 
     good positions (for example, as functionaries of the camp's 
     firefighting service). Out of gratitude, they fed me and my 
     colleagues, assigned me a bed to sleep on (many of the 
     prisoners slept two or three on one bed or on the ground) and 
     arranged work for me outside the main camp, under good 
     conditions, at the construction of a house for the camp 
     commandant. Because the German criminal prisoners, and 
     especially those so-called ``kapo,'' had already been 
     dismissed by then from the camps, and after a short training 
     were sent to the eastern front, they made me the ``kayo'' of 
     that group. I chose the following individuals for the group:
       (1) Kazimierz Wisniewski, former student of the Szkola 
     Glowna Handlowa in Warsaw (Warsaw School of Economics), still 
     sick after typhus.
       (2) Jerzy Cesarski, pre-war activist of the PPS (Polska 
     Partia Socjalistyczna) and an active member of the 
     underground.
       (3) A German (whose name I do not remember) ``kapo'' of the 
     electricians in the commando ``Steinbruch,'' the exploitation 
     of the quarries in camp Gross Rosen. He was known for 
     secretly constructing a radio receiver together with a few 
     Poles and Germans; they jointly listened to the radio 
     broadcasts from London and also news about the situation of 
     battles on the fronts, and passed them on by word of mouth to 
     their colleagues in the camp, by which they really raised 
     their hopes for surviving. And that was a great deal. Caught 
     red-handed listening to this radio, despite terrible beatings 
     and other tortures, he did not betray anyone, taking the 
     entire responsibility on himself. The liquidation of camp 
     Gross Rosen probably saved him from death.
       One evening, a group of Polish colleagues at work digging 
     the tunnel, reported to me--explaining, that the German 
     supervisor working there, who murdered people at work, had 
     already promised one Pole that he would finish him off the 
     next day. This Pole, already sentenced for extermination, was 
     engineer Dr. Henryk Stankiewicz, docent lecturer of the 
     Warsaw Politechnical School (as I recall, before the war he 
     specialized in research on the endurance of building 
     materials). Because I could not take more than three people 
     to work, I had to release someone in order to take in 
     Stankiewicz. I decided to dismiss Jerzy Cesarski, who scolded 
     me terribly, that I was sacrificing a political activist in 
     favor of some kind of engineer. Fortunately, both survived 
     and both returned to Poland. On a marginal note on this 
     matter, I will only add that as I recall, the 68-year old SS-
     man who watched us, of Czech origin, and who knew the Czech, 
     German, Russian and even the Polish language rather well, 
     stated to us at the very beginning, that in his presence we 
     can say whatever we like about Hitler and the Germans, but if 
     his wife or his daughters arrived, we were not allowed to say 
     anything, because they were real Germans and would 
     immediately report this fact to the Gestapo.
       To build the house for the commandant of the camp (it was 
     already under roofing) we had absolutely no materials and no 
     desire. We spent our whole time looking for wood remnants 
     nearby, which we exchanged with the local residents for a 
     beet, a turnip, a few potatoes, or a piece of bread. From 
     these products we would make a soup, which we shared honestly 
     with our guard. This commando was kept for me for a long 
     time, so that I think that it was due to the gratitude shown 
     me for that time in Gross Rosen. I have great respect and 
     gratitude for my colleagues.


                  9. ESCAPE FROM THE TRANSPORT ON FOOT

       In the months of March and April 1945, the Russian armies 
     were pressing to the west. One could hear in the distance 
     somewhere the bombs bursting and the cannonade of the 
     artillery. All work outside the barbed wire of the camp was 
     halted, and also within our commando. Whole columns of 
     prisoners were prepared to march out one after the other 
     somewhere to the west. On May 5, 1945, my colleagues 
     Wisniewski and Stankiewicz, and I were included in such a 
     column marching on foot. In the camp it was already a public 
     secret that the prisoners in the transports on foot, who no 
     longer had the strength to continue further, were finished 
     off with a rifle shot and left by the roadside to be buried 
     by the local residents. Long marches, often without food 
     and water, left numerous victims. Therefore, at the first 
     occasion during the night, walking through a dense forest, 
     at a given password all three of us jumped into the 
     roadside thicket. We waited until the entire column passed 
     us and then we hid ourselves in even thicker shrubs and 
     waited for sunrise. In the morning, we turned into the 
     first forest path crossing, which led us to a Czech 
     village, where we were greeted very, very hospitably. 
     Bathed, fed and dressed in clean undergarments, and in 
     clean albeit old clothes, we finally felt like human 
     beings. The Czechs informed us that the Russian armies 
     were already in Prague (or in the vicinity of Prague), and 
     the American armies were in the area of Pilzno.
       While still in the concentration camps, we all knew about 
     the fate of the Polish officers at Katyn. The German press 
     made this known, and it was confirmed by the Polish 
     underground press, with the exception of procommunist 
     gazettes. We already knew about the mass arrests of Poles on 
     territories taken over by Russia and of their transports 
     under terrible conditions to Siberia. We already knew what 
     would be waiting for us there, if we believed in the 
     communist prattle and headed east. That's why we had already 
     planned earlier to head west. The roads were already 
     obstructed with German deserters and other nationalities in 
     all directions. Almost everywhere there were organized 
     kitchens for the fugitives. Without greater obstacles, we 
     made it to the vicinity of Pilzno. There, on the main road to 
     Germany, we were stopped by an American patrol. Only those 
     who had documents proving that they resided in the west were 
     allowed to go on. Residents of Central and Eastern Europe 
     were to return to their homes. The three of us went off to 
     the side to consult on what to do. A young Czech boy was 
     listening in on our conversation. Apparently he understood 
     our situation, because he informed us that he could show us 
     where to cross the border. He returned with us part of the 
     way towards the village, then turned off to the side through 
     the field boundary strips, in the direction of some small 
     shrubs and thickets, and said that beyond those shrubs we 
     would reach a grove, and beyond that would be Germany. That's 
     how we made it to the German locality in the area of 
     Schwandorf, and then further on to the town of Amberg, where 
     a Polish DP (Displaced Persons) camp was being formed. There 
     the commandant of the camp, a prisoner of concentration 
     camps, a major in the AK (Armia Krajowa--Polish Home Army), 
     Wojcik (Jozef was his first name, I think) greeted us, and in 
     a pleasant, friendly new-camp atmosphere we slowly regained 
     our old selves mentally and physically, after the tragic 
     experiences of the preceding years. The nightmare of German 
     concentration camps still remained in our subconsciousness 
     for decades and even now after more than fifty years of 
     freedom, sometimes I wake up from a terrible dream and I see 
     the silent pleading eyes of my friends standing in front of 
     the camp administration office in Gross Rosen, under the 
     guard of SS-men, I hear the shots into the back of their 
     skulls; and I sense and I see in the dream the black cloud of 
     smoke weaving lazily out of the crematorium. Those who 
     survived this hell did not speak of it for a long time. But 
     it is necessary to talk about it, so that the memory will not 
     be obliterated, so that the history of the Polish Holocaust 
     will not be further falsified.


                     10. THE POLISH CIVILIAN GUARD

       In August and September 1945, the news spread around in 
     Amberg that:
       (1) the Polish DP camp in Amberg would be transferred to a 
     larger camp in Wildflecken,
       (2) the Americans were organizing the Polish Civilian Guard 
     and Transitional Training Camps.
       The commandant of our camp, Major Jozef Wojcik, became the 
     commandant of one of such camps (Wincer) and asked me to help 
     in enrolling participants. I traveled around the DP camps, 
     made speeches and kept sending to Wincer even more candidates 
     for the Civilian Guard. Finally-late in the autumn of 1945, 1 
     also went through a period of training as a second 
     lieutenant, and at the beginning of 1946, our Civilian Guard 
     company was sent into service at Bad Aibling (near Rosenheim 
     by Munich). As I recall, there were three of our companies 
     all-together. We performed our duty by guarding German POWs; 
     mechanical vehicles and their spare parts; and

[[Page H164]]

     stores of weapons, ammunition, etc. In the summer of 1946. 
     they transferred our company for repeat short training do 
     Mannheim Kafertal. There I found many young officers and 
     soldiers whom I knew from my college years, my military 
     service and during my professional work. I became friends 
     with the deputy of the leader of the Civilian Guard of the 
     American Army, Lieutenant-Colonel Wladyslaw Rylko, and he, 
     knowing that I am a member of the cooperative movement, asked 
     me for help in organizing co-ops in the Civilian Guard 
     companies. I began work on preparing the statutes as well as 
     the accounting forms and cash settlements. However, since 
     part of the company to which I was assigned was transferred 
     to Buttelborn near Gross Gerau in the vicinity of Darmstadt, 
     in order to guard the warehouses of automobile parts and 
     automotive service columns, I went along with them. After a 
     few days in Buttelborn, I became aware of two things:
       (1) the members of the companies and their families were 
     still somewhat hungry;
       (2) the American army would employ the Civilian Guard only 
     for as long as they needed us. In case of dismissal, our 
     soldiers will go looking for work in Germany or through 
     emigration, without possessing any practical professional 
     skills.
       I resolved to do something to remedy both these cases. 
     Regarding the suffering due to hunger, I again started up the 
     company cooperative. making the bookkeeping, the accounting, 
     and the periodical rights of control by members (the 
     auditing committee) more efficient. Regarding the 
     guardsmen's lack of professional skills, I held a meeting 
     of the soldiers and asked them, who would like to learn 
     which profession. Next, I applied to the local village 
     resident Germans individually, owners of trade workshops, 
     with a request to accept our candidates for training in 
     the profession. In this way I was able to accommodate all 
     who wanted to learn. Next, I sat down with my friend, the 
     leader of the company. Captain Roman Wcislo-Winnicki, to 
     work out the scheduling of guard service for afternoon or 
     evening hours, so that those who wanted to learn could go 
     to work during the day in the trade workshops and learn 
     the trade skills. With the help of the educational officer 
     of our center, Captain Jerzy Wilski (my colleague from the 
     concentration camp Gross Rosen), a scouting instructor 
     before the war, we founded clubs for soccer, basketball, 
     volleyball, and an educational club with a handy reference 
     library and so on. The work came out just fine. It was 
     time to think about myself, too. Lieutenant-Colonel 
     Wladyslaw Rylko suggested that I transfer to the center of 
     civilian guard training in Mannheim Kafertal. I applied to 
     the University (Wirtschaftshochschule) in Mannheim for 
     admission to studies and to work on a doctorate in 
     economics (Wirtschaftswissenschaft). They accepted me and 
     assigned study subjects and an amount of time for two 
     semesters, that is, with a possibility of finishing 
     studies in one year. Unfortunately, just after I passed 
     the examinations for the first doctoral semester, I was 
     dismissed from the Civilian Guard of the American army in 
     the summer of 1947 (Reduction In Force). Because this was 
     equivalent to depriving me of financial resources for me 
     and my entire family (wife and daughter), I had to resign 
     from further studies. Luckily, before the dismissal, and 
     with a greater cooperation of a special co-op committee, I 
     was able to work out the statutes, bookkeeping, and plant 
     the seed of trade courses in very many guard companies, so 
     that the Civilian Guard of the American Army could rightly 
     be proud of beautiful attainments in education, culture, 
     profession, charity and finances--and always in the spirit 
     of the true independence of Poland.
       During the autumn of 1947, I moved with my family to the 
     Polish DP camp in Hochenfels (Lechow) near Regensburg, where 
     I was drawn immediately into collaborative work with a circle 
     of farmers; and I began lectures on economics and accounting 
     subjects. After a few months, they offered me a position with 
     the chief Polonian organization in the American-occupied zone 
     in Germany, called ``Zjednoc zenie Polskie'' (``Polish 
     Union'') with headquarters in Regensburg--Brunnleite 7. But 
     that is a completely different topic.


 11. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, WHICH WAS NOT PRESENTED AT THE DISCUSSION 
                                  CLUB

       Due to lack of time and the huge amount of material to 
     discuss, I did not touch on many details. Having that 
     opportunity presently, I would like to complete some of the 
     topics in short fashion.
       While working in the post office in Gross Rosen in parcel 
     reception, I was also on a block with other prisoners working 
     at the camp registry office, such as:
       In the Political Section, which settled prisoner affairs in 
     the course of further interrogations (and torture!), verified 
     the records of prisoners sentenced to death, kept under 
     surveillance those prisoners suspected of enemy anti-Nazi 
     propaganda or even anti-camp, and hunted after secret 
     underground organizations in the same camp, as well as 
     checked every so often whether prisoners with death sentences 
     were really executed (by phenol injections, gassing or 
     shooting).
       In the Labor Section, which located and controlled the 
     status of prisoners in all commandos of the mother camp Gross 
     Rosen and in all its subcamps.
       In the Camp Enlargement Section.
       In the Post Office Section, and so forth.
       However, the most important was the Political Section and 
     the Labor Section. It depended on them whether one would 
     eventually survive the camp or not.
       In periods free from work tasks, there were many occasions 
     for conversations between prisoners on various topics, 
     discrete exchanges of opinions, getting to know each other. 
     The highest prominent of the not very numerous Polish group 
     in the camp registry office was Jan Dolinski, a political 
     prisoner who spoke German excellently, but who did not 
     blindly serve the Germans. He did what he had to. He was 
     polite but he kept his distance. In the group of foreigners, 
     a young Ukrainian from the Polish territories, Antoni 
     Kaminski attracted attention (he was friendly, but something 
     told me to avoid him); and also a tall, stout, middle-aged 
     resident of Belgium or Denmark (I don't remember exactly), 
     with whom I quickly formed a friendship (unfortunately, I 
     don't remember his name either). After a short time he told 
     me, that he worked in the Political Section of the camp 
     (Politische Abteilung), that I am on the list of prisoners 
     who are under surveillance at least once a month without 
     knowing about it--by other prisoners, mostly Germans. He gave 
     me the name of my ``guardian angel,'' warning me not to give 
     away that I know anything about it. Such a prisoner-spy would 
     try to make friends, would bring up certain questions during 
     a conversation, such as who will win the war, who is losing 
     the war, why and whom do I wish victory, what was my attitude 
     towards the communists, and of course the whole time he would 
     agree with my opinions. Afterwards the entire content of that 
     conversation would be reported where he was so told. The 
     information from this Belgian protected me from painful 
     consequences and increased my vigilance and caution in 
     pronouncements to strangers. Shortly after the first 
     warnings, ``my'' Belgian told me that he has access to a list 
     of individuals of Polish nationality, who, after 
     interrogation by Gestapo in various cities are sent to the 
     camp in Gross Rosen, but with a sentence of death. These 
     individuals after a few months were called to the Political 
     Section; after their identity had been verified, they were 
     made to stand at attention before the camp administration 
     office, until a designated SS-man would lead them to the 
     crematorium and there kill them with a phenol injection, gas 
     or a bullet. Then on the prisoner's card file in the camp 
     registry office would be noted the date and the letters 
     ``ABE'' which meant ``Auf Befehl Erschossen''--shot on 
     orders.
       Because Polish names are difficult to remember for 
     foreigners, the Belgian prepared a short list with the names 
     of the new Polish prisoners that were under a sentence of 
     death. On one of the first lists was the name Antoni Suchon, 
     my younger brother's friend from the Stopnica high school. I 
     had already met with him before in camp. During the German 
     occupation he belonged to the peoples' movement and was a 
     member of the underground organization. One day, a meeting of 
     that organization was scheduled in a village during a dance 
     party. The Germans surrounded all the participants, and 
     Suchon had with him a loaded revolver, which he tossed out 
     unnoticed. The Germans found the revolver, and in order not 
     to put the others in jeopardy of interrogation, torture and 
     maybe even death, he himself confessed during the search that 
     it was he who tossed the gun and that the weapon is his. All 
     were set free, and after interrogation he was sent to camp 
     Gross Rosen with a death sentence.
       The camp in Gross Rosen had many subcamps. In some of them 
     mortality was so high, that rarely were prisoners transferred 
     from them to the mother camp in Gross Rosen in order to 
     execute death sentences. Usually the prisoners died 
     themselves from exhaustion or poisoning (for example from the 
     exhaust fumes in the factory of poison gases). The director 
     of the Labor Section was a small, slender, middle-aged 
     hunchback ``Krieger,'' who wore the pink triangle (pederast). 
     For a piece of cake, bacon, lard or onion, he agreed to 
     send--without any publicizing--a Polish prisoner to a subcamp 
     designated by me. In this way the lives of certain worthy 
     people were saved. Unfortunately, I was unable to save the 
     life of my younger (he was about 26 years old) colleague 
     Antoni Suchon. After several months, during the afternoon 
     apel, I noticed him standing at attention before the 
     administration office. He didn't look too badly, he was calm, 
     resigned. Already next to him stood the SS-man who was to 
     lead him to the crematorium for execution. I wept for Antoni 
     like a child.
       Unfortunately one day, probably already in autumn of 1944, 
     as I was returning from work for the afternoon apel, I 
     noticed my friend the Belgian standing at attention in front 
     of the camp administration office. I walked slowly across to 
     the other side of the camp street and looked at him. He also 
     looked at me and with his head signaled ``no.'' I understood: 
     he did not betray anyone. Someone denounced him and the SS 
     searched his pockets when leaving work and found some names. 
     He was handed over to the penal company of the horrible 
     murderer ``Vogel.'' My friends and I had to put in a lot of 
     effort, and live through much fear, to save ``my'' Belgian as 
     well as another of my friends from college years, Stanislaw 
     Dziadus. Dziadus, who was sent from Gross Rosen to the 
     subcamp in Biedrusk near Poznan, escaped from there and was 
     caught by the Gestapo and returned to camp Gross Rosen. We 
     were able to arrange that he would not be killed, only sent 
     to the penal block. Since the camp in Gross Rosen was 
     overloaded with prisoners, they were sending transports to 
     other

[[Page H165]]

     camps, located further west. For a bit more cake, bacon and 
     other items received from colleagues, we were able to include 
     our friend the Belgian and Stas Dziadus (later, a doctor and 
     peoples' activist in Poland) on the list of participants of 
     the transport and give them provisions for the trip.


               12. DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THE POLISH HOLOCAUST

       For almost fifty years after the attack of Germany and the 
     Soviets on Poland and after the experiences in the 
     concentration camps, I was unable to withstand the 
     psychological stress involved in discussing or even listening 
     to conversations on the subject of the terrible effects of 
     the war, and above all the results of Gestapo rule. I had a 
     nervous breakdown and burst out in bitter weeping on the 
     stand while testifying in the federal case in Chicago 
     regarding the deportation of a former SS-man from Gross 
     Rosen, Reinhold Kulle, which took place in the years 1983-
     1984.
       But I was also aware of the fact that the recording of 
     experiences of former prisoners of German and Soviet 
     concentration camps is a necessity to preserve historical 
     truth--and I slowly began to control myself, and to speak on 
     those subjects. And so, on September 1, 1989 on the fiftieth 
     anniversary of the attack of Germany and the Soviets on 
     Poland and the outbreak of WWII, two television stations 
     (Channel 11 and Channel 13) in Toledo, Ohio, and also the 
     locally well-known and widely-read daily newspaper, The 
     Blade, came to me with a request for an interview.
       The matter of the Polish Holocaust and my wartime 
     experiences was widely commented on the two TV stations and 
     written up in an interesting, lengthy article of the major 
     local press. The local Polish American Congress (of which I 
     was vice-president) arranged a solemn observance of the 50th 
     anniversary of the attack on Poland in the local theater 
     located in the old Polish neighborhood, where Rev. Chaplain 
     George Rinkowski presented his war history and experiences, 
     and I presented my own experiences--my Polish Holocaust. In 
     September of 1989, an instructor (Applied Economics) in the 
     high school in Maumee, Ohio, also asked me to lecture on the 
     subject of differences between capitalism and communism.
       In October 1989, Mr. Dale Schroeder of Monroe, Michigan 
     invited me to speak about my experiences during the war to 
     the members at a dinner meeting of the local Kiwanis Club. My 
     lecture also appeared in the local gazette, The Monroe 
     Evening News.
       In December 1989, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, the U.S. 
     Representative from Toledo and herself of Polish heritage, a 
     very well-known, loved and respected person, organized for 
     middle-school students a memorial observance of the Holocaust 
     at the University of Toledo Urban Affairs Center, with the 
     participation of ethnic groups. I was the lecturer from the 
     Polish group.
       The terminal illness and death of my late wife, Wladyslawa 
     (who, with her parents and two brothers had already been 
     arrested on January 18, 1940, and whose brother was murdered 
     in a mass execution at Palmiry, and her father at Auschwitz) 
     interrupted my thoughts about the Polish Holocaust.
       Only towards the beginning of 1995 did I accept an 
     invitation from the high school in Oak Harbor, Ohio (from 
     teachers Mr. & Mrs. S. Kirian) for a chat about my 
     experiences in the concentration camps (it was also recorded 
     on videotape). The children listened with great interest.
       If I remember correctly, on October 15, 1995 there was a 
     solemn Mass (on the occasion of the annual meeting) at the 
     American Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, in the 
     intention of those who were deceased and those who survived 
     the German and Soviet concentration camps. We set out there 
     together with my friend Albert Ziegler, who is of Jewish 
     heritage. Because Al did not speak Polish, I was his 
     interpreter. The Poles present at the meeting greeted Ziegler 
     very cordially. There weren't even the slightest missteps or 
     shortcomings. They even asked him to light a candle during 
     Holy Mass, in memory of the Jews who perished in the 
     Holocaust.
       More or less around this time, I had a short interview by 
     the editor (or perhaps owner) of The Monroe Evening News, 
     which later appeared in their published book, In the Rockets' 
     Red Glare; Recollections of Monroe County Veterans.
       In 1996 we again decided to travel to Doylestown for the 
     solemn observance, and Al was even prepared with special 
     video equipment for this occasion. However, in the interim 
     there was an intensification of anti-Polish attacks in the 
     press and TV, after the so-called ``documentary'' film PBS/
     Frontline Shtetl. Al Ziegler filmed the entire ceremony. They 
     greeted him very politely, but coldly. There was no sign of 
     the previous outpouring of courtesy and friendship from the 
     entire hall. It was replaced by a polite reserve, although no 
     one told him even one unpleasant word. I know that Al Ziegler 
     felt this very sharply, but he was probably not surprised at 
     this reaction, which resulted from the current attacks on 
     Poles.
       After the nationwide broadcast of the PBS/Frontline film 
     Shtetl, my daughter called the local PBS TV station with a 
     request that they show the documentary film Zegota. Although 
     they received a copy of the video from the film director, 
     they still decided not to broadcast it. So, on several 
     occasions we invited groups of people to our home to show 
     them this real, other side of the problem. Naturally, we also 
     invited over our Jewish friends.
       After all, the majority of the actors of this documentary 
     film Zegota are real witnesses of the drama. They are the 
     participants and authors of this history, which unfortunately 
     a majority of Jews does not wish to view and doesn't even 
     want to hear about it. The kind of help that the Jews 
     received during WWII in Poland was not found in any other 
     country under German control. And this is precisely 
     demonstrated in the film Zegota.
       On September 17, 1997 I was invited by my friend Mr. Dale 
     Schroeder to talk to the members of the local Kiwanis Club 
     about the attack of the Soviets on Poland on September 17, 
     1939.
       In 1997 and 1998, I had two presentations for students of 
     American history at the University of Toledo, Ohio (at the 
     invitation of teacher Carol Holeman). After my lectures, the 
     students admitted to me privately that they had not known 
     anything about the Polish part of the Holocaust.
       In November 1997, I attended a public meeting at the Erie 
     United Methodist Church in Erie, Michigan. Two students from 
     the church had just returned from mission vacations spent in 
     Poland, and were relating their impressions in a most 
     flattering way about Poland. Following their presentation, I 
     spoke on the subject of the Polish Holocaust.
       In April 1998, the minister of the same church invited me 
     to their Sunday service to speak at length on the subject of 
     the Holocaust (during which the Germans murdered 6 million 
     Polish citizens: 3 million Christian Poles and 3 million 
     Jewish Poles). The lecture was received very favorably, and 
     the attendees of that meeting recalled it to me on many 
     occasions.
       In 1997 and 1998, my friend Al Ziegler and I took part in a 
     whole series of interviews and occasional discussions on the 
     topic of the Jewish and Polish Holocaust, presenting it as it 
     really had happened. Schools in Toledo, Maumee and Sylvania, 
     Ohio, invited my Jewish friend along with me, a Christian, to 
     speak on and explain those topics. Often, they were 
     videotaped. I must state that my Jewish friend was very 
     objective and reported the matters entirely in agreement with 
     the truth.
       Albert Ziegler recorded very many interviews with both Jews 
     and Christians, probably hundreds of hours. Unfortunately, we 
     were not always able to lecture together. Some schools only 
     allotted 45 minutes for a presentation. The best situation 
     was on those occasions when we had 2-3 hours for both of us.
       On January 30, 1998, I was interviewed for the Steven 
     Spielberg Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, 
     with a specially hired videographer. The interview itself was 
     performed by Albert Ziegler, one of the specially trained 
     Spielberg interviewers in the region.


                         13. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

       Mr. Marian Wojciechowski was born April 25, 1914 in 
     Polaniec, formerly Sandomierz district, currently Staszow 
     district, Swietokrzyskie province in Poland. He finished 
     basic school in Polaniec, and a co-educational high school in 
     Busko Zdroj. A graduate of the Szkola Glowna Handlowa in 
     Warsaw (SGH--Warsaw School of Economics), Cooperatives 
     Faculty (master's examination passed in 1937), and Business 
     Education Faculty in 1940.
       Former auditor of the Agricultural-Commerce Division (Dzial 
     Rolniczo Handlowy) of the Union of Agricultural and Economic 
     Cooperatives in Warsaw (Zwiazek Spoldzielm Rolniczych i 
     Zarobkowo-Gospodarczych w Warszawie).
       Former platoon leader in the 21st Regiment of the 
     Nadwislanski Lancers (21-szy Pulk Ulanow Nadwislanskich) in 
     the Wolynska Cavalry Brigade in September 1939.
       Former active member of the people's underground movement, 
     Grupa ``Raclawice''--AK (Armia Krajowa--People's Home Army).
       Former prisoner of the Gestapo in Radom, and of the 
     concentration camps Auschwitz, Gross Rosen and Leitmeritz--
     from April 1942 to May 1945.
       Former officer of the Polish Civilian Guard in the American 
     Army under the name ``Jan Wojmar.''
       Former member of the board ``Zjednoczenie'' and liaison 
     officer for the Poles in the American-occupied zone in 
     Germany to the International Refugee Organization (IRO) in 
     Bad Kissingen.
       Former bookkeeper, and later owner and publisher of the 
     Polish weekly newspaper Ameryka Echo in Toledo, Ohio (1952-
     1961).
       One of the former administrators of the City of Toledo, 
     Ohio (1962-1980) in the Relocation, Housing, Rehabilitation 
     and Community Organization.
       Former administrator of the Neighborhood Housing Services 
     in Toledo, Ohio in the years 1980-1994 (low percentage loans 
     for repair of homes, also for the purchase of used homes and 
     their reconstruction).
       Founder of the Kolo Polskich Imigrantow (Circle of Polish 
     Immigrants) in Toledo, Ohio.
       Co-founder of the Skarb Narodowa (National Treasury) in 
     Toledo, Ohio.
       Former member of the Rada Narodowa R. P. (National Council 
     of the Republic of Poland) in exile (awarded the Gold Cross 
     of Merit).
       Former ten-year commander of Post 74 PAVA (Polish Army 
     Veterans of America; SWAP--Stowarzyszenie Weteranow Armii 
     Polskiej) in Toledo, Ohio; Honorary Post Commander.

[[Page H166]]

       For many years, vice-president and for two years, president 
     of the Polish American Congress in Toledo, Ohio (reorganized 
     the local Congress by bringing in the younger generation of 
     Americans of Polish heritage, and proposing a plan of 
     projects for the coming years).
       Member of many other organizations:
       Polish National Alliance (Zwiazek Narodowy Polski).
       Polish Legion of American Veterans--Post 207, Las Vegas, 
     Nevada.
       Toledo Polish Cultural Association
       Toledo Poznan Alliance (Sister Cities International)
       The American Center of Polish Culture
       Urban Renewal Housing Authority
       American Legion--Ohio, Post 545 in Toledo
       International Institute of Greater Toledo, Inc.
       Kosciuszko Foundation
       Public Employee Retirees, Inc.
  Mr. WEINER. Madam Speaker, today we commemorate the 60th anniversary 
of the liberation of Auschwitz. It is a powerful and important reminder 
of terror, genocide, and the Holocaust. More than 1.5 million 
prisoners--most of them Jews--perished in gas chambers or died of 
starvation and disease at Auschwitz.
  Today it is important to remember those crimes against humanity. We 
must recall those whose lives were lost to the savagery of fascism, 
racism, and bigotry. We must never forget them.
  We must also remember the heroes of that war who helped save lives by 
risking their own.
  On this 60th anniversary, we reflect back, but we also look ahead. We 
mark this date with a pledge to the living.
  We must keep the stories of the survivors--our siblings, parents, and 
grandparents--alive. We must remain steadfast in our dedication to 
eliminating anti-Semitism in every country and here at home. We must 
ensure that all Jews have a secure homeland in the State of Israel to 
seek refuge.
  And we must act to stop genocide--in Sudan or anywhere else. The 
murder of innocent people must never happen again.
  Mr. WAXMAN. Madam Speaker, this week marks the 60th anniversary of 
the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Around the world 
we join together to mourn the millions of Jews and others who perished 
in its gruesome gates. We reaffirm our collective responsibility to 
wipe out anti-Semitism and hatred and remember the silence that let the 
Holocaust go unnoticed for so long.
  Auschwitz was only one of many extermination camps the Nazi's used, 
but it was the largest and the place where the gas chambers were first 
refined for mass murder. The searing image of the many tracks leading 
straight to its crematoria is a tragic emblem of its horrors. It is 
also a painful reminder of the United States government's decision not 
to bomb those tracks when it had the chance and its refusal to admit 
Jewish refugees who later arrived at the camp's railroad platforms.
  Yesterday, for the first time in its history, the United Nations held 
a special session to commemorate the Holocaust and the Auschwitz 
liberation. While this is appropriate, we should not forget that this 
international organization, set up to stop atrocities such as the ones 
in the Second World War, has spent so much of its effort criticizing 
Israel, the nation that emerged from the remnants of the Holocaust, and 
still today has refused to designate the murders in Darfur as an 
official genocide.
  Today we say ``never again'' to both the intolerance that created 
Auschwitz and the intransigence that stopped the world from acting 
sooner. At the same time, we must turn our attention to the neglected 
crises of our day like the genocide in Darfur where more than 2.2 
million people have already been victimized and displaced by a brutal 
campaign of ethnic cleansing.
  The only way to fight indifference is to make a difference. One 
example is a project undertaken by the students of Miliken Community 
High School in Los Angeles. These students raised more than $10,000 
this year to donate to the International Medical Corps to build water 
wells for displaced refugees in Chad and Sudan. I am very proud of them 
for reaching out to help improve the lives of some of the world's most 
vulnerable people. Let us all learn from their example and the lessons 
of history so we do not need to wait for 60 years to mark a genocide we 
might prevent or stop.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 39, to 
recognize and honor the 60th anniversary of the liberation of 
Auschwitz, and to honor the 13 million who perished in the Nazi 
concentration camps.
  It is important not only that we continue to study the terrible 
lessons of the Holocaust, but that we also express our gratitude to the 
Allied troops whose service and sacrifice helped liberate those trapped 
in these factories of death.
  The Holocaust represented the systematic persecution and murder of 
approximately 6 million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. 
Dubbed the ``final solution'' by the Nazi bureaucrats who ran it, the 
attempted extermination of European Jewry was carried out in camps 
across occupied Europe. The center of this hell was Auschwitz.
  A complex of camps, Auschwitz was built 37 miles west of Krakow, near 
the prewar German-Polish border, to extract the labor of its prisoners 
before they were exterminated in gas chambers that ran around-the-
clock. It is estimated that at least 1.3 million people were deported 
to Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945; of these, at least 1.1 million were 
murdered there.
  Sixty years ago, on January 27, 1945, the Soviet army liberated 
Auschwitz and freed more than 7,000 people, most of whom were ill and 
dying.
  Thirteen years ago, I was able to see this camp firsthand when I 
visited Poland. Decades after the liberation, the thought of all the 
men, women and children murdered there was and still is chilling and 
difficult to endure.
  The United Nations held a special session yesterday to commemorate 
the Holocaust and the liberation of the camps. The ceremony featured 
speakers Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize 
winner, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wollowitz and the foreign 
ministers of Israel, Germany, and France.
  Even as we struggle to come to terms with events that happened more 
than half a century ago, we must recognize that there are other 
genocides occurring in the world. In the wake of the conflagration that 
befell the Jews during the Nazi era, the world pledged that ``Never 
Again'' would we stand by as others were hunted and murdered just 
because they existed. Sadly, we have not yet lived up to that simple 
vow--the dead of Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and now Darfur, have joined 
the Jews of Europe. I hope that the 60th anniversary of the liberation 
of Auschwitz will act as a catalyst for a re-dedication of humanity to 
ending the crime of genocide.
  Mr. FARR. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong and heartfelt support 
of H. Res. 39. This resolution underlies the moral fabric of our global 
society: We must never ever forget and we must be ever vigilant to 
prevent the hatred that led to the creation of concentration camps like 
Auschwitz.
  The resolution rightly urges that we rededicate ourselves to the 
fight against racism, intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, discrimination 
and anti-Semitism. Clearly, such a call to arms is needed now more than 
ever. For example, the State Department's Report on Global Anti-
Semitism states, ``anti-Semitism in Europe increased significantly in 
recent years.'' Genocide in Rwanda, the ethnic massacres in Bosnia and 
the mass killings of children in Russia reminds us that not every 
corner of the world or country is committed to respecting the dignity 
of its citizens. As we solemnly remember the sacrifice of 12 million 
people who were persecuted and died because of their ethnicity, 
political or religious beliefs, we must fight anti-Semitism and other 
forms of discrimination with renewed vigor. We will be judged poorly by 
history itself if we do not.
  Mr. HOLT. Madam Speaker, I rise to join my colleagues in support of 
H. Con. Res. 16, which commemorates the 60th Anniversary of the 
liberation of Auschwitz.
  Yesterday, I went to New York to attend the United Nations first 
commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz. It was an incredible 
day--the first of its kind. It gave me hope that we, as a world, may be 
learning lessons so desperately needed.
  Among other things, yesterday's General Assembly session was a 
reminder that we, as a country and a world community, must not forget 
the battles we have waged in the name of humanity. This anniversary 
provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the horrors that occurred 
at Auschwitz, and to commemorate the lives of those it took. But it is 
more than that. That, I suppose, is something we all know.
  Hearing the stories of Auschwitz is difficult. It is tempting to want 
to avoid these horrific memories--to bury the Holocaust deep, so that 
it will not haunt us. But understanding the immeasurable wrongs the 
Jewish people have endured--and the scale on which they occurred--is 
vital to understanding our world today. It is also vital to 
understanding the depravity of which human beings, when hardened to 
others' suffering, are capable. It is only through the process of 
acknowledging and discussing these horrific events that we can prevent 
similar iniquity in the future.
  Anniversaries, as I have said, give rise to reflection. But 
understanding our past and respecting each other's differences have 
never been more vital that they are today. Distrust, misunderstanding, 
and hate have found fertile ground in many parts of the world. We see 
it in the Sudan, for example. We must meet this challenge by demanding 
that all world leaders anticipate, understand, and address the issues 
that emerge from poverty, injustice, militarism, and racism. A good 
speech can move its audience, but speech without action does nothing 
for those who most need the words to mean something.

[[Page H167]]

  As U.N. Secretary General Kofi Anan reminded us yesterday, in the 60 
years since the liberation of Auschwitz, the world has failed more than 
once to prevent genocide. As we look around the world today, we must 
open our eyes to the many horrific examples of inhumanity that we are 
allowing to continue. The Secretary General recounted the history and 
pointed out that like Israel, the founding of the United Nations in a 
real sense was a direct response to the Holocaust.
  The international community must deal honestly with the Holocaust and 
with the atrocities that are occurring at this very moment. We must 
acknowledge its roots, and anti-Semitism persist in too many places 
around the globe. World leaders must shake themselves out of 
indifference and rise above political considerations. They must use 
their position to combat the intolerance that has been allowed to 
fester for too long. Without an honest assessment and vigilant 
commitment, we fail to learn the lessons of Auschwitz and prevent the 
recurrence of these crimes against humanity.
  I urge my colleagues to do more than vote for this resolution today. 
We must work within our communities and across borders to foster 
respect for all people and deepen understanding of other cultures. We 
must reach out to the organizations and community groups that teach 
values such as tolerance and diversity to our young people. We must 
challenge the seeds of hate before they take root, even when it means 
confronting our friends. Failing to take these steps is more than a 
moral failing on our part. It is a failure to make good on the promise 
we made at Auschwitz six decades ago.
  Mr. CANTOR. Madam Speaker, today we mark the 60th anniversary of the 
liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, a component of the murderous 
network used by the Nazis in World War II. Throughout their network of 
evil, the Nazis slew the blameless and pure, men and women and 
children, with vapors of poison and burned them with fire.
  For many of the survivors, the Holocaust did not end with liberation. 
Those who survived faced the enormous challenge of rebuilding their 
lives. Many succeeded, others did not, but all would remember the 
horror of the crimes that they were forced to witness. Survivors who 
suffered this hell are a living testament to the depths of evil to 
which men can fall. We must never again allow such a heinous crime of 
man to be committed against his fellow man.
  I want to take this opportunity to thank the countless people who 
have devoted their lives to ensuring that the history of the death 
camps has not been forgotten by following generations.
  Today marks the Jewish holiday of Tu'Beshvat. Tu'Beshvat is 
considered the New Year for nature in the Jewish calendar and marks the 
first signs of spring in Israel. On this day of spring and hope, let us 
renew our commitment to hope in man and rededicate ourselves to those 
words, ``never again.''
  Mr. LANGEVIN. Madam Speaker, today I join my colleagues to 
commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. On 
January 27, 1945, Soviet troops entered the Nazi concentration camp and 
freed the prisoners held there. From the survivors, we have heard 
heartbreaking tales of cruelty and oppression and now consider 
Auschwitz a symbol of the brutality of the Nazi regime--a place whose 
horrors test the bounds of imagination.
  The liberation of Auschwitz was a pivotal moment in ending the 
Holocaust, during which more than 12 million innocent civilians were 
murdered, including 6 million Jews. These people were singled out not 
because of any wrongdoing, but rather because of their religion, 
beliefs, birthplace, or personal characteristics.
  Sixty years after the end of this attempt to exterminate an entire 
religion, anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia continue to plague 
humanity. Despite the lessons of history, the world has witnessed 
genocide in Armenia, Cambodia, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, and even recently in 
Sudan, among other places. Furthermore, we continue to hear anti-
Semitic sentiments coming out of Europe, the Middle East, and North 
Africa, and even here at home in America. Now more than ever, we all 
must work to understand those of different cultures, races, and 
religions. Mutual respect for our differences will lead to the end of 
hostilities, and only then will the opportunity for world peace exist.
  One of our colleagues, the gentleman from California, Mr. Lantos, 
survived the Holocaust and knows firsthand humankind's potential for 
cruelty. However, he has dedicated his entire life to combating the 
forces that permit such atrocities, thereby demonstrating humankind's 
potential for compassion. His tireless efforts to fight racism, anti-
Semitism, and hatred in all of its forms remind us of our 
responsibility to protect those in need, both in the U.S. and 
throughout the world.
  On this important anniversary, I solemnly remember and honor all of 
those who lost their lives in the Holocaust, thank those that worked 
for their freedom, and pledge to do all in my power to prevent such 
evil from ever occurring again.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this 
resolution and would like to commend my colleague and the Ranking 
Member on our committee for his work on this resolution. Mr. Lantos, I 
realize that as the only Holocaust survivor to ever serve in Congress, 
these events, which for many of us are a part of history, are personal 
for you. We honor you for your story and thank you for your leadership.
  This week we, along with countries around the globe, mark the 60th 
Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
  Sixty years ago this week, Soviet soldiers arrived at a camp only 
recently evacuated by the Nazis and liberated nearly 7,000 people. They 
found people on the edge of death who had witnessed horrors beyond 
belief and lost their families and their homes. It is almost 
incomprehensible to understand what took place at Auschwitz, the 
largest of the concentration camps. Over a million Jews, as well as at 
least 70,000 Poles, 21,000 Roma, and 15,000 Soviet POWs were killed 
there.
  Sixty years ago seems like a lifetime away. Generations of children 
have been born since then. Generations have been raised thinking that 
the Holocaust and events like it are from a distant past.
  But these events are not distant and are not in the past. Today, 
those who survived the camps live to tell us their story and the 
stories of their families and their lives before the Holocaust. And 
their children and grandchildren are here with us, too. They are living 
testimony to the strength, courage, and optimism of their parents and 
grandparents. But in their hearts and in their souls they feel the pain 
and suffering of those who raised them. In them, too, the past is 
present.
  Unfortunately, the past is also present in the rising anti-Semitism 
we see today. According to a new report released by the State 
Department, anti-Semitism has ``increased significantly'' in Europe, is 
a serious problem in the Middle East, and is appearing in countries 
with no historic Jewish community. From verbal and physical attacks to 
vandalism, this new surge of hate must be confronted, condemned, and 
stopped.
  We must also say no to the naysayers who deny the horrors of the 
Holocaust. It is only by remembering the past that we can change the 
future.
  Before I close, I must also note that we are marking another 
significant event. Yesterday, for the first time in its history, the 
United Nations' General Assembly held a special commemorative session 
on the anniversary of the liberation of the camps. In the past, certain 
groups within the U.N. have blocked commemoration of the Holocaust. I 
hope that this is a turning point for the U.N. I hope that this 
commemoration is only the beginning. I hope that we see more United 
Nations actions, like this one, taking a strong stand against anti-
Semitism throughout the world.
  Today is a day for quiet remembrance and strong action. We pause to 
commemorate all those who were killed in the Nazi genocide and in other 
acts of genocide around the globe. We honor those who survive. We 
remember the past. We will act to create a future without genocide, 
without anti-Semitism, and without hate.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to commemorate 
the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by 
Allied Forces, this week in 1945. Soldiers of the Soviet Union found 
only a few thousand prisoners remaining, most of them too sick to 
leave, the rest taken away on a forced death march. It is said that 
when soldiers and prisoners first stared at each other across the 
barbed wire, some laughed, some cried, and others just gazed at each 
other in disbelief.
  Madam Speaker, it has been 60 years since that day, and we are still 
in disbelief. Despite all that we know of the Holocaust from books and 
movies, academic studies and personal memories, we still wonder why, 
why Auschwitz could have happened. Why was the world silent in the face 
of such evil? Why did fellow human beings perpetuate such a totality of 
destruction on innocent men, women, and children? Perhaps there are no 
definitive answers. It is rather for us to learn from these questions 
how not to ever let it happen again.
  The Allied forces who liberated not just Auschwitz but concentration 
camps throughout Europe, all shared in the experience of entering a 
different world, a world where death was the future and life the past. 
It was their compassion towards the Nazi's victims that enabled the 
beginning of the survivor's long journey back to civilization, back to 
justice, and back to humanity. To them we owe a great debt of 
gratitude.
  Out of every historical wrong there comes some right, and the 
Holocaust is no exception. We have been taught in the last 60 years a 
great deal about humanitarianism, human dignity, the need for hope, and 
the will to survive. Holocaust survivors have reminded us not

[[Page H168]]

only about what we've lost but also about how important it is to 
remember. The State of Israel was formed in the wake of this tragedy, 
and so many other organizations dedicated to the pursuit of freedom, 
equality and tolerance have since been founded.
  Madam Speaker, today is a time for reflection, but it is not enough 
today to simply remember. The Holocaust has affirmed in us a commitment 
to prevent the use of genocide as a tool of war, a tool that 
unfortunately has been used many times since Auschwitz was liberated 60 
years ago. It appears that barbarity, wanton murder, and senseless 
annihilation know no statute of limitations, and we would be betraying 
the memories of the millions who died if we continued to justify and 
excuse our disengagement from that reality. We must continue to fight 
hatred and intolerance wherever it exists, for human freedom depends on 
the presence of justice, the justice that was denied to so many during 
the dark days of World War II. To ignore that lesson is unforgivable.
  Today in Darfur, in the Sudan, genocide is taking place. Though not 
yet on the scale of the Nazi Holocaust, this conflict has engulfed 
millions of people and cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Innocent 
people are today being murdered, starved, and driven from their homes 
simply because of the color of their skin. Though the United States has 
acknowledged that this is genocide, we have failed to act. Shame on us 
for failing to absorb the lessons of the Holocaust. How can this 
Congress commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz while turning a blind 
eye to the terrible crimes being committed in Darfur? How dare we honor 
the memory of those who died with only our words and not our deeds.
  Madam Speaker, I cannot simply commemorate one terrible event without 
insisting that we must prevent others like it. History will long record 
the sins of those who failed to act to stop the Holocaust. Shame on us 
for allowing history to record that failure yet again.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this 
important resolution commemorating the 60th anniversary of the 
liberation of Auschwitz and call on my colleagues to join me in 
honoring the memory of the Holocaust victims and to pay tribute to the 
Allied soldiers who fought and sacrificed for the cause of freedom.
  This resolution draws from the lessons of history by calling for the 
strengthening of the fight against racism, intolerance, bigotry, 
prejudice, discrimination, and anti-Semitism.
  I would like to commend the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Hyde, and 
the gentleman from California, Mr. Lantos, for bringing this measure to 
the Floor at this time.
  When we talk of the Holocaust, we speak of a grim and unprecedented 
period in human history--a unique atrocity, distinct from any other. 
The mass murders that were inflicted upon the Jewish people and scores 
of other victims must never be forgotten.
  Similarly, we must remember the compassion of the many brave men and 
women who risked their lives to rescue and shelter Jewish refugees 
fleeing the Nazi reign of terror. The incidents of countless non-Jews 
who risked their lives to protect people of another faith were as real 
as the Nazi death camps themselves.
  As Europe and the Middle East experience a dramatic rise in the 
frequency and intensity of anti-Semitic acts, it is imperative that we 
educate and remind the new and future generations about the atrocities 
committed at Auschwitz and other camps against an innocent people.
  Only a concerted, multi-faceted approach to combating this virulent 
hatred will effectively silence it. Anti-Semitism, intolerance, and 
bigotry must be answered and fought with all the means at our disposal, 
so that the horrors of Auschwitz are never again repeated.
  We must continue to tell the story, for we owe something to those who 
perished at the hands of the Nazis. As Elie Wiesel has warned: ``. . . 
anyone who does not remember betrays them again.''
  I urge my colleagues to render their overwhelming support to this 
resolution and to the noble cause of eradicating prejudice and hatred 
throughout the world.
  Mr. HIGGINS. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Res. 
39 offered by the gentleman from California, commending countries and 
organizations for marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of 
Auschwitz and urging a strengthening of the fight against racism, 
intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, discrimination, and anti-Semitism. I 
thank my colleague, Mr. Lantos, for bringing this important resolution 
to the floor today.
  The lessons of January 27, 1945 are forever with us. That day and the 
many days of liberation afterwards showed us of the fight which exists 
to make sure that the world strengthens its efforts to fight against 
any form of discrimination.
  There is great danger in being inactive about the threat of anti-
Semitism. It was anti-Semitism that was responsible for the horrors of 
the Holocaust, for the death of over 6 million Jews, and for the 
slaughter of over 1.1 million people at Auschwitz.
  Sadly, even though we have reached the 60th anniversary of the 
liberation of Auschwitz, anti-Semitism in Europe has been on the rise. 
Once again, we witness evil propaganda, physical attacks against Jews, 
the burning of Jewish sites and the desecration of synagogues. We must 
not stand aside and ignore this grave escalation of anti-Semitic 
violence and hatred.
  We also saw the shadow of this anti-Semitism yesterday at the special 
session of the United Nations' General Assembly. Nobel laureate and 
Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul 
Wolfowitz and foreign ministers from Israel and a number of European 
countries spoke to many empty seats in the General Assembly chamber 
while they delivered powerful and often moving addresses about 
intolerance and genocide. Of the 191 members of the General Assembly, 
only 138 agreed with the proposal by the U.S. to hold the special day 
of commemoration. We must wonder why, after all these years, there are 
over 50 countries which did not agree to this most basic proposal to 
recognize a day which will forever be etched in our minds.
  Any government whose people exhibit any act of anti-Semitism must 
provide security and safety to their Jewish communities, must prosecute 
and punish perpetrators of anti-Semitic violence, and must cultivate a 
climate in which all forms of anti-Semitism and discrimination are 
rejected.
  Mass violence, the abuse of fundamental human rights, and the 
mistreatment of human beings as a result of discrimination are ugly 
faces of our humanity. Apart from the Holocaust, the genocides in 
Turkey, Cambodia, Tibet, and Bosnia, the killing of the Tutsi in 
Rwanda, the slaying of thousands in Sudan, and the deaths of millions 
during the Irish Famine, are all instances of oppression and prejudice 
succeeding throughout our history. The complacency and inaction of 
governments around the world, standing silently by while discrimination 
grows, is inexcusable.
  Today must be used as a day of education, since without education, 
there can be no real change. Teachers throughout the world must have 
the support of their governments to teach their students the lessons of 
the Holocaust and of all discrimination. Our grandchildren, great-
grandchildren, and generations to come must be made to understand that 
racial, ethnic, and religious intolerance and prejudice can lead to the 
genocide carried out in camps such as Auschwitz, and these intolerances 
will never have a place in our world again.
  Madam Speaker, I am pleased to join with my colleagues in supporting 
this resolution, and thank my colleague, Mr. Lantos, for his unwavering 
leadership on this issue.
  Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Speaker, as an original cosponsor of H. Res. 39, 
I rise today to support this resolution marking the 60th anniversary of 
the liberation of Auschwitz and exposing the world to this dark chapter 
in human history.
  An estimated 6 million Jewish men, women and children, more than 60 
percent of the pre-Second World War Jewish population of Europe, were 
murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz and other death camps during World 
War II. The Holocaust and the human suffering perpetrated by the Nazi 
regime against the Jews of Europe deserves to be commemorated with 
prayer, reflection and the solemn words of this resolution.
  On this day, as we remember the victims of Auschwitz and the genocide 
which ravaged Europe during World War II, genocide is not a relic of 
history, but a reality in today's world. The human race has not 
conquered the tyranny of men willing to commit mass murder--genocide--
against other human beings. At this moment in the Darfur region of 
Sudan our own Secretary of State has called the systematic murder and 
rape of tens of thousands--along with the forced dislocation of some 
1.8 million people--a modern day ``genocide.'' In fact, it is because I 
am traveling back from the Sudan and eastern Chad having visited 
directly with the victims of the ethnic cleansing in Darfur that I am 
not present to vote in support of H. Res. 39.
  Today, as we remember the liberation of Auschwitz, the liberation of 
human beings forced to suffer unimaginable horrors, let us commit this 
House as well as the will and power of our great Nation, to the cause 
of eradicating genocide and holding the perpetrators of such grotesque 
crimes against humanity accountable.
  I commend my friend Mr. Lantos for his leadership on this resolution 
and I look forward to working closely with him and Chairman Hyde to end 
the tyranny of genocide in the world today.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor the memory of the 
approximately one million European Jews who were murdered between 1940 
and 1945 by the Nazis at the concentration camp of Auschwitz, the site 
of the single largest mass murder in history.

[[Page H169]]

  The camp was originally built to confine and control Polish 
dissidents that the Nazis deemed were a threat to the occupation. 
Polish Jews were held elsewhere, typically in ghettos. At Auschwitz, 
the Polish prisoners were treated atrociously and in 20 months, more 
than 10,000 died. In January 1942, a Nazi plan for the mass murder of 
Jews was developed. What was called the ``Final Solution'' was the Nazi 
policy to murder European Jews. In the spring of 1942, Auschwitz took 
on a more important role in the Nazis' ``Final Solution.'' The 
horrifying ability of Nazis to kill thousands per hour took time to 
achieve and involved such cruel methods as gassing prisoners using 
carbon monoxide or the lethal pesticide Zyklon B. Conservative and 
reliable estimates show that the Nazis gassed at least 1.1 million 
humans at Auschwitz, about 90 percent Jews. However, the torture and 
killings were not just limited to the Jews as the Nazis targeted other 
groups they saw as inferior such as Gypsies, the handicapped, Poles, 
Russians, Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals.
  As the end of World War II approached, the Nazis marched Auschwitz 
prisoners west into Germany in the winter cold. During this march, many 
prisoners lost their lives. A remaining few thousand prisoners deemed 
too sick to travel were left at Auschwitz to be killed later by the 
Schuzstaffel (SS). However, the SS left them alive in the disorder that 
resulted when the Nazis abandoned the concentration camp on January 17 
and 18, 1945. Soviet forces found the prisoners and liberated 
Auschwitz, the site of so much horror, on January 27, 1945.
  The merciless brutality inflicted on the Jews by the Nazis over the 
course of World War II is unfathomable. It is still entirely 
unbelievable that individuals contemplated in seriousness the 
systematic destruction of over 6 million men, women, and children. On 
this, the 60th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, as we honor 
the lives lost, my heartfelt condolences go out to those who lost loved 
ones in the Holocaust. They will never be forgotten.
  Mrs. MALONEY. Madam Speaker, 60 years ago, allied forces entered the 
scene of the greatest mass murder in history--the concentration camp 
known as Auschwitz. Auschwitz has become recognized around the world as 
a symbol of genocide, terror and brutality. The liberation of Auschwitz 
by the Red Army became a turning point in our understanding of the 
world and of inhumanity. Auschwitz showed us the face of evil incarnate 
and to our horror, it was an ordinary face.
  Auschwitz did not start out as an experiment in death. Established by 
the Nazis in 1940, it was initially a camp for individuals deemed 
problematic by the Third Reich--Polish dissidents and Soviet prisoners 
of war. Soon after its creation, the Germans decided to use prisoners 
as slave laborers for their large industrial complex.
  Once Auschwitz became a work camp, the Germans found themselves faced 
with the question of what to do with prisoners who could not work. At 
first, they simply shot them. Eventually they began looking for ways to 
kill prisoners without unduly discomfitting the killers--ultimately 
discovering the effectiveness of crystallized prussic acid, a pesticide 
mass produced under the trade name Zyklon B. When the crystals 
dissolved in air, they created a lethal gas. The Germans first used 
this deadly gas to kill Soviet POWs.
  In 1942, the Germans drew up plans for the so-called ``Final 
Solution,'' which contemplated the murder of every Jew under their 
control. Auschwitz, which had already proved itself to be effective at 
killing large numbers of people, was perfectly situated to carry out 
the deadly plan. It was located on major railroad lines and it was easy 
to move large numbers of people there. Auschwitz became a crucial part 
of the Germans' effort to eradicate an entire people.
  The majority of the Jewish men, women and children deported to 
Auschwitz were sent to their deaths in the Birkenau gas chambers 
immediately after arrival. As Germany conquered new territory, the SS 
gathered and sent the Jewish populations to Auschwitz and other death 
camps. Meanwhile, other atrocities were also being committed at 
Auschwitz. In May 1943 Dr. Josef Mengele, an SS physician, and his 
colleagues began conducting experiments on thousands of human guinea 
pigs.
  By January 1945 the SS knew that the Red Army was approaching 
Auschwitz. In an effort to eliminate evidence of the crimes they had 
committed, the SS blew up the gas chambers, crematoria, and other 
buildings, and burned documents. On January 18 and 19, 1945, more than 
60,000 Auschwitz inmates deemed capable of walking were forced by the 
SS to march through freezing weather into German-occupied territory. 
Lacking proper food, clothing and medical attention, thousands died 
during the death march. Many were shot. Those who made it to the rail 
stations were put in open wagons and sent west to become slave 
laborers. Some prisoners, many of them too weak or ill to travel, were 
left behind. Those who remained behind in the camp were liberated by 
Red Army soldiers on January 27, 1945.
  Perhaps the most eloquent survivor of Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel, 
commemorated the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the camps with 
these words, ``In this place of darkness and malediction we can but 
stand in awe and remember its stateless, faceless and nameless victims. 
Close your eyes and look: endless nocturnal processions are converging 
here, and here it is always night. Here heaven and earth are on fire. 
Close your eyes and listen. Listen to the silent screams of terrified 
mothers, the prayers of anguished old men and women. Listen to the 
tears of children, Jewish children, a beautiful little girl among them, 
with golden hair, whose vulnerable tenderness has never left me. Look 
and listen as they quietly walk towards dark flames so gigantic that 
the planet itself seemed in danger. All these men and women and 
children came from everywhere, a gathering of exiles drawn by death.''
  From 1940 to 1945, the Nazis deported over a million Jews, almost 
150,000 Poles, 23,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet POWs, and over 10,000 
prisoners of other nationalities to Auschwitz. The overwhelming 
majority of them died in the camp.
  Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the 60th 
anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. May we forever remember 
those who perished there, and may their deaths remind us how our own 
humanity suffers when we serve as silent witnesses to genocide.
  Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to join my 
colleagues in marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of 
Auschwitz.
  The acts performed at Auschwitz 60 years ago represent the darkest 
chapter of human history. I am often struck by the stark contrast the 
concentration camps provide juxtaposed with the enlightenment, 
scientific advancement and progress made by mankind in the 20th 
century. They serve as a chilling reminder of the evil man is capable 
of, especially toward those perceived to be different or apart.
  Kosovo, Rwanda and the Sudan unfortunately highlight the fact that 
genocide is an issue that still troubles our world. It is therefore all 
the more important to remember Auschwitz and reaffirm our global 
commitment to forever end such wicked practices.
  I was very pleased to hear on Monday, January 24, 2005, that the 
United Nations General Assembly convened in a special session to mark 
the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the death camps. This was the 
first time the UN General Assembly has ever met to commemorate the 
Holocaust, and the first time that the General Assembly convened a 
special session at Israel's request.
  Madam Speaker, in closing I would like to commend the sponsors and 
leadership for bringing this important resolution to the floor and I 
urge an ``aye'' vote.
  Ms. HARMAN. Madam Speaker, as we vote today to recognize the 60th 
anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, it is worth noting that the 
number of Holocaust survivors who bore witness to the atrocities at the 
German camps is dwindling.
  One, respected lawyer, Samuel Pisar, wrote an impressive op-ed piece 
several days ago in the Washington Post. It is hard to imagine 
witnessing--let alone surviving--the horror. Mr. Pisar movingly 
describes the last time he saw his mother and sister.
  Some, like my father, were more fortunate. A graduate of medical 
school in Germany, he was able to immigrate to New York in 1935. But he 
taught our family well: never to forget.
  I also want to take this moment to celebrate the life and achievement 
of the only survivor who serves in Congress--our esteemed colleague 
from California, Mr. Lantos, who brought this Resolution to the House 
floor today. I thank him and ask unanimous consent that Samuel Pisar's 
article be printed in the Congressional Record.

               [From the Washington Post, Jan. 23, 2005]

                        Will We `Never Forget'?

                           (By Samuel Pisar)

       Sixty years ago the Russians liberated Auschwitz, as the 
     Americans approached Dachau. The Allied advance revealed to a 
     stunned world the horrors of the greatest catastrophe ever to 
     befall our civilization. To a survivor of both death 
     factories, where Hitler's gruesome reality eclipsed Dante's 
     imaginary inferno, being alive and well so many years later 
     feels unreal.
       We the survivors are now disappearing one by one. Soon 
     history will speak of Auschwitz at best with the impersonal 
     voice of researchers and novelists, at worst with the 
     malevolence of demagogues and falsifiers. This week the last 
     of us, with a multitude of heads of state and other 
     dignitaries, are gathering at that cursed site to remind the 
     world that past can be prologue, that the mountains of human 
     ashes dispersed there are a warning to humanity of what may 
     still lie ahead.
       The genocides in Armenia, Cambodia, Bosnia, Kosovo and 
     Rwanda and the recent massacres of innocents in the United 
     States, Spain, Israel, Indonesia and so many other

[[Page H170]]

     countries have demonstrated our inability to learn from the 
     blood-soaked past. Auschwitz, the symbol of absolute evil, is 
     not only about that past, it is about the present and the 
     future of our newly enflamed world, where a coupling of 
     murderous ideologues and means of mass destruction can 
     trigger new catastrophes.
       When the ghetto liquidation in Bialystok, Poland, began, 
     only three members of our family were still alive: my mother, 
     my little sister and I, age 13. Father had already been 
     executed by the Gestapo. Mother told me to put on long pants, 
     hoping I would look more like a man, capable of slave labor. 
     ``And you and Frieda?'' I asked. She didn't answer. She knew 
     that their fate was sealed. As they were chased, with the 
     other women, the children, the old and the sick, toward the 
     waiting cattle cars, I could not take my eyes off them. 
     Little Freida held my mother with one hand, and with the 
     other, her favorite doll. They looked at me too, before 
     disappearing from my life forever.
       Their train went directly to Auschwitz-Birkenau, mine to 
     the extermination camp of Majdanek. Months later, I also 
     landed in Auschwitz, still hoping naively to find their 
     trace. When the SS guards, with their dogs and whips, 
     unsealed my cattle car, many of my comrades were already dead 
     from hunger, thirst and lack of air. At the central ramp, 
     surrounded by electrically charged barbed wire, we were 
     ordered to strip naked and file past the infamous Dr. Josef 
     Mengele. The ``angel of death'' performed on us his ritual 
     ``selection''--those who were to die immediately to the 
     right, those destined to live a little longer and undergo 
     other atrocious medical experiments, to the left.
       In the background there was music. At the main gate, with 
     its sinister slogan ``Work Brings Freedom,'' sat, dressed in 
     striped prison rags like mine, one of the most remarkable 
     orchestras ever assembled. It was made up of virtuosos from 
     Warsaw and Paris, Kiev and Amsterdam, Rome and Budapest. To 
     accompany these selections, hangings and shootings while the 
     gas chambers and crematoria belched smoke and fire, these 
     gentle musicians were forced to play Bach, Schubert and 
     Mozart, interspersed with marches to the glory of the Fuhrer.
       In the summer of 1944, the Third Reich was on the verge of 
     collapse, yet Berlin's most urgent priority was to accelerate 
     the ``final solution.'' The death toll in the gas chambers on 
     D-Day, as on any other day, far surpassed the enormous Allied 
     losses suffered on the beaches of Normandy.
       My labor commando was assigned to remove garbage from a 
     ramp near the crematoria. From there I observed the peak of 
     human extermination and heard the blood-curdling cries of 
     innocents as they were herded into the gas chambers. Once the 
     doors were locked, they had only three minutes to live, yet 
     they found enough strength to dig their fingernails into the 
     walls and scratch in the words ``Never Forget.''
       Have we already forgotten?
       I also witnessed an extraordinary act of heroism. The 
     Sonderkommando--inmates coerced to dispose of bodies--
     attacked the SS guards, threw them into the furnaces, set 
     fire to buildings and excaped. They were rapidly captured and 
     executed, but their courage boosted our morale.
       As the Russians advanced, those of us still able to work 
     were evacuated deep into Germany. My misery continued at 
     Dachau. During a final death march, while our column was 
     being strafed by Allied plans that mistook us for Wehrmacht 
     troops, I escaped with a few others. An armored battalion of 
     GIs brought me life and freedom. I had just turned 16--a 
     skeletal ``subhuman'' with shaved head and sunken eyes who 
     had been trying so long to hold on to a flicker of hope. 
     ``God bless America,'' I shouted uncontrollably.
       In the autumn of their lives, the survivors of Auschwitz 
     feel a visceral need to transmit what we have endured, to 
     warn younger generations that today's intolerance, fanaticism 
     and hatred can destroy their world as they once destroyed 
     ours, that powerful alert systems must be built not only 
     against the fury of nature--a tsunami or storm or eruption--
     but above all against the folly of man. Because we know from 
     bitter experience that the human animal is capable of the 
     worst, as well as the best--of madness as of genius--and that 
     the unthinkable remains possible.
       In the wake of so many recent tragedies, a wave of 
     compassion and solidarity for the victims, a fragile yearning 
     for peace, democracy and liberty, seem to be spreading around 
     the plant. It is far too early to evaluate their potential. 
     Mankind, divided and confused, still hesitates, vacillates 
     like a sleepwalker on the edge of an abyss. But the 
     irrevocable has not yet happened; our chances are still 
     intact. Pray that we learn how to seize them.

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, had I been present, I would 
have voted ``aye'' for rollcall vote 9, on H. Res. 39--Commending 
countries and organizations for marking the 60th anniversary of the 
liberation of Auschwitz, and urging a strengthening of the fight 
against racism, intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, discrimination, and 
anti-Semitism.
  Over 6 million Jews were exterminated in Nazi camps, and millions of 
others including Poles, Soviet prisoners, Romanies, members of the 
Resistance, and clergymen were among those killed, imprisoned or used 
as slave labor within the confines of these brutal camps. It is 
estimated that between 1.2 and 1.6 million of these victims perished at 
Auschwitz alone; and--as a result--no single word in modern language 
has a deeper symbolic meaning for pure evil than the word Auschwitz.
  Auschwitz symbolizes the dark side of human nature, and serves as a 
lasting reminder that our civilized world must remain forever vigilant 
in the defense of human rights and human dignity. For Jewish people 
throughout the world, Auschwitz is a reminder of an unprecedented 
tragedy, the extreme expression of Hitler's Nazi regime's hatred of the 
Jewish people and their determined attempt to annihilate the Jews 
through genocide.
  By passing this bill tonight, and through the numerous ways other 
countries and organizations have marked the 60th anniversary of the 
liberation of Auschwitz, we collectively and emphatically demonstrate 
the world's awareness of the terrible wounds inflicted by the heinous 
crimes committed at the hands of Hitler's evil regime, and the need to 
keep the memory of these tragic events alive so as to protect the 
victims from suffering a second great tragedy--that of being forgotten.
  Mr. HYDE. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) that the House suspend the rules and 
agree to the resolution, H. Res. 39.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of 
those present have voted in the affirmative.
  Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.

                          ____________________