[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 53 (Wednesday, April 27, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S4392]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                COMMEMORATING HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, in light of the upcoming Holocaust 
Remembrance Day, I want to pay tribute to the men, women, and children 
who suffered and were murdered at the hands of the Nazis in the death 
camps across Europe. In 1951, the Israeli Knesset designated an 
official day on the Hebrew calendar, called Yom ha-Shoah, to 
commemorate the Shoah or Holocaust. This important day falls on May 
5th.
  ``Shoah'' is the Hebrew word meaning ``catastrophe,'' which speaks to 
the tragic destruction of nearly the entirety of European Jewry during 
World War II. Perhaps no other place has been so linked to the Shoah 
than Auschwitz, the liberation of which was solemnly marked earlier 
this year.
  Auschwitz now symbolizes the horror suffered by millions in an 
expansive network of camps and sub-camps that stretched throughout much 
of Europe. Millions of people were deported to these camps throughout 
the war. Many were summarily executed. Others were worked to death. 
Some were subjected to sadistic medical experimentation.
  The death camp at Auschwitz was at the heart of the ``final 
solution,'' the slaughter of innocents for no other reason than that 
they were Jews. In addition, Poles, Roma and other minorities were 
transported to Auschwitz and elsewhere for elimination. To put this 
staggering human suffering into some scale, the equivalent of roughly 
half the current population of my home State of Kansas was murdered at 
Auschwitz alone.
  I have had the privilege of visiting Yad Vashem in Jerusalem to honor 
the memory of the victims of Shoah. The legacy of the Holocaust 
encompasses the memory of those that perished as well as those who 
survived. The testimonies of those who survived Auschwitz and other 
death camps attest to the capacity of evil. At the same time, the lives 
of the survivors underscore the resilience of the human spirit and the 
fact that good can and must prevail over evil.
  Six decades after the smoldering flames of the Shoah were 
extinguished, we are still confronted with reality that the embers of 
anti-Semitism could today be fanned into a consuming fire. As chairman 
of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, I am committed 
to confronting and combating manifestations of anti-Semitism and 
related violence at home and abroad. I look forward to the upcoming 
OSCE conference in Cordoba, Spain, as it will assess what measures 
countries are or are not taking to confront anti-Semitism. As a member 
of the Senate, I have and will continue to support the vital 
educational work of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and 
other institutions.
  While the world professed shock at the scope of the atrocities and 
cruelty of the Holocaust, it has not prevented genocides elsewhere, 
Bosnia, Rwanda, and now Darfur. We I can best honor the memory of those 
killed during the Holocaust and the survivors by giving real meaning to 
``never again.''

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