[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 58 (Thursday, May 5, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H3035-H3042]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) is recognized for 5
minutes.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, today is Holocaust Remembrance
Day, Yom Hoshoa.
Today is a day of reflection and remembrance, not just for Jews, but
for everyone who needs to learn from the world's injustices in order
not to repeat them. Today we need not just say, ``never again.'' We
must live our lives by this mantra.
A few weeks ago, I attended a solemn ceremony to remember the 60th
anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. As I reflected upon the
horror of the death camps where at least 1.5 million innocent people
from many different nations died, 90 percent of whom were Jews, I asked
myself the following question: how far have we come as a civil society
and a world in the last 60 years? How much have we learned? Have we
honored their memory by not allowing these atrocities to be repeated?
Unfortunately, my answer had to be not far enough. In the last 15
years, we have seen genocide raise its ugly head in Bosnia, Rwanda and,
most recently, in the Darfur region in Sudan, where at least 180,000
people are dead and over 2 million people displaced from their homes.
On Yom Hoshoa, let us recommit and reaffirm our vigilance against
acts of horrific inhumanity. Let us make sure that the lost souls from
the Holocaust did not die in vain.
Mr. ROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate Yom Hashoah,
Holocaust Remembrance Day, the annual observance of the mass genocide
perpetrated in the mid-twentieth century by Nazi Germany, the most evil
tyranny in the annals of human history.
On Sunday, May 8th, we mark the sixtieth anniversary of V-E Day, when
the combined might of the Allied Forces finally ended forever the
murderous regime of Adolf Hitler and his brutal henchmen and brought
the curtain down on the European theater of World War II. Nevertheless,
the Nazi dictatorship already had succeeded in deliberately murdering
more than six million Jews and countless other people, in particular
gypsies, persons with mental or physical disabilities, and those
perceived to have a different sexual orientation or set of political
beliefs. They achieved this terrible end through a nefarious network of
secret police, a perverted legal process, a barbarous system of
concentration camps that doubled as human extermination factories--and
the tacit and often active participation of many, many others from a
wide variety of backgrounds and national origins.
We observe Holocaust Remembrance Day in part to honor the memory of
those men, women, and children who perished in this tragedy
unparalleled in the course of human events. We observe Holocaust
Remembrance Day to pay tribute to the courage and suffering of so many
who lost their lives. But we also observe Holocaust Remembrance Day for
an all too practical, and unfortunately still necessary, purpose:
because we must never forget.
The six decades that have intervened since the Nazi regime was
forcibly ended may make the Holocaust seem like a chapter in history
from a bygone era. Yet each succeeding generation has a moral
obligation to remember the Holocaust and its lessons for humanity: that
mankind has an enormous capacity for evil; that, if left unchecked,
evil can and will prevail; and that in order to overcome a massive
concentration of power in the hands of those who would achieve evil
ends, we have a moral obligation to act and to intervene on behalf of
those without the capacity to resist such evil. These lessons, we must
never forget.
For the unfortunate truth is that each succeeding generation in the
decades following the Holocaust has been obliged to grapple with mass
murder on a geopolitical scale. From the tyranny of Josef Stalin's
Gulag Archipelago; to the Cultural Revolution of Communist China; to
the killing fields of Cambodia; to the ``ethnic cleansing'' in Bosnia
and Kosovo; to the senseless slaughters in Rwanda, the Sudan, and
Darfur; to the tumbling twin towers at Ground Zero; and in countless
other corners of the earth, man's capacity to inflict grievous harm on
his fellow man continues to rage on, all too often unchecked.
Mr. Speaker, my distinguished colleagues, that is why we must never
forget. We must never forget the more than 6 million victims, their
grievous suffering, and the tremendous loss experienced not only by
their loved ones who survived them, but by all of mankind. We must
never forget the names associated with that greatest of all human
tragedies, names which still to this day all too readily roll off the
tongue, drenched in a thousand tears: Auschwitz, Dachau, Treblinka,
Babi Yar--the Shoah.
But above all, we must never forget, because we must continue to look
forward, as well as behind us. Man must never again allow his fellow
man to stand by while the wholesale extermination of entire peoples is
attempted under our very noses. We must never forget the maxim offered
by Edmund Burke centuries before the Holocaust: that the only thing
necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the Holocaust
Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day, known in Hebrew as Yom Hashoah.
This is the day that not only the Jewish people should mourn the loss
of the six million people stolen from this earth, but a day recognized
by all.
We must never forget the attempted extermination of the Jewish people
but we must also never forget so we can ensure that is never happens
again.
We still see these mass slaughters around the world whether it's in
Sudan or what we saw in the 1990's in Rwanda.
The world community must take immediate action so the murder of so
many Jews never happens again to any of our brothers and sisters around
the world.
This day has a bit more of a special meaning to me this year; 2005
marks the 60th anniversary of the end of the concentration camps that
stole the lives of six million innocent human beings in ways that are
still unfathomable to me.
I had the unique opportunity this year to attend the United Nations
General Assembly Special Session on the 60th anniversary of the
Liberation of the Nazi Death Camps.
It was a very emotional day listening to the speeches made by many of
the world's leaders who were in attendance.
Also this was the first time that I know of that the United Nations
convened to commemorate the Holocaust, and the first time that the
United Nations convened a special session at the request of Israel.
Along with many of my colleagues, I contacted foreign embassies I
have close relationships with to urge them to encourage their home
governments to write a letter to Secretary General Annan to allow the
general assembly to hold the special session.
Over 135 countries responded to make sure that the special session
got underway.
My day at the U.N. also brought me to a special breakout session
sponsored by B'nai B'rith International with several Holocaust
survivors to talk about their experiences and how they survived the
death camps.
One of the speakers was my good friend from California, Mr. Lantos.
When we speak about Yom Hashoah in Congress we should remember that we
have a survivor among us and should listen and respect his words when
he speaks about the current humanitarian crisis like he has done most
recently with Sudan.
At the end of the day a special exhibit was held by the Vad Vashem
Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority about the
Auschwitz death camps.
It's impossible to describe the overwhelming feeling you get when you
see the visuals of the condition the victims of the concentration camps
were in. It still troubles my heart that one human could do this to
another.
We must never forget and never allow this to happen again in the
world to any group of people.
Ms. BEAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a constituent
and friend of mine who has visited hundreds of classrooms and spoken to
thousands of students about his life in German concentration camps
during the Holocaust. Sam Harris--born Szlamek Rzeznik--has taken his
remarkable life story and made it a driving force in his effort to help
America's children learn the value of tolerance.
In September 1939, when Sam was 4 years old, he and his siblings were
taken from their home and confined in the Deblin Ghetto in Poland.
Three years later, they were sent to the concentration camp at Deblin
and then at Czestochowa until that camp was liberated by Soviet troops
in 1945. Only Sam and 2 of his sisters survived their time in the
camps, and Sam is among the youngest remaining survivors of the
Holocaust.
Currently, Sam volunteers with the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of
Illinois, discussing genocide and the Holocaust with elementary, middle
and high school students to
[[Page H3036]]
ensure that history does not repeat itself. Part of their effort is the
creation of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, due to
begin construction in the near future.
It is important to note that this will not be simply a museum. It
will also focus on education as a means to prevent hatred and bigotry.
So it is fitting that Sam Harris and his Holocaust Memorial Foundation
colleagues remain focused on the future, not only with their museum but
also on using the classroom as a forum to help understand and deter
genocide.
Sam said to me that if children were to take one thing from him, it
should be this: ``When there is a bully in the play yard, they should
step forth and stop the bully.'' That is advice that we all can live
by, whether we are in the schoolyard, in the boardroom or in Congress.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join with me today, Holocaust
Remembrance Day, not only to honor the memory of the 6 million people
killed during the Holocaust, but to thank people like Sam Harris and
the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois for their tireless work
in the promotion of tolerance and understanding.
Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, ``Take care and watch
yourselves closely so as neither to forget the things that your eyes
have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your
life; make them known to your children and your children's children . .
.'' (Deuteronomy 4:9)
=========================== NOTE ===========================
May 5, 2005--On Page H 3036 the following appeared: Mr. PRICE of
Georgia. Mr. Speaker,.
The online version should be corrected to read: Mr. PRICE of
North Carolina. Mr. Speaker,.
========================= END NOTE =========================
On this day of remembrance we confront stark, unmitigated evil, evil
that could impose and did impose starvation, torture, unimaginable
cruelty, and--for 6 million human beings--death. We also confront the
evil that let this happen, the evil of indifference. It is indifference
that Elie Weisel describes as the ``epitome of evil.'' ``The opposite
of love is not hate,'' he says, ``it is indifference. . . . The
opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference.''
It was indifference that enabled millions to avert their gaze as the
Nazis undertook genocide on a scale never before imagined. Remembrance
of the Holocaust affects us deeply as we empathize with the victims and
what they endured but also as we recognize: the scourge of
indifference, the temptation to indifference, are all too familiar to
us today.
Indifference often prevents us from expressing love, achieving
justice, or realizing community. And it still operates on a global
scale. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has termed the
failure of the United States and other nations to intervene to prevent
the genocidal massacres of 1994 in Rwanda as her ``deepest regret''
from her years of public service. Every public servant should see Hotel
Rwanda; in fact, I think every citizen should see the film, which
drives home painfully the effects of the world's indifference.
And now researchers at the Holocaust Museum in Washington have issued
a Genocide Emergency for Darfur in western Sudan, where some 300,000
people have died at the hands of violent men, or from the devastation
left in their wake, in the past 2 years. Indeed the Holocaust--and the
indifference and inaction that permitted the Holocaust--have been
frequently invoked as Congress has struggled to shape our country's
response.
``Simply saying `never again' does not save lives,'' one colleague
wrote recently. Our country's diplomatic efforts and the initiatives of
the United Nations and the African Union have thus far fallen woefully
short. The international community needs to impose far more stringent
economic and diplomatic sanctions on Sudan and to muster a much larger
peacekeeping force--and our country needs to invest a great deal more
in getting this done. In this connection, I commend to colleagues
Nicholas Kristof's column in the April 17th edition of the New York
Times.
Today is a solemn day of remembrance. But given the persistence of
evil and the perils our world faces, it must also be a day of resolve
and action. We keep faith with those we remember by vowing ``Never
again'' and not stopping at that, but overcoming the indifference and
inaction that would allow unmitigated evil--the ultimate atrocity of
genocide--to continue.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Holocaust
Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day, known in Hebrew as Yom Hashoah,
to memorialize the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazi regime during
the Holocaust.
In 1933, Europe's Jewish population was over nine million. However,
by 1945, almost two out of three European Jews had been killed as part
of the Final Solution, a policy to murder the Jews. However, the Nazis'
cruelty was not just limited to Jews, they also murdered gypsies, the
mentally and physically disabled, homosexuals, and those deemed
religious dissidents, like Jehovah's Witnesses.
We must remember the lives of those who were subjected to unspeakable
atrocities, targeted simply because of their religious beliefs. We must
remember those mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters, and sons
who perished so brutally in the camps, in the ghettos, and in the gas
chambers of Nazi Germany.
This year, Yom Hashoah comes as we mark the 60th anniversary of the
end of World War II. We must never forget what can happen to civilized
people when bigotry and hatred rule.
We all share the responsibility to combat ignorance, intolerance, and
prejudice no matter what the form. And 60 years later, it is still
entirely unbelievable that individuals contemplated in seriousness the
systematic destruction of over 6 million people. On this anniversary,
as we honor lives lost, I extend my condolences to those who lost loved
ones in the Holocaust. They will always be remembered.
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate Yom Hashoah,
Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day, which memorializes the
6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis during their campaign of genocide
in World War II. We mourn the innocent lives lost and vibrant
communities destroyed while the world shamefully stood silent, and
honor those heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto who faced certain death when
they refused to submit to the Nazi's planned extermination of their
community.
To this day, Mr. Speaker, many European countries have failed to
right the past wrongs of the Holocaust by failing to adequately redress
the wrongful confiscation of property by the Nazi and communist
regimes. These seizures took place over decades; they were part of the
modus operandi of repressive, totalitarian regimes; and they affected
millions of people. The passage of time, border changes, and population
shifts are only a few of the things that make the wrongful property
seizures of the past such difficult problems to address today.
While I recognize that many obstacles stand in the way of righting
these past wrongs, I do not believe that these challenges make property
restitution or compensation impossible. On the contrary, I believe much
more should have been done--and can still be done now--while our
elderly Holocaust survivors are still living.
Today I also want to sound the alarm about a disturbing trend that
Jews face today: a rising tide of anti-Semitism throughout the world.
I serve as the Ranking Member of the Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), commonly known as the Helsinki
Commission. Last year I traveled as part of the U.S. Delegation, with
former Secretary of State Colin Powell, to attend a special conference
in Berlin addressing anti-Semitism, held under the auspices of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The OSCE is
a 55-nation regional security organization which promotes democracy and
human rights in Europe, Central Asia, and North America.
Before traveling to Berlin, I made a point to visit Auschwitz for the
first time. I was shocked and stunned to see how efficient the Nazi
operation was: they wanted to maximize the number of individuals that
could be killed.
Seeing the remains of that factory of intolerance, hate and death, it
reaffirmed how we must continually stress the importance of advancing
understanding throughout the OSCE region and the entire world. We must
tirelessly work to build understanding and respect between different
communities to prevent future acts of prejudice and injustice.
At the Berlin Conference, I had the privilege of participating as a
member of the U.S. delegation, and I gave the official U.S. statement
in the session on tolerance. The meeting ended with the issuance of the
Berlin Declaration of Action.
The Berlin Declaration laid out a number of specific steps for states
to take to combat the rising tide of anti-Semitism, including: striving
to ensure that their legal systems foster a safe environment free from
anti-Semitic harassment, violence or discrimination; promoting
educational programs; promoting remembrance of the Holocaust, and the
importance of respecting all ethnic and religious groups; combating
hate crimes, which can be fueled by racist and anti-Semitic propaganda
on the Internet; encouraging and supporting international organizations
and NGO's; and encouraging the development of best practices between
law enforcement and educational institutions.
As we commemorate Yom Hashoah, let us honor the memory of those who
perished in the Holocaust by pledging to fight intolerance, hate
crimes, and violence in our community and around the world. We shall
never be silent again.
Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate Holocaust
Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day, a day on which we recall the
atrocities committed during the Second World War, celebrate the
liberation of these horrific concentration camps, and call for
continued efforts to fight anti-Semitism around the world.
While 60 years have now passed since the end of World War II, and our
Jewish brothers
[[Page H3037]]
and sisters from around the world have managed to become a remarkably
successful and innovative people despite the horrors they were forced
to face, it is imperative that we continue to remember the events of
the Holocaust to ensure that future generations remain aware. The crime
of genocide, which continues to be committed today as we have seen in
Armenia, Rwanda, Sudan, and elsewhere, is one of the most reprehensible
acts that can be committed by man. To attempt eradication of an entire
population based on a misguided prejudice is absolutely vile, and the
United States should do everything in its power to try and prevent such
atrocities from happening in the future.
Today, we call to memory the atrocities of the Holocaust, while at
the same time honoring those individuals that persevered despite them.
The success of such Holocaust survivors as our dear colleague,
Congressman Tom Lantos, serves to remind us that while the crime of
genocide can take our lives and our freedom, it cannot and must not
break our will and determination.
Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate Holocaust
Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day, marking the 60th anniversary of
the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
Today, as those who witnessed the horrific crimes perpetrated during
the Holocaust are becoming fewer, great effort must be taken to ensure
that both we and generations to come will never forget this, the most
monstrous event in the history of the modern world.
This year, we mark this solemn day by reflecting on the liberation of
the Jews of Europe and the pursuit of those responsible for committing
these heinous offenses. Sixty years ago as allied forces pressed
farther into reaches of Nazi-occupied Europe, the names of places such
as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau, and Mauthausen had yet to be seared into
our collective conscious. As allied soldiers broke down the doors of
the camps, they were overwhelmed by the sights of human suffering that
confronted them. The scale of that suffering was unimaginable.
The allied powers, faced with the enormous task of bringing to
justice the perpetrators of this genocide, together established the
International Military Tribunal. The legacy of Nuremberg lives on in
the tribunals held for perpetrators of war crimes in Rwanda, Sierra
Leone, and the former Yugoslavia among others.
Today we remember those destroyed by the Nazis, but unlike sixty
years ago, we cannot stay silent when confronted by such crises as the
genocide now occurring in Darfur. We must renew our commitment never to
remain indifferent in the face of such assaults on innocent human
beings.
Mr. BISHOP of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in solemn
observance of Yom Hashoah, commemorating the commencement of the Warsaw
Ghetto uprising.
Today the Gateway Monument in the Warsaw Ghetto serves as a fixed
memorial to the victims who were herded onto railroad cars for
deportation to Treblinka, one of many death camps scattered throughout
the European countryside. The Gateway Monument has etched upon its
stone the names of four hundred Jews who martyred themselves for the
cause of saving the lives of their neighbors and their own children,
and to defend their religion from annihilation. However, another great
monument exists, but in the form of the retelling of the heroic story
of the uprising, one generation at a time.
Mordecai Anielewicz, a young man of twenty-three years, led an army
of beleaguered men and women against their oppressors, the Nazi war
machine. On this day, Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day,
we celebrate and honor those who offered resistance in a valiant
attempt to defy deportation to death camps. Mordecai Anielewicz wrote
in his last letter to Yitzhak Cukierman, friend and co-founder of the
Jewish Fighting Organization, ``The fact that we are remembered beyond
the ghetto walls encourages us in our struggle.''
In our united causes to `Never Forget', nor to repeat the senseless
atrocities of the Holocaust, we must be ready to confront similar
genocidal slaughter throughout the world. Mr. Anielewicz's heroism and
the courage of the over four hundred resistance fighters of the Warsaw
Ghetto resistance have earned more than words as their legacy. Our
nation and those of the developed world must offer our own resistance
to despot leaders who seek to commit murder on the basis of religion or
race.
Mr. Speaker, Mordecai was correct in his assessment of the Warsaw
Ghetto uprising's impact outside the ghetto walls. Indeed, the
resistance has been remembered beyond the ghetto walls, as it has
become a testimonial to the human spirit that will be remembered
throughout all humanity, for all time.
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate Holocaust
Remembrance Day.
The Chief U.S. Counsel to the Nuremberg Military tribunal said of the
Holocaust: ``The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been
so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization
cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their
being repeated.''
Today, Jews around the world take a moment to pay tribute to the
heroes that were lost. In Israel, where they refer to the day as Yom
Hashoah, the ceremony began yesterday with survivors and their families
gathering together for a memorial ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
During the ceremony, six torches were lit, representing the six million
murdered Jews, and wreathes were laid.
Today's ceremony in Israel began with the sounding of a siren for two
minutes throughout the entire country. For the duration of the sirens,
work was halted, people walking in the streets stopped, cars pulled off
to the side of the road and everyone stood at silent attention.
Mr. Speaker, genocide is a horror that has touched many cultures and
religions. Just a few weeks ago, I joined several thousand Armenians in
Times Square for a commemoration of the 90th Anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide. The date marks the beginning of a genocide that took
the lives of more than one million Armenians in three years during
World War I.
Even Hitler exploited the Armenian Genocide to justify his atrocities
against the Jews, asking ``Who, after all, speaks today of the
annihilation of the Armenians?'' just before Germany's invasion of
Poland. Today, the Armenians are still fighting for recognition of the
genocide from the Turkish government.
But Mr. Speaker, despite our attempts to shed light on the horrors of
the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide, the sad truth is that genocide
is not a crime of the past.
Since February 2003, the Sudanese Government has used a combination
of Arab ``Janjaweed'' militias, its air force, and organized starvation
to kill more than 380,000 Darfurians and displace almost 3 million.
Estimates suggest that the Sudanese continue to kill at least 15,000
more Darfurians each month.
The Sudanese government, like the Turkish government, denies any
evidence of genocide. Even the United States government seems to be
unwilling to label the crisis as ``genocide.''
Mr. Speaker, we as Americans have a moral obligation to stop genocide
wherever and whenever it occurs. Americans can never again show the
same lack of interest that F.D.R. showed toward the genocide of the
Jews during World War II. No world leaders should ever be able to stand
and justify their crimes by asking if anyone remembers the annihilation
of Darfur?
Today, we commemorate one of the darkest periods in human history in
the hopes that it will never be repeated. Future generations--not just
Jews, but all people--must learn the history of the Holocaust so that
the lives that were taken were not lost in vain.
Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of the Holocaust
Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day, known in Hebrew as Yom Hashoad.
Although 60 years have passed since the end of World War II, not a day
should go by without the world remembering the important lessons we so
painfully learned from the Holocaust.
The Day of Remembrance was established by Congress as our nation's
annual commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust: 12 million people
died in concentration camps throughout Europe, including 6 million
Jews. Numbers only tell a small part of the story though. Numbers don't
reflect the utter devastation that European Jews faced after the end of
the war. Numbers don't describe the personal and very individual
tragedy of whole families and communities that were destroyed by the
hate of places like Auschwitz, Dachau and Flossenburg. The Day of
Remembrance pushes us to think beyond the numbers; it forces us to
remember that each of these numbers represents a person--someone's
father or mother, son or daughter, niece of nephew, or grandchild--a
precious life that was never lived to its fullest.
Each of us--the next generations--must rededicate ourselves to
speaking out for religious tolerance, peace and justice. We must keep
this sentiment within our hearts and minds each and every day.
Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, today, communities in the United States,
Israel, and around the world will gather to observe Holocaust Martyrs'
and Heroes' Remembrance Day, known in Hebrew as Yom Hashoah. This
solemn day commemorates the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising,
and this year it coincides with the 60th anniversary of the end of the
War World II. On this day, we remember the six million Jews murdered
during World War II.
I join all those here today in mourning the innocent lives and
vibrant communities lost, destroyed by Nazis while the most of world
silently and shamefully watched. We must combat anti-Semitism and
intolerance wherever it exists in the world today.
[[Page H3038]]
It is vital that we remember this dark period in history. The
Holocaust made clear man's capacity to do evil. We remember this tragic
event and firm our resolve that history will not be repeated. As human
beings, we have a responsibility to keep the Holocaust at the forefront
of our collective historical memory.
I thank all those who have put today's program together to
commemorate the Day of Remembrance and I appreciate all those who
participated.
Mr. Speaker, the Day of Remembrance reminds us that we as people, we
as nations, must take action against hatred and incitement targeted
against any group; we saw how failure to take action over 60 years ago
turned to mass devastation and murder.
Mr. Speaker, by taking the time to remember Yom Hashoah here in our
Nation's Capital, we are keeping our promise that we will never forget
the past and will fight to protect our future, a future that we hope is
one step closer to the goal of ``never again.''
Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in
remembrance of and in mourning for the millions who perished in the
Shoah, the Holocaust, the most systematic and brutal persecution of a
people ever perpetrated in human history.
We grieve for all human suffering and misery. The death of one is not
more significant because of his or her race or their creed. But there
were so many ones lost in that time. And not just individuals, whole
families, whole villages, an entire way of life in many cases. Poland,
Hungary, Ukraine, these countries will never regain the vitality they
lost when they lost their Jewish people.
We grieve today not just for the Jewish deaths; Jews were not the
only ones to perish in the Holocaust. This atrocity was visited upon
Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled, Catholics, Africans, trade-
unionists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Protestant Pastors and anyone who
opposed the Reich.
The Holocaust was and is an offense, not only to the victims, their
families and their friends, but to humanity. Some demonize the Nazi
brutality, calling it inhuman. But I think the fact that the Holocaust
was a human event makes it all the more terrible. And it makes our
obligation to prevent such a thing from ever happening again even more
essential and pressing.
Pastor Niemoller famously reflected on his inaction at the time of
the Holocaust:
First they came for the Communists, but I was not a
Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social
Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing.
Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade
unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a
Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was
no one left to stand up for me.
On this day of remembrance, let us pledge that this will not be our
legacy.
Ms. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate Yom Hashoah, a
day of remembrance for Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes.
Between 1939 and 1945, over 12 million innocent people--including
over 6 million Jews--were murdered because of their religion, their
race or because of where they were born. Even today, after the passage
of 60 years, it is difficult to fully comprehend the intense hatred and
intolerance that so consumed this dark period in human history.
On this day of remembrance we cannot think of just those who died,
but also of those individuals who embodied the triumph of the human
spirit, who bravely acted in the face of overpowering hatred, and of
the lessons of their actions. Rather than succumbing to the despair of
their situation, the Jews fought against their oppressors in the Warsaw
Ghetto uprising in April and May of 1943. In a defiant declaration, the
Jews of Terezin proclaimed a theme of liberation each time they sang
Verdi's ``Requiem.'' The thread of hope continued despite the hopeless
moments. As such, when we remember the Holocaust, we remember not only
the needless death of so many, but also the heroic voices which
continue to inspire us today.
Sadly, we still struggle as a human race to stamp out the evils of
anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia. Several years ago in my hometown
of Sacramento, we saw the ability of good to overpower intolerance
during an act of arson on three area synagogues. We witnessed the
heroics of average citizens who rushed into these burning buildings to
save precious books, manuscripts and a Torah which had already survived
the Holocaust decades earlier.
While Yom Hashoah is a somber day of remembering those who were
killed in the Holocaust, it is also a day that offers hope. Hope that
the strength and courage in all of us will overcome injustice and
intolerance.
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the
60th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust. This year's anniversary
is particularly compelling not only because it marks six decades since
the liberation of the Jewish people from history's darkest hour, but
also because our world has failed to heed the universal message of the
Holocaust. Crimes against humanity anywhere are an affront to all
people everywhere.
Indeed, I would be doing a disservice to the Holocaust survivors
throughout South Florida if I do not address that most unconscionable
crime of genocide. Sixty years ago the world failed to aid the victims
of the Nazi regime. We conveniently dodged our duty by claiming
unsubstantiated evidence, a lack of effective resources to respond, and
the existence of more pressing concerns elsewhere in the world.
Today, we are remembering the Holocaust while again evading taking
the necessary steps to end the genocide in the Darfur region of the
Sudan. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions
displaced from their homes by a bloodthirsty militia backed by the
Sudanese military and government. Yet we insist that our resources are
spread too thin, that events elsewhere in the world command our
attention, and that deciding upon the strict definition of these crimes
should determine whether we respond forcefully or not. Mr. Speaker,
shame on us for using the same old excuses.
Elected officials often speak about spreading freedom, establishing
democracies, and ensuring minority rights around the world. These are
noble endeavors indeed, Mr. Speaker. But what about spreading the
saving of human lives? The sacred Jewish text the Talmud reminds us
that to save one life is to save the whole world. How many worlds are
dying every day in Darfur? I am sure that the Holocaust survivors here
in the Capitol Building today can tell us because they witnessed
firsthand the cataclysmic annihilation of their families, their
neighbors, their friends, and their people. Their memories are still
fresh, their thoughts still lucid, and their commitment to educating
the world about the Holocaust is more than admirable.
Sixty years ago, without rhyme or reason, an entire nation of people
were murdered, wrenched from the Earth by an unholy evil. This
malevolence persists today in the form of bigotry and intolerance,
torture and genocide. Every instance that we ignore and every crime
that we brush off feeds the incipient hatred that compels the
concentration camp, the slave labor force, the disdain for human life,
and the ease with which it is taken.
Mr. Speaker, we owe it to those whose names have since been lost to
refuse to condemn the genocide in Darfur with only our words. We have
come too far in 60 years to slide back again. If we have learned
anything from the Holocaust it is that it must not be allowed to happen
again. Today is Holocaust Commemoration Day, but it is not enough for
us to simply remember. We must also never forget.
Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in order to honor the
millions who lost their lives during the Holocaust as we observe Yom
Hashoah, Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day.
Each year, I am confronted with so many emotions as we commemorate
this day. It brings great pain to my heart as we remember the victims
of one of history's darkest and most murderous eras. To try and grasp
the significance of the death toll that resulted from the Holocaust is
both a saddening and frustrating exercise. Six million Jews not only
lost their lives, but were murdered on the basis of nonsensical,
inhumane reasoning--reasoning that dictated action through hate on the
basis of religious discrimination. The end result, sadly though, was
much worse than what is our conventional idea of religious
discrimination. The end result in this tragic situation was genocide.
And though my heart weighs heavily as I reflect on the injustices
suffered and the lives lost, there is a part of me that sees an
opportunity to celebrate human resilience as we commemorate this somber
day. In the face of some of the most intense hatred and inhumanity that
this world has ever seen, it gives me great hope to think of the many
who seized upon the greatest power that any individual human-being can
posses, and in fact, a power that each and everyone of us posses. That
power is the power to choose.
And in the face of oppression, persecution and destruction, there
were so many who chose to resist, whether it was through physical
action, words written and spoken, or in spirit. Some of these people
were heroes whose names we celebrate, some were heroes only to those
who knew them and some were simply heroes in and of themselves.
To these people we owe a debt of gratitude and respect. Now, more
than ever, as the world continues to wrestle with violence spawned by
religious and cultural intolerance, we cannot forget or underestimate
our own power to choose to act out against this type of hatred and
oppression. Let us never forget that silence and inaction provide
fertile breeding ground for grave injustices. We all have a moral
obligation to choose to act.
[[Page H3039]]
Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in observance of
Holocaust Remembrance Day, to honor the memory of the six million Jews
who died in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
As the dedication in the United States Holocaust Museum's Hall of
Remembrance so thoughtfully observes:
. . . guard yourself and guard your soul carefully, lest you
forget the things your eyes saw, and lest these things depart
your heart all the days of your life, and you shall make them
known to your children, and to your children's children.
Sixty years ago, in 1945, World War II ended and Allied soldiers
liberated the survivors of the Nazi concentration camps. Through the
survivor's stories and other documented evidence, the full extent of
the atrocities committed by the Nazi soldiers became known and we
learned of the bottomless depths of mankind's capacity for cruelty.
Observing Holocaust Remembrance Day is vitally important. As time
passes, our tendency is to disbelieve that people could be so monstrous
as to commit such horrific deeds. That is why we have to remain
vigilant, to remember what happened so that we can guard against it
ever happening again.
Mr. Speaker, thank you for this opportunity to honor the memory of
those who were killed in the Holocaust, and the courage of those who
survived.
Mr. CANTOR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today, on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust
Memorial Day, to honor the memory of the victims who perished in World
War II during the Holocaust.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Europe from
the evil hands of the murderer Adolf Hitler. Hitler's shadow caused
darkness to fall upon the earth.He slew the innocent and pure, men and
women and children, with vapors of poison, and he burned them with
fire. When the light of freedom shined again, tens of millions were
dead, cities and nations were in ruin, and a world stood awestruck at
the horrors that had occurred.
Justice Robert Jackson, a justice on the International Military
Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1945, said:
The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so
calculated, so malignant and so devastating that civilization
cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot
survive their being repeated.
We in the United States, the birthplace of Thomas Jefferson and
Martin Luther King, enjoy a great deal of freedom. We must not take
these freedoms for granted. We must not forget that genocide and human
rights abuses have occurred and continue to occur around the world. We
must not remain silent. We must dedicate ourselves to continuing to
educate people around the globe about the horrors of the Holocaust. We
must be forever mindful of the danger of such intolerance and ensure
that it never happens again.
Let us stand here today and affirm our obligation to civilization
that we will never forget.
Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I rise to lend my voice to the cause of
remembrance. Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. This is a
day aside on the Jewish calendar to remember the murdered Six Million
of the Holocaust and to remind us all what can happen when bigotry,
hatred, and indifference are allowed to permeate a society.
It has been 60 years since the end of the Holocaust. We mark this
passing of time because while the Holocaust serves as a vivid reminder
of the worst mankind has to offer, we must remain vigilant so that all
might learn its lessons.
Its horror demands that we fight tyranny.
Its victims show us the dangers of ignorance.
Its lesson is that we must never embrace indifference if we are to
advance in peace.
Yom HaShoah is the occasion to pay tribute to the lives lost and a
time to rededicate ourselves to work together toward greater
understanding so that this unspeakable horror never visits our
societies again.
Mr. Speaker, I have been to Jerusalem. I have been to Yad Vashem and
the Western Wall. The emotional power of these places moved me to a
greater belief in two things that the power of faith is unbreakable and
that hard work and patience can achieve the goals of peace. Let us
today allow Yom HaShoah to remind us of both faith and peace.
Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the Holocaust
Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day, known in Hebrew as Yom Hashoah.
May 5th marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, and this
year is especially important as the world marks the 60th anniversary of
the end of World War II.
From 1938--1945, 6 million Jewish people, young and old alike, were
systematically murdered as a result of ignorance and hatred. Nazi
Germany also targeted gypsies, the handicapped, Political dissidents,
and others because they were different.
In Jewish communities around the world, there is a simple saying in
regards to the Holocaust, ``Never Forget.'' Let us never forget the
atrocities committed against a people based on nothing more than their
religious beliefs. Let us never forget the 6 million mothers and
fathers, sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, grandfathers and
grandmothers who were systematically murdered just 6 decades ago.
I join my colleagues in remembering wonderfully vibrant communities
that were senselessly destroyed across Europe. I would also like to pay
tribute to the thousands of Holocaust Survivors in the United States
and around the world who continue to educate us on the atrocities of
the Holocaust.
I implore all of us to take this Remembrance Day one step further and
stand up against anti-Semitism, intolerance, ignorance, and
discrimination in our nation and around the world today.
Let us never forget.
Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, today, Thursday, May 5, 2005, the people
of the world memorialize Yom HaShoah--a special day of remembrance
honoring the martyrs and heroes of the Holocaust. Holocaust Remembrance
Day is a day that has been set aside to remember the victims of the
Holocaust and to remind each of us what can happen when bigotry and
hatred are not confronted.
Mr. Speaker, I am humbled as I rise today with my colleagues to honor
the memories and the lives of the more than 6 million victims of Nazi
hatred and aggression during the pogrom known to us as the Holocaust. I
am also humbled to stand in this cathedral of freedom and honor the
lives of the many heroes who fought so bravely against unimaginable
odds to defeat a genocidal madman.
More than 60 years ago, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime set out to
eradicate European Jewry. So committed were they to the accomplishment
of this goal, their so-called ``Final Solution,'' that even in the
waning days of World War II, when defeat was imminent, the Germans
continued even more urgently rounding up Jews all over Europe and
sending them to their deaths.
Mr. Speaker, driven by a radical and uncompromising anti-Semitic
ideology, the Nazis redoubled their efforts to reach every last Jew
before the war ended. They were in a rush; time was running out.
Depleting sorely-needed resources from the war effort, German forces
swept across Europe, assembling and annihilating community after
community, individual after individual, from their homes, ghettos and
hiding places.
Mr. Speaker, during the last year of the war in Europe, German defeat
was all but accomplished, and yet their hatred and bigotry survived and
thrived. Consequently, the Nazis murdered more than 700,000 Jews in
that last full year of the war, including most of the Jews of the last
large community in Europe, Hungary. There, in one of the most efficient
deportation and murder operations of the Holocaust, the Nazi and
Hungarian regimes deported 437,000 Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau in just
eight weeks and killed tens of thousands more later that year.
Six decades have passed since Allied troops liberated the labor and
death camps, and yet the memory of the horrors perpetrated against the
Jewish people is seared into the collective conscious of the world.
However, Mr. Speaker, sadly, we cannot undo history, and we cannot
reverse the atrocities carried out by a barbarous German regime.
What remains for us is to honor and preserve the memories and lives
of both the victims and the survivors of the Holocaust. Out of the
great tragedy of the Holocaust emerges a tremendous object lesson for
humanity: hatred and bigotry can never be taken for granted or left
unchecked. We must never forget.
Mr. Speaker, memory is critical--our own and that of the victims of
unprecedented evil and suffering. The Holocaust is a horror we must
remember, but not only because of the dead; it is too late for them.
Not only because of the survivors; it may even be too late for them.
Preserving memory is a solemn responsibility, aimed at saving men and
women from apathy toward evil, if not from evil itself. We must never
forget.
Mr. Speaker, sixty years ago, much of the world overlooked the deadly
plight of an entire people until it was almost too late. We have a
sacred obligation--in order to truly keep faith with the principles
upon which our great nation was founded--to remain vigilant, to
remember the horrors of the past, to learn from them, and to protect
against them for all eternity. We must never forget.
Mr. Speaker, Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel,
perhaps summed it up best when he said, ``to remain silent and
indifferent is the greatest sin of all.'' As Americans, we must heed
his call and embrace his challenge. We must never forget.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Holocaust
Remembrance Day. On this Yom Ha'Shoah, we honor those whose lives were
lost in the atrocities of one of the darkest periods in human history.
We pay tribute to all who lost their lives during World War II and
reflect on the loss of more than six million Jewish lives. We honor
[[Page H3040]]
the heroes who perished in the one of the most valiant battles for
liberty and justice the world has ever known.
The most fitting tribute that we can offer to the countless heroes
who suffered under the Nazi regime is to work to ensure that they did
not suffer in vain. As we reflect on the unfathomable loss suffered
during the Holocaust it is also important that we vow to build a more
peaceful world. Today, more than fifty years later, we must teach our
children about the horrific events that transformed the world so that
the mistakes of the past are never repeated. It is important that we
fight ignorance on a daily basis through a dedication to learning about
the origins and realities of the Holocaust.
With examples of malice and terror everpresent in today's society, we
are reminded of the strength and courage of the Jewish people. Their
dedication to begin anew in the aftermath of the Holocaust serves as an
example of steadfast determination. Through their example, we learn how
the human spirit can triumph over the hollowness of vengeance and
anger. On this day we celebrate that spirit.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to join the commemoration of Yom Ha'Shoah and
I hope that all Americans will join me.
Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, communities will
gather in the United States, Israel, and around the world today to
observe Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day, known in Hebrew
as Yom Hashoah. This solemn day commemorates the anniversary of the
beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. This year, the day comes as
the world marks the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.
=========================== NOTE ===========================
May 5, 2005--On Page H 3040 the following appeared: Ms. LINDA T.
SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker,.
The online version should be corrected to read: Ms. LINDA T.
SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker,.
========================= END NOTE =========================
In order to prevent the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust from
ever being repeated, we all have a responsibility to educate younger
generations. We must take time to remember the atrocities suffered by
countless Jews during' the World War II era. The martyrs gave their
lives for their beliefs, protected their own people, and stood up for
their most sacred principles. The heroes did everything in their power
to stop the spread of evil across the globe. It is the stories of these
martyrs and heroes that need to be repeated, so that young people can
better understand this dark period in history.
One resource to help us teach the next generation is the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I recommend a trip to this landmark
whenever someone from my district is visiting Washington, D.C. There is
so much worth to what this museum has documented for the world to see.
The documents, photographs, and films offer an appropriate way of
remembering such a serious subject matter.
Despite the lessons of the Holocaust, discrimination, persecution,
and even genocide still persist around the world. Today, it is
imperative to renew our commitment to fighting injustice in all its
forms. In doing so, we recognize the sacrifices and suffering of the
Holocaust. Let us all work to educate the next generation, so that they
never forget the martyrs and heroes who fought to protect their Jewish
traditions, and never gave up in the face of evil.
Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, today is Yom Ha-Shoah, Holocaust Memorial
Day, and I rise to honor the memory of the 6 million Jewish souls
extinguished in the greatest act of organized depravity in history.
There have been many barbaric regimes and there have been many other
vicious campaigns of annihilation undertaken both before and after the
Holocaust. Some even produced more victims. The Shoah, however, is
unique and is thus deserving of special attention, not because the
victims were Jews--many millions of innocent non-Jews were murdered by
the Nazis--but because the Holocaust revealed a painful and abiding
truth about humanity that remains with us. In squalor of the camps, in
the ashes of the crematoria, and in the fires of the ovens, it was
demonstrated that the norms of civilization, the boundaries of
morality, and the protections of society and government are no more
protection than a fragile tissue of behavior, one torn aside with
shocking ease to reveal the latent bestiality in human beings.
The imperative of Holocaust for us today, as legislators and
participants in American government is the same for all Americans and,
in truth, all humanity. That imperative is to remember. There are many
reasons why: To remember all those people murdered for the crime of
their birth and rededicate ourselves to preventing such a crime from
being repeated. To remember that bigotry and ignorance can metastasize
in politics with horrific consequences. To remember that whole
communities can be wiped out with the power of the modern state and to
recommit ourselves to the protection of the weak and powerless. To
remember all those men and women and children who were cremated and
dumped into mass graves, not just to end their lives, but to deny their
very existence.
But most of all we must remember because it can happen again.
It is happening again. It is happening in Sudan. Right now. Today.
Some 400,000 Sudanese have already been killed and, if today is a
typical day, 500 more will join them as the world wrings its hands and
wonders what to do. This lassitude, this fecklessness, this disgraceful
toleration of genocide is nothing new either. We saw it when there was
slaughter in Southeast Europe. And we saw it as a genocide was
perpetrated with machetes in Rwanda. And even before the Holocaust, it
happened to the Armenians and today we debate whether it ever happened
at all.
We must remember the Holocaust because genocide is real. It is not
history, it is reality.
Today, genocide is a reality in Sudan. Tomorrow, when Iran acquires
nuclear weapons, will we see the mullahs attempt to finish Hitler's
barbaric work? Impossible? Incomprehensible? Sophisticated people will
ask, ``Who would harness the power of a modern state to the absurd goal
of killing Jews? Who would risk their state over it?''
We must remember. A world that doesn't keep Auschwitz fixed in its
mind will see it rebuilt. We must remember.
Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate Yom
Hashoah, Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day, and to remember
the 6 million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust.
Sixty years ago, as American, British, and Soviet soldiers moved
across Europe in a series of offensives on Germany, they encountered
and liberated concentration camp prisoners. Advancing from the west,
U.S. divisions freed the major concentration camps of Dora-Mittelbau,
Buchenwald, Flossenbuirg, and Dachau in Germany, and Mauthausen in
Austria.
In northern Germany, British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen and
Neuengamme.
In the east, Soviet divisions liberated Auschwitz in Poland in
January 1945. Just a few weeks before the German surrender in early May
1945, they liberated the Stutthof, Sachsenhausen, and Ravensbruck
concentration camps inside Germany.
In liberating the Nazi camps, the Anglo-American and Soviet soldiers
exposed to the world the horror of Nazi atrocities.
Today, we must rededicate ourselves to fighting intolerance, racism
and apathy so that future generations do not experience the suffering,
terror and ultimate death endured by the victims of the Holocaust.
Remembrance Day serves as a reminder that we must never forget the
appalling tragedy of the Holocaust, and the six million Jews who lost
their lives.
Unfortunately, the struggle against anti-Semitism continues today, as
recent reports indicate an increase in violence against the Jewish
community around the world. Last year alone there were reports of anti-
Semitic desecration and vandalism of about 40 schools, 140 statues and
cemeteries, 60 synagogues and 60 businesses around the world. The
number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States also rose by 17
percent in 2004.
Sixty years after the end of the Holocaust, it is important that we
strengthen our fight against anti-Semitism and religious intolerance.
It has been said that those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it. Yom Hashoah reminds each of us where racism,
bigotry and religious intolerance can lead, so that something as
horrific as the Holocaust is never repeated.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bear witness to the
millions who perished in the Holocaust.
From 1933 to 1945, a dark cloud descended on Europe and death rolled
like thunder across the Continent. Six million Jews died unspeakable
deaths at the hands of the Nazis. Thousands of homosexuals, political
dissidents, blacks and gypsies were corralled into concentration camps,
tortured, and killed. Righteous Germans gave their lives to protect
their neighbors, and millions of civilians succumbed as bombs fell like
rain during air raids.
Mr. Speaker, we hear the screech of sirens piercing the night, and we
say ``Never Again.''
We see shattered glass littering the streets and we say ``Never
Again.''
We feel bodies pressed against each other in cattle cars--no room to
move, no air to breathe--and we say ``Never Again.''
We hear the hiss of gas pouring from shower spigots and see
fingernails scratching at concrete walls, and we say ``Never Again.''
We remember the curl of smoke reaching toward a white winter sky and
ashes drifting down amidst snowflakes. Never Again.
[[Page H3041]]
Mr. Speaker, in the 60 years since the liberation of Auschwitz,
Holocaust survivors across the world have borne witness to the
atrocities of the Shoah. They have taught us about the dangers of
prejudice and ignorance.
They have shown us by their shining example the power of strength,
education and activism. I rise today to thank these survivors for all
they have taught us, and to express my sympathy for the loved ones they
lost long ago.
But, Mr. Speaker, I also rise today because, somewhere in Darfur,
Sudan the electricity has gone out in a small town, signaling that an
attack is imminent. Soon, a village will be burned to the ground with
only scorched earth to testify to the lives once lived there. When the
sun sets on this day, 500 more innocent Sudanese will have died at the
hands of Janjaweed killers, bringing the death toll to over 400,000.
Meanwhile, the rainy season is fast approaching in Sudan. In the
coming weeks, it will become even harder for aid workers to reach those
most desperately in need. Three million Sudanese have already been
displaced, and children are dying in refugee camps from illness and
malnutrition.
Mr. Speaker, innocent people are being killed because of their
ethnicity, and I ask, ``Never again?''
Children are starving in relocation camps, and I ask, ``Never
again?''
Homes are being burned, women raped, and men mutilated. Is this what
we call Never Again?
Voices rise from the ashes at Auschwitz, the killing fields in
Cambodia and the hills of Rwanda, begging us to intervene. It is time
we answer their cries, not with words, but with action. It is time to
pass the Darfur Genocide Accountability Act, H.R. 1424. We must
increase our aid to refugee camps, halt the spread of disease, and
provide food where there is famine.
Towards the end of her life, Anne Frank wrote, ``I feel the suffering
of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that
everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end,
that peace and tranquility will return once more.''
Mr. Speaker, today, on this Day of Remembrance, let us make Anne
Frank's vision our own, and ensure that this cruelty too will end.
Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, today is Holocaust Martyrs' and
Heroes' Remembrance Day, known in Hebrew as Yom Hashoah.
This is an appropriate date for this purpose because it is the
anniversary of the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. But in
reality, Americans and all other civilized people should consider every
day a Holocaust Remembrance Day because forgetting the evils of the
past can too easily be the prelude to their recurrence.
And never was this truer than this year, as we mark the 60th
anniversary of the final days of the Second World War when Allied
soldiers moving across Europe encountered and liberated concentration
camp prisoners.
Advancing from the west, U.S. divisions freed the prisoners in the
Dora-Mittelbau, Buchenwald, Flossenburg, and Dachau concentration camps
in Germany and the Mauthausen camp in Austria. In northern Germany,
British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen and Neuengamme. And Soviet
troops, after liberating Auschwitz in Poland in January 1945, in May,
1945 liberated the Stutthof, Sachsenhausen, and Ravensbruck
concentration camps inside Germany.
We now understand that many people in Allied countries had known, in
greater or lesser detail, about what had occurred in the camps. But it
was these Allied soldiers who fully exposed the full horror of Nazi
atrocities--and the combat-hardened soldiers were unprepared for what
they found.
There were stacks of dead bodies, and barracks filled with dead and
dying prisoners, while the stench of death was everywhere. And the
camps still housed thousands of emaciated and diseased prisoners who
resembled skeletons because of forced labor and lack of food. Many were
so weak that they could hardly move. Disease remained an ever present
danger and the liberators had to burn down many of the camps to prevent
the spread of epidemics.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower made a deliberate visit to the Ohrdruf
camp in order to witness personally the evidence of atrocities that
``beggar description.'' Publicly expressing shock and revulsion, he
urged others to see the camps first-hand, lest ``the stories of Nazi
brutality'' be forgotten or dismissed as merely ``propaganda.''
In the years that have followed, our memories of these atrocities
have sometimes dimmed. But they have been refreshed by new histories or
exhibits such as those in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum here in
Washington, while new barbarities in other parts of the world have
reawakened some of the horror that was felt by Eisenhower and the other
liberators of Europe.
And the sights and sounds of the liberated camps, so fresh in 1945,
helped shape the laws and institutions that arose from the ashes of
war.
Military tribunals prosecuted captured Nazi officials under a variety
of charges, many of which paralleled what were later defined as
``crimes against humanity.'' The best-known of these prosecutions, of
course, were those in Nuremberg, Germany, between November 1945 and
August 1946 under the auspices of the International Military Tribunal
(IMT). Prosecutors and judges from the 4 occupying powers tried some of
the leading officials of the Nazi regime on four counts, including a
newly defined count of ``crimes against humanity,'' in which
significant evidence relating to the Nazi effort to murder the European
Jews was introduced. Several prominent Nazis were sentenced to death,
others received prison sentences, and a few were acquitted.
The Nuremberg trials, and others that followed, have had a major
impact on international law over the last 60 years. The International
Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the Special
Court for Sierra Leone, and the recently created International Criminal
Court are all part of the legacy of Nuremberg and of ongoing efforts of
the world community to prevent and punish the crime of genocide.
Today, on this Day of Remembrance, we should all look back to the
horrors of the Holocaust. But we must also look at the world around us
and ahead to what is to come.
If there had been any doubt, the 2001 terror attacks on New York and
Washington, like the killing fields in Cambodia and so many other
terrible events, made it clear that we have not reached the end of
history--or the end of violence driven by fanaticism. As we struggle to
respond to the challenges of our time, we must remember the need for
eternal vigilance against those who are prepared to sacrifice others in
the name of what they perceive as some transcendent cause.
Our fate, and the fate of humanity, depends on our remembering and
our understanding.
Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, that 6 million innocent souls should not die
in vain is the noble purpose of Yom Hashoah, the Holocaust Martyrs' and
Heroes' Remembrance Day. This is a day to remember the horror and
solemnly swear that we will never let it happen again. This is a day to
celebrate the resistance of the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
We must remember the horror and we must remember to resist. A civilized
nation with the most deadly war machine in history, descended to a
level below any known beasts. A clear lesson to our civilization is
still relevant: Decent citizens should never stand by passively and
allow such atrocities to take place. And vigilant citizens should
actively resist any erosion of their rights by a powerful few.
Unfortunately, Rwanda and Darfur are present day examples of our
failure to take the profound lesson of Nazi tyranny seriously. At the
same time, submission to the U.S. government actions which arrest large
groupings such as the Pakistanis without due process; and acquiescence
to an administration which launches a massive and expensive war based
on lies; these positions demonstrate a deep-seated failure to
understand the need to resist immoral and dangerous government acts.
There is a need for our generation to make greater sacrifices and
take greater risks if we truly want to honor the six million souls
annihilated by the Nazi monsters.
Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate Yom Hashoah,
Holocaust Remembrance Day. I join the Jewish people in the State of
Israel and across the globe in remembering the 6 million Jews that were
brutally murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Today is a time for all of humanity to reflect upon that most horrid
period of history. The Holocaust demonstrated the mass atrocities that
a supposedly civilized society could tolerate. We must keep in mind,
that the Nazi genocide against the Jews was not the action of a lone
individual. It was a carefully thought out plan which sought the
support of an entire nation. The Holocaust reflects the worst of
international relations highlighting a time global politics was plagued
by inaction and indifference. The complacency of the United States of
America to the cries of those being slaughtered in Nazi death camps
will forever tarnish our nation's history. The willingness of the
Roosevelt administration to turn back 937 Jewish refugees on the St.
Louis to their subsequent deaths in Europe will also not be forgotten.
I am privileged to represent a diverse portion of Brooklyn. In my
district there is a large but dwindling population of Holocaust
survivors. Many of these survivors rebuilt their lives with nothing
more than the shirt on their back. Today, based on the strong
foundations of those Holocaust survivors, the beautiful Jewish
communities in Brooklyn of Williamsburg, Midwood and Canarsie were
built. These communities represent the best of Jewish life and have
been instrumental in resurrecting religious life in the aftermath of
the Holocaust,
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by creating synagogues, yeshivas, and other religious institutions.
When I see and hear tragic stories from these heroic individuals it
provides living testimony to an event that is hard for many today to
phantom. Educating people especially the young, about the events that
transpired in Europe over 50 years ago is critical to halting the
recent spread of anti-Semitism around the world.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the
efforts of organizations in my district that have taken extraordinary
steps in servicing and caring for the Holocaust survivor population:
The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty; The United Jewish
Organizations of Williamsburg; The Council of Jewish Organizations of
Flatbush; The Jewish Community Council of Canarsie; The Conference of
Jewish Material Claims Against Germany; Peasch Tikvah and all the
Bikkur Cholim organizations. Their selfless work for Holocaust
survivors continues to serve as an inspiration to me and I am honored
to recognize their hard work.
Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues here today in remembering the
Holocaust. Because there are still Holocaust non-believers today it is
imperative that we never forget and continue to learn from this
terrible chapter in history.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, today, I join my friends and colleagues
around the world in commemorating the horrors inflicted during the
Holocaust.
Today, we bear witness to the millions of Jews and countless other
innocent people who were brutally murdered in Nazi concentration camps.
We bear witness to the horrors of genocide that shocked the world,
and ask ourselves if we have truly upheld the promise of ``never
again,'' when we hear the echoes of the Holocaust in the rising threat
of anti-Semitism today.
We bear witness to the millions of people who were persecuted and
enslaved for their political or religious beliefs, or their mental
handicaps in the name of social cleansing.
But we also remember amazing acts of courage and kindness, when those
with everything to lose risked their lives and freedom to help those
most in need, and the bravery of those who would not go willingly to a
certain death.
There is a reason why we call this day not an anniversary, but a
remembrance. Every day, but especially today, we must remember not only
the horrible acts committed by the Nazis but also the actions, and the
lack of action, that led to those horrors.
In remembering, we honor those who suffered--but our memories must
also serve as a constant reminder of the vigilance required from each
of us to prevent it from happening again, or to take action if we see
it happening.
Never again should the innocent be left to languish. For those who
perished, for those who survived, for those who fought and for those
who liberated, we must not falter and we must not fail. We must learn
from history so that we are not doomed to repeat it.
We must bear witness.
Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker I rise to join people around the world who
are commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom Ha-Shoah, and mourning
the six million people who were murdered simply because they happened
to be Jewish. It is important that we take time each year to remind
ourselves of the devastating horror of a world in which insanity ruled
and it was possible for the Nazis to try to eradicate an entire people
from the face of the Earth.
The horror of the Holocaust comes not merely from the fact that
massive numbers of people were murdered--in truth the total civilian
body count in World War II was enormous, including roughly 20 million
Russians and 10 million Chinese. There have been other conflicts in
which vast numbers of civilians have died. The true horror of the
Holocaust is that a modern nation used organized, efficient,
systematic, scientific methods to try to wipe out a minority
population. What compounds the horror is that the Nazis brought their
peculiar brand of death with them as they swept through Europe and
rounded up Jews in occupied countries. We must not forget that the
world watched silently and allowed the Holocaust to happen.
The Nazis could never have been as effective at targeting Jews if it
were not for the collaboration of local populations. Tens of thousands
of people assisted the Nazis in identifying Jews and herding them to
the concentration camps and gas chambers. The Nazis succeeded in large
part because hatred of Jews was already well entrenched throughout the
countries they conquered.
There were always people of good heart who were willing to risk their
lives to save Jews. Their bravery and selflessness must also be
remembered on this Holocaust Remembrance Day. Jews were hidden in
basements and attics. Jewish children were taken into friendly homes or
transported to safety elsewhere. Diplomats issued visas, sometimes in
violation of their country's policies. Most famous among them is Raoul
Wallenberg who saved 100,000 Hungarian Jews. Few nations protected
their Jewish populations as effectively as Denmark. The Danes saved
virtually all of their Jewish population first by refusing to join the
Nazis in singling out the Jewish minority and later by uniting to
smuggle them to safety in Sweden.
One of the principal reasons we remember the Holocaust is to ensure
that it never happens again. Anti-Semitism is an old hatred, and every
generation seems to have a new version. Television and the internet
provide new avenues for spreading hatred. Recently, Middle Eastern
citizens' nations such as Egypt have been able to watch ``Horsemen
Without A Horse,'' a television serialization of the vicious czarist
hoax Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Attacks on Jews and Jewish targets around the world are rising. The
U.S. Department of State recently released a report on anti-Semitism
around the world that found: ``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 . . .
Holocaust denial and Holocaust minimization efforts find increasingly
overt acceptance as sanctioned historical discourse in a number of
Middle Eastern countries.''
Mr. Speaker, the Holocaust could not have occurred without the
complicity of governments and individuals who tolerated stark hatred of
Jews. I am hopeful that by reminding ourselves of the horrors of that
time, we will remain vigilant about preventing a recurrence of the
widespread anti-Semitism that helped the Nazis rise to power.
Mrs. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate Yom Hashoah,
Holocaust Martyr and Heroes Remembrance Day. I join the people of
Israel and those around the world to memorialize the 6 million Jews who
were murdered by the Nazis during World War II. The world is still
feeling the Holocaust's effects.
In 1933, there were over 9 million European Jews. By 1945, nearly two
of every three had been killed as part of the Nazis' Final Solution.
European cities have never recovered the diversity and way of life they
had prior to the war. The Jewish people killed were teachers, lawyers,
doctors, musicians, parents, and children, and were killed only because
they were Jewish and targeted for no other reason.
We must also remember the others who were murdered. Gypsies, the
handicapped, and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation
for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. Millions more, including
homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and
political dissidents, also suffered grievous oppression and death under
Nazi tyranny for no specific reason except they were different than
their captors.
As time moves forward, there are few Holocaust survivors still with
us and it is important for them to share their stories and educate
people about their experiences. Nearly 60 years have passed since the
Holocaust but anti-Semitism still exists. However, I believe passing on
the lessons learned from this horrible time from generation to
generation will someday destroy the hateful attitudes and ignorance
that resulted in the evil of the Holocaust.
The Holocaust was not an accident. It was a planned attempted
extermination. Individuals, organizations and governments made choices
that not only legalized discrimination but also allowed prejudice,
hatred, and ultimately, mass murder to occur. The human race must
constantly be reminded of the Holocaust and how the world stood idly by
for too long. We must remember these painful events in order to prevent
another Holocaust from ever occurring again.
We will never forget.
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