[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 98 (Tuesday, July 19, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1523]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           NAZI PARAPHERNALIA IS AN ABHORRENT SIGHT ANYWHERE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. THELMA D. DRAKE

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 19, 2005

  Mrs. DRAKE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to share the following article 
written by a constituent, Rabbi Israel Zoberman.

       The rally at the Yorktown Battlefield in Virginia, on June 
     25, 2005 sponsored by the Nationalist Socialist Movement (The 
     American Nazi Party) is an opportune occasion for somber 
     reflection and sincere soul-searching. Let us be clear: Nazi 
     paraphernalia is bound to be an abhorrent sight anywhere, so 
     much more so on a site resonating with sacred historical 
     memories. A noxious display of terror-filled symbols 
     protected paradoxically by our great democracy's freedoms 
     which the Nazis seek to remove; freedoms and concomitant 
     responsibilities won not without heroic struggle to overthrow 
     tyranny and to be reaffirmed only a few days later at the 
     July 4th celebration. Surely the rally's chosen venue and the 
     close proximity of the two above dates is no coincidence, 
     since the American Nazis unabashedly pretend to cloak 
     themselves in the mantle of ``the true American patriots.''
       How ironical as well to acknowledge that we are currently 
     observing the 60th anniversary of the defeat of the very same 
     forces that the American neo-Nazis and their European 
     counterparts shamefully continue to uphold as the desired 
     ideal for humanity. How is it that following the enormous 
     sacrifices to uproot Nazi Germany with the critical 
     participation of the United States, there are those growing 
     up in our midst of enviable diversity and by-and-large, 
     mutual respect and civility, who yet harbor the seeds of 
     consuming diabolical hatred for all that we hold dear?
       The often repeat call for constant vigilance is not a trite 
     one. History has taught us that democratic societies are not 
     impregnable from those who labor to destroy them from within. 
     Unleashed poison of bigotry and prejudice when unchecked can 
     find its way into the mainstream when deteriorating political 
     and economic conditions are ripe for scapegoating any 
     vulnerable minority. Once the unfathomable Holocaust 
     occurred, is it any wonder that we have witnessed genocides 
     and ethnic cleansing in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Iraq and 
     now in the Sudan's Darfur region. The strikes of September 
     11, 2001 were also nourished by a similar spirit of 
     disregarding the Other. Does it not behoove our societal 
     institutions of home, school and religion to double our 
     efforts in reaching the young's minds to appreciate what is 
     at stake, promoting pluralism's open-mindedness and excising 
     extremism's venom? Hitler and his murderous cohorts, masters 
     of deception that they were, taught us nonetheless to 
     seriously take ominous language and behavior.
       Wider Holocaust and World War II education is a beneficial 
     tool, along with the laudable contribution of the U.S. 
     Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., the Virginia Holocaust 
     Museum in Richmond, and similar ones elsewhere; particularly 
     as time elapses from the actual tragic events with eye-
     witnesses dying while we confront revisionist history of 
     Holocaust denial. We ought be immensely proud of the noble 
     work, an exemplary model indeed, of our own Holocaust 
     Commission of the Community Relations Council of the United 
     Jewish Federation of Tidewater. As the U.S. Justice 
     Department's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) still 
     pursues tenaciously and admirably Nazis with blood on their 
     hands who entered America or wish to do so, the American 
     Jewish Committee reports that no more than 44 percent of 
     Americans know about Auschwitz and only 30 percent are aware 
     of what the ``6 million'' represents. Shockingly as well, 
     even in Germany half of the under twenty-four year old 
     population is ignorant of the Holocaust according to a recent 
     poll. Thus the regrettable exposure of Nazi activity in deed 
     and creed with today's internet utilization is also an 
     opportunity to become cognizant of this corrosive phenomenon 
     that we dare dismiss only at grave future risk. With the 
     alarming rise worldwide of anti-Semitic incidents, and 
     related anti-Israel bashing, the recently enacted German law 
     to restrict neo-Nazi demonstrations next to sensitive 
     historical sites is a good idea for us too.
       The issue confronting us as Americans crosses boundaries of 
     group, background, faith, gender and race. It ought to unite 
     us anew as one yet diverse American nation in pursuit of our 
     binding democratic agenda whose noble fulfillment is the 
     ultimate response to those threatening it. The counter peace 
     rally sponsored by The National Conference for Community 
     and Justice which took place on June 21 at Virginia 
     Wesleyan College was reassuring in the broad coalition it 
     represented of concerned and involved citizens. The 
     concluding moving dedication of the Peace Garden in memory 
     of Dr. Catharine Cookson, founding director of Virginia 
     Wesleyan's Center for the Study of Religious Freedom, was 
     an apt act reflecting the great American ideal of bridge-
     building and mutual embrace. During this trying time of a 
     global war against radical Islamic terror with the old 
     Nazi specter refusing to totally go away despite our 
     victory, we are reminded of the worst in human nature but 
     also the best in us.
       Rabbi Israel Zoberman is the spiritual leader of 
     Congregation Beth Chaverim in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Born 
     in Kazakhstan in 1945 to Polish Holocaust survivors, he is 
     past President of the Hampton Roads Board of Rabbis and 
     Cantors.

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