[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 130 (Friday, October 7, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2062]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             HONORING THE LIFE AND WORK OF SIMON WIESENTHAL

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 6, 2005

  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my colleagues and the 
world community in honoring the life and work of Simon Wiesenthal. 
Especially during the High Holidays, it is important and appropriate to 
recognize the extraordinary achievements of a man who devoted the last 
60 years of his life to the pursuit of justice for the victims of the 
Holocaust. Hitler's Nazi regime was responsible for the murders of 
nearly six million Jewish men, women, and children and more than 11 
million people overall.
  Today, the relentless efforts of Simon Wiesenthal have led to the 
conviction of more than 1,000 of these Nazi war criminals. He was 
instrumental in the captures of Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the 
Nazi plan to annihilate the European Jewish population, and Karl 
Silberbauer, the Gestapo officer responsible for the arrest and 
deportation of Anne Frank.
  Although Simon Wiesenthal has passed away, his memory will live on 
forever. One way to ensure this is through the work of the Simon 
Wiesenthal Center. The organization actively promotes awareness of 
anti-Semitism while continuing to bring to justice surviving Nazi war 
criminals. Although its headquarters are located in Los Angeles, I am 
proud that my district is home to the Simon Wiesenthal New York 
Tolerance Center.
  I urge the House today to reaffirm our commitment to the fight 
against anti-Semitism and all forms of prejudice. Simon Wiesenthal's 
legacy teaches us that the perpetrators of genocide cannot be allowed 
to continue their path of persecution. It is crucial for Congress to 
continue to support Holocaust organizations like the Simon Wiesenthal 
Center so that history does not repeat itself. Simon Wiesenthal once 
said; ``When we come to the other world [after death] and meet the 
millions of Jews who died in the camps and they ask us, `What have you 
done?'. . . I will say, `I didn't forget you'.'' It is important that 
we take another step to remember the man who would never consider the 
atrocities of the Holocaust a part of the past.

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