[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 48 (Thursday, April 27, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E639]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 STATEMENT ON HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. GENE GREEN

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 27, 2006

  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to observe Yom 
Hashoah, the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day.
  The Holocaust was an unprecedented crime that took the lives of 6 
million Jews, broke apart families, and wrongfully imprisoned 
individuals subjecting them to tortures, rape and other horrendous 
actions.
  In 1933, the Jewish population of Europe stood at over 9 million. 
Most European Jews lived in countries that the Third Reich would occupy 
or influence during World War II. By 1945, close to two out of every 
three European Jews had been killed as part of the Nazi policy to 
systematically murder the Jews of Europe.
  Yom Hashoah serves as a reminder that we must never forget the 
appalling tragedy of the Holocaust, and the 6 million Jews who lost 
their lives.
  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 
to ensure that such acts never happen again, there must be a concerted 
effort to fight intolerance and discrimination.
  Before I was elected to Congress in 1990, my family and I and our two 
children visited Dachau in southern Germany. It was important not only 
for my wife and I, but also for our children to see what inhumanity 
mankind could do to itself; not only for our generation but for our 
children and the next generation to make sure that it never happens 
again.
  Mr. Speaker, I join with my colleagues on this Yom Hashoah in 
commemorating those who lost their lives in the Holocaust.

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