[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 49 (Monday, May 1, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E671]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. HENRY A. WAXMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 1, 2006

  Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, this week we commemorate Yom Hashoah, 
Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day. With events in Israel, 
the United States and around the world, communities have gathered to 
memorialize the six million Jews murdered during World War II.
  This year, by a coincidence of the calendar, Yom Hashoah comes just 
days after the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and days before a 
rally planned in Washington to protest the genocide in Sudan. Each of 
these observances is a somber reminder that world inaction in the face 
of injustice leaves a tragic precedent for other acts of senseless 
bloodshed.
  The road from Armenia to Auschwitz was direct. If more attention had 
been paid to the innocent victims and those who perpetrated the 
atrocities against the Armenian people, the Holocaust might have been 
prevented. Perhaps if 60 years hadn't passed before the U.N. formally 
commemorated the Holocaust, international consciousness of other 
genocides like the massacres in Darfur could have been awakened sooner.
  While the U.N. General Assembly has finally committed to observing 
Holocaust commemoration annually, there is still tremendous complacency 
about modern day anti-Semitism. Many nations have stood idly by while 
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacks the Holocaust as fiction 
and aggressively calls for Israel's destruction.
  For example, Ukraine this year will mark the 65th anniversary of the 
Nazi massacre of more than 100,000 Jews at Babi Yar. Yet it took fierce 
pressure from the United States and Israel to urge the Ukrainian 
government to take a stand against MAUP, a local university that openly 
praises Ahmadinejad's anti-Israel statements, hosts anti-Zionism 
conferences, and actively distributes anti-Semitic propaganda across 
Europe.
  Memorials become relics if they do not stir our modern conscience. 
One of the reasons that Yom Hashoah was chosen to be commemorated on 
the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising is to inspire in all of 
us a drive to fight back against injustice and intolerance.
  Today, let us not only pay tribute to those who perished. Let us 
pledge to stand up against governments that persecute their own people. 
Let us bear witness to the crimes against humanity that are occurring 
in our midst. And let us declare our commitment to fight the 
reemergence of anti-Semitism so that the cry ``Never Again'' rings 
true.
    

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