[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 68 (Friday, May 26, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E969]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          HIRAM BINGHAM STAMP

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ROB SIMMONS

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 25, 2006

  Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a son of 
Connecticut's Second District, the district I am privileged to 
represent in this House.
  The Bingham family has lived in Salem Connecticut for many 
generations. I have always been impressed with the Bingham family's 
history of dedication to public service. Hiram Bingham IV is a prime 
example of this dedication--only exemplified by the fact that few 
people actually knew the extent of his good work, including his own 
family.
  In 1988, Hiram passed away. A few years after his death, one of his 
sons discovered a bundle of documents tucked away in the attic at the 
family home containing records from Hiram's work at the U.S. State 
Department. These records revealed an untold story of Hiram's courage 
and heroism.
  Hiram's family and friends knew he worked for the State Department, 
but he rarely mentioned the details of his employment. From 1939 to 
1941, Hiram Bingham served as our Nation's vice consul in Marseilles, 
France. The records in the closet revealed that while serving at his 
post Hiram helped save at least 2,500 people from the Nazis, including 
the artist, Marc Chagall and Nobel Prize winning biochemist Otto 
Meyerhoff. During these years, this courageous individual issued papers 
that gave safe passage to Jewish and non-Jewish refugees. He also 
personally escorted dozens of people across the border into Spain.
  It is of no small interest that this man of principle acted in direct 
opposition to official State Department orders that inhibited 
immigration of refugees to the United States. Hiram Bingham's action 
defied the Nazi war machine, Vichy France and his own Nation's State 
Department. Ignoring the consequences of being caught, he went about 
his work, quietly saving as many people as he could.

  When his superiors discovered his activities in the spring of 1941, 
he was removed from his post and transferred to Buenos Aires. In 1946, 
he resigned because of the government's failure to pursue the Nazi 
presence in Latin America.
  After learning of his father's extraordinary efforts, his son Robert 
Kim Bingham, began petitioning the U.S. Postal Service in 1998 to issue 
a stamp in honor of his father. During that time, I was serving in the 
Connecticut General Assembly and Robert asked me to send a letter of 
support for the stamp to the Post Master General. I took the letter 
down to the floor during our final week of session and as we worked 
late into the evening every member of the General Assembly signed onto 
that letter--representing the first time in memory that every member 
had signed a letter circulated for any purpose. Robert and his family 
should take pride in the overwhelming support his dream had with the 
people of Connecticut.
  It has been my honor to work with the Bingham family and be part of 
the process that brought us here today. I was pleased to read in a 
newspaper in my district that of the 21 issues that will be released 
this year, the most requests came in for Hiram Bingham. I am proud that 
the U.S. Postal Service has included Hiram Bingham in its tribute to 
American Diplomats.
  Last year, I had an opportunity to visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust 
Martyrs' and Heros' Remembrance Authority, in Jerusalem. Hearing and 
seeing the stories of survival made Hiram's work even more profound for 
me.
  Evil is often easy to identify, yet it is often difficult to oppose. 
To do so requires courage and a strong moral core. Hiram Bingham had 
both.
  He put his moral obligation above his career and he put his personal 
safety above his career. He paid a price, but heroes are often required 
to do just that.
  Hiram Bingham did not solicit accolades for what he had done. He did 
not desire to surpass others at all cost--he desired to serve others at 
all cost. And that is as good a definition of a ``hero'' as I have 
seen.
  Hiram Bingham could have gone along with the orders that came to his 
desk, but he chose not to. Going along is always easy. Doing the right 
thing is often difficult. But by doing the difficult thing, Hiram 
Bingham is today known as one of 11 ``righteous diplomats'' who 
together saved 200,000 people from the Holocaust. Today the descendents 
of those 200,000 individuals total more than 1 million. That is a 
tremendous legacy for one's life's work.
  I am pleased that this long overdue honor is being awarded to Hiram 
Bingham, a ``righteous diplomat'' who put his sense of right and wrong 
and his capacity to help others ahead of personal considerations.




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