[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 114 (Thursday, September 14, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1730-E1731]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




HONORING REVEREND WAITSTILL SHARP AND MARTHA SHARP, AMERICAN HEROES OF 
                             THE HOLOCAUST

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 14, 2006

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the Reverend 
Waitstill Sharp and his

[[Page E1731]]

wife, Martha Sharp, who were true heroes of the Holocaust who risked 
their lives to save Jews from the atrocities of the Nazi regime.
  The Sharps' incredible story was told this morning at a very moving 
ceremony at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum where family, 
friends, and admirers gathered to pay tribute and remember the selfless 
and laudatory actions of this amazing couple. Their story was also a 
powerful reminder that all of us have the moral obligation to do 
anything we can to end violence and genocides where ever and when ever 
they occur.
  On June 13, 2006, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Authority in 
Israel honored the Rev. Waitstill Sharp, and his wife, Martha Sharp, 
posthumously as ``Righteous Among the Nations'' for risking their lives 
to save Jews during the Holocaust. The Sharps are only the second and 
third Americans to be so honored. Varian Fry, with whom the Sharps 
worked, was the first.
  Our colleagues in the Senate passed a resolution on September 8 of 
this year honoring the courageous service of the Sharps. My colleague 
from Massachusetts, where the Sharps once lived, and I soon will 
introduce similar legislation in the House remembering the Sharps and 
their story and heroism.
  Mr. Speaker, the Sharps left everything behind, including their home 
and two young children, to answer a call from the American Unitarian 
Association to go to Czechoslovakia in February of 1939. The Sharps 
were not content merely to feed the hordes of refugees passing through 
Czechoslovakia; they also began to assist anti-Nazi dissidents and Jews 
to escape Nazi oppression. In the very shadow of aggression, they 
helped thousands flee to safety elsewhere in Europe and the United 
States.
  One month after the Sharps' arrival in Prague, Nazi forces occupied 
Czechoslovakia, making their work much more dangerous. The Sharps could 
have escaped, but they refused to leave the refugees helpless. Though 
the Nazis descended upon the Unitarian mission in Prague, ransacking 
the office and throwing the furniture into the street, Reverend and 
Mrs. Sharp continued their mission. They began working out of private 
residences, boldly defying Nazi restrictions.
  The Sharps did whatever was necessary to help Jews and opponents of 
the Nazi regime to escape Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, in spite of the 
considerable risk to their own lives. They entered and exited the 
border repeatedly, crisscrossed Europe to obtain needed travel 
documents, even escorted some of their clients by train through Germany 
itself, all the way to Great Britain. Focused on serving others, the 
Sharps ignored warning that they were in danger from the Gestapo.
  On August 30, 1939, six months after they arrived in Czechoslovakia, 
the Sharps concluded their first mission and returned to the U.S. Their 
exit was just one day before Gestapo agents came to arrest Martha, who 
had earned a reputation for her daring disregard of Nazi rules.
  After returning home for two years, the Sharps issued a report with 
the American Unitarian Association about the dangers faced by refugees 
all across Europe. As a result of this report, the Sharps were asked to 
set up a parallel operation in France under the newly founded Unitarian 
Universalist Service Committee. In 1940, the Sharps answered this call, 
courageously returning to Europe to aid more people flee the horror of 
the Nazi regime.
  By the time the Sharps arrived in Europe, the Nazis had already 
occupied France, but the Sharps were undaunted. They set up the 
American Unitarian Universalist Service Committee in Lisbon, Portugal, 
from where they continued to assist many more refugees from war-torn 
Europe escape to safety.
  In all, the Sharps and their Unitarian colleagues worked to save 
approximately 2,000 men, women, and children.
  Mr. Speaker, the Sharps' courageous, sacrificial and selfless example 
should motivate all of us to do everything we possibly can to prevent 
the horrors of genocide taking place anywhere on this planet. As the 
only survivor of the Holocaust in Congress, I have a special commitment 
to raising this.
  This morning's ceremony at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum 
concluded with a visit to the special exhibit on Darfur, Sudan. We were 
reminded that when the horrors of the Holocaust were made public, we 
often heard the phrase ``Never Again!'' But since World War II we have 
seen such genocidal tragedies occur in Cambodia, Rwanda, and now 
Darfur.
  The most moving and important message from the story of the Sharps is 
that they had the foresight and courage to leave their children and 
comfortable home behind--not just once, but twice--to go to the 
dangerous, gray, uncertain war zone of Europe to save people they 
probably did not even know. Their first trip was just days after 
kristallnacht, when the persecution of the Jews was just beginning to 
get more violent and ugly. Concentration camps were not yet even a 
glint in the Nazis' eyes.
  Mr. Speaker, the Sharps, and those who helped them to be able to do 
this, deserve the gratitude and admiration of all of us. Each and every 
one of us should make every effort to learn more about the wars and 
genocide occurring around the globe this very day, strive to have the 
courage of the Sharps, and act with equal resolve to do everything each 
of us can do to stop these horrors.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in paying tribute to this selfless 
and dedicated couple, whose response to the Holocaust and to inhumanity 
and brutality is one that men and women everywhere should emulate.

                          ____________________