[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 12 (Monday, January 22, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H801-H805]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 PAYING TRIBUTE TO REVEREND WAITSTILL SHARP AND MARTHA SHARP FOR THEIR 
            HEROIC EFFORTS TO SAVE JEWS DURING THE HOLOCAUST

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the 
resolution (H. Res. 52) paying tribute to Reverend Waitstill Sharp and 
Martha Sharp for their recognition by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' 
and Heroes' Remembrance Authority as Righteous Among the Nations for 
their heroic efforts to save Jews during the Holocaust.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H. Res. 52

       Whereas, on June 13, 2006, the Yad Vashem Holocaust 
     Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Israel, an 
     organization dedicated to preserving the memory of Holocaust 
     victims, honored the Reverend Waitstill Sharp, and his wife, 
     Martha Sharp, posthumously as ``Righteous Among the Nations'' 
     for risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust;
       Whereas the Sharps had to leave their 2-year-old daughter 
     and 6-year-old son in the care of family and congregants in 
     Wellesley, Massachusetts, to answer a call from leaders of 
     the American Unitarian Association to go to Czechoslovakia in 
     February 1939 to provide humanitarian assistance for the tens 
     of thousands of refugees crowding into Prague;
       Whereas Martha Sharp was a social worker trained at the 
     Jane Addams Hull House, a community service organization in 
     Chicago, Illinois, and the Reverend Waitstill Sharp was a 
     Harvard-educated lawyer and a Sunday school teacher who was 
     inspired to become a Unitarian minister;
       Whereas, after their arrival in Czechoslovakia, the Sharps 
     immediately grasped that they needed not only to help feed 
     refugees, but also to assist Jews and opponents of the Nazi 
     regime escape to safety elsewhere in Europe;
       Whereas the Sharps refused to leave Prague when, in March 
     1939, a month after the Sharps' arrival, the Nazis occupied 
     Czechoslovakia, making the Sharps' work more urgent, more 
     complicated, and more dangerous;
       Whereas the Sharps insisted on continuing their life-saving 
     mission by working out of private residences even after April 
     1939, when the Nazis ransacked the office of the Unitarian 
     mission in Prague and threw the furniture into the street;
       Whereas the Sharps repeatedly risked their own safety to 
     exit and re-enter Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, crisscrossed 
     Europe to obtain the travel documents necessary to help Jews 
     and opponents of the Nazi regime escape Czechoslovakia, and 
     even escorted some refugees by train through Germany to the 
     United Kingdom;
       Whereas the Sharps were determined to complete their 6-
     month mission, even after warnings that the Gestapo was 
     searching for them;
       Whereas the Sharps stayed in Czechoslovakia until August 
     30, 1939, 1 day before Gestapo agents came to arrest Martha 
     Sharp, who had become known for her boldness at evading Nazi 
     rules restricting travel;
       Whereas, upon the Sharps' return in 1940 to their family 
     and the Wellesley Hills Unitarian Church in Massachusetts, 
     their report to the American Unitarian Association about the 
     imminent danger posed by the Nazis to refugees across Europe 
     led to the Sharps being asked to establish a similar 
     operation in France under the newly founded Unitarian Service 
     Committee;
       Whereas the Sharps returned to Europe in 1940 fully aware 
     of the Nazi terror they would face;
       Whereas the Sharps had a special interest in saving refugee 
     children, as well as artists, intellectuals, and political 
     dissidents, and the Sharps and the Unitarian colleagues who 
     followed in their footsteps set up systems and escape routes 
     that functioned throughout World War II to assist 
     approximately 2,000 men, women, and children to gain freedom;
       Whereas the famous Jewish novelist, Lion Feuchtwanger, who 
     was one of the first Germans to have his citizenship revoked 
     after Hitler came to power and whose name topped the 
     Gestapo's ``Surrender on Demand'' list, was one of the first 
     people the Sharps helped in a dramatic and dangerous escape 
     from France;
       Whereas Eva Rosemarie Feigl, who was 14 in December 1940 
     when Martha Sharp helped her and 28 other children reach 
     safety in the United States, provided eye-witness testimony 
     that enabled the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' 
     Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem, Israel, to honor the 
     Sharps as ``Righteous Among the Nations'';
       Whereas, when the Sharps' plans to set up the first office 
     of the newly formed Unitarian Service Committee in Paris, 
     France, failed as a result of the Nazi occupation of France, 
     the Sharps instead established an operation in neutral 
     Portugal, where throughout World War II Lisbon remained the 
     last hope for refugees seeking safe passage out of Nazi-
     occupied territory;

[[Page H802]]

       Whereas the Sharps recognized that they were dependent upon 
     a much larger circle of friends and colleagues who made their 
     heroism possible, such as the people who cared for the 
     Sharps' children, the members of the congregation in 
     Wellesley, Massachusetts, who maintained the Wellesley Hills 
     Unitarian Church in the Sharps' absence, ordinary Unitarians 
     who financed their cause, ministers across the United States 
     who urged their congregations to become sponsors for 
     refugees, and secretaries who volunteered in Europe and the 
     United States to maintain thousands of case files for 
     refugees;
       Whereas the Sharps' efforts resulted not only in the rescue 
     of thousands of people, but in the creation of what is now 
     known as the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, an 
     institution that multiplied the number of rescues a thousand-
     fold in the years that followed;
       Whereas, at the Yad Vashem ceremony that honored the Sharps 
     as ``Righteous Among the Nations'' on June 13, 2006, in 
     Israel, officials specifically recognized the Sharps' courage 
     in going into the heart of Europe when World War II was 
     unfolding and many people were fleeing;
       Whereas Martha Sharp was the first American woman to be 
     named ``Righteous Among the Nations'', and the Reverend 
     Waitstill Sharp and Martha Sharp were only the second and 
     third individuals named ``Righteous Among the Nations'' who 
     were United States citizens at the time they performed the 
     deeds for which they were honored;
       Whereas the Sharps' daughter, Martha Sharp Joukowsky, 
     accepted the Yad Vashem honor on behalf of her parents and 
     remarked that they were ``modest and ordinary people, who 
     responded to the suffering and needs around them . . . as 
     they would have expected everyone to do in a similar 
     situation'';
       Whereas Martha Sharp Joukowsky added that the honor given 
     to her parents is also about ``the unseen efforts of a much 
     wider circle of people who made their work possible'' and 
     that it ``is the kind of network that is needed again today 
     to stop the slow genocide in Darfur'';
       Whereas Martha Sharp Joukowsky concluded her remarks by 
     saying, ``Let this celebration about my parents stand as a 
     call to action'';
       Whereas September 9, 2006, marks the second anniversary of 
     the United States Government declaring the violence in 
     Darfur, Sudan, to be genocide; and
       Whereas the Sharps deserve honor for their example and for 
     helping to found an institution, the Unitarian Universalist 
     Service Committee, that today carries on their work in 
     distant corners of the world and asks for the ``Righteous 
     Among the Nations'' to help save Darfur now: Now, therefore, 
     be it
       Resolved,  That the House of Representatives--
       (1) recognizes the Reverend Waitstill Sharp and Martha 
     Sharp as genuine American heroes;
       (2) pays tribute to the Reverend Waitstill Sharp and Martha 
     Sharp for having their names added to the Wall of Rescuers in 
     the permanent exhibition of the United States Holocaust 
     Memorial Museum on September 14, 2006;
       (3) commends the organization founded to support the 
     Sharps' work, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, 
     for its efforts to rescue Jews and opponents of the Nazi 
     regime in Europe from 1939 to 1945 and for carrying on the 
     Sharps' legacy by working to save the lives of the people of 
     Darfur, Sudan, and to protect human rights worldwide; and
       (4) requests the Clerk of the House of Representatives to 
     transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution to the Joukowsky 
     family of Providence, Rhode Island, the direct descendants of 
     the Reverend Waitstill Sharp and Martha Sharp, and to the 
     Unitarian Universalist Service Committee of Cambridge, 
     Massachusetts.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Lantos) and the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-
Lehtinen) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.


                             General Leave

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include 
extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution 
and yield myself such time as I might consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like first to recognize the outstanding efforts 
of the sponsor of this important measure, Congressman James McGovern, 
my good friend from Massachusetts, the distinguished member of the 
Rules Committee, who represents the area where the Reverend Waitstill 
Sharp, and his wife, Martha Sharp, who are honored in this resolution, 
lived.
  Recently, the Holocaust Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem honored 
the Reverend Waitstill Sharp and his wife, Martha, posthumously, as 
Righteous Among the Nations, for risking their lives to save Jews 
during the Holocaust.

                              {time}  1445

  They are only the second and third Americans to be so honored. Varian 
Fry, a distinguished American diplomat with whom the Sharps worked, was 
the first to be so honored.
  Mr. Speaker, the Sharps' story is one of courage and caring at vast 
personal sacrifice. They answered the call from the American Unitarian 
Association and left their two young children behind to travel to 
Europe twice to save the lives of Jews who were being persecuted and 
eventually killed. They spent many months in Czechoslovakia in 1939, 
returned to the United States for a brief period, and then in 1940 
again went back to Europe under the auspices of the newly founded 
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee to aid more people in escaping 
the horror of the Nazi regime.
  In all, as a result of the efforts of the Reverend and Mrs. Sharp and 
their Unitarian colleagues, over 2,000 men, women and children were 
saved from the Nazi death machine.
  Mr. Speaker, it is particularly appropriate that this House 
acknowledge the selfless and courageous actions of the Sharps at this 
time. In just a few days, on January 27, men and women around the globe 
will commemorate the Second International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
  On November 1, 2005, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a 
resolution and designated January 27 as an annual International Day of 
Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. This action 
was strongly endorsed and supported by my good friend, Kofi Annan, the 
recently retired Secretary General of the United Nations.
  January 27 was chosen as the day for this commemoration each year 
because January 27 was the date on which the Nazi death camp at 
Auschwitz was liberated by Allied troops in 1945 in the closing days of 
the Second World War. Two years ago on the 50th anniversary of the 
liberation of Auschwitz, along with the chronicler of the Holocaust 
Elie Wiesel and his wife, my wife Annette and I had the honor to be 
members of the United States delegation at Auschwitz representing our 
Nation at the solemn ceremonies marking that historic event with heads 
of state, diplomats, world leaders, and, most importantly, survivors of 
the Nazi atrocities.
  Mr. Speaker, the U.N. General Assembly resolution adopted 14 months 
ago urges every country to honor the memory of the victims of the 
Holocaust and encourages the development of educational programs on 
Holocaust history as part of our firm resolve to prevent genocides in 
the future.
  When this resolution was adopted, Secretary General Kofi Annan said, 
and I quote, ``There can be no reversing the unique tragedy of the 
Holocaust. It must be remembered with shame and horror for as long as 
human memory continues. Only by remembering can we pay fitting tribute 
to the victims. Millions of innocent Jews and members of other 
minorities were murdered in the most barbarous ways imaginable. We must 
never forget those men, women and children or their agony.''
  Mr. Speaker, it is essential that we remember the horror and the 
reality of the Holocaust. A recent poll taken in the United Kingdom, 
one of the most advanced countries on the face of this planet, revealed 
the shocking ignorance of the Holocaust among young children in 
Britain. The poll reported that 28 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds were 
not certain that the Holocaust took place. This is both incredible and 
deeply disturbing. And I fear that the United Kingdom is not the only 
country where such results could be found.
  Even more disturbing are political phenomena like Iranian President 
Ahmadinejad who claim that the murder of 6 million Jews and others 
targeted by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II was 
fabricated. This same Iranian leader recently convened a so-called 
``conference'' in Tehran to bring together other Holocaust deniers.
  As the only survivor of the Holocaust ever elected to Congress, I am 
outraged at attempts to deny what I experienced and witnessed 
firsthand. The Holocaust, Mr. Speaker, did take place, and

[[Page H803]]

6 million innocent men, women and children were massacred in this 
horrific genocide.
  International Holocaust Remembrance Day is a time for all of us to 
remember and to honor the victims, but it is also a time to remember 
those like the Reverend Waitstill and Martha Sharp, recognized as 
Righteous Among the Nations, who heroically stood up in the face of 
unspeakable evil and said ``no'' to the horrors of the Nazi genocide. 
They and the decent people who helped them deserve our gratitude, 
recognition, and admiration.
  The Sharps' remarkable story is a powerful reminder that all of us 
have a moral obligation to take action to end violence and to prevent 
and stop genocide, genocide which today is taking place in Darfur. We 
must educate our young people who do not know the significance of the 
Holocaust, and we must fight against the revisionist historians and 
phony leaders like Ahmadinejad. The world must be reminded that the 
Holocaust in fact did occur, that millions suffered untold agony and 
died.
  Mr. Speaker, recent atrocities like Rwanda and Darfur in Sudan remind 
us that our pledge ``Never Again'' has not been fulfilled. Let us learn 
from the Reverend Sharp and his courageous wife to have the fortitude 
and foresight to act against such evil.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a profound honor to be on this floor following the 
words of our chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Mr. Lantos, the 
loan survivor in Congress of the Holocaust, and I echo all of his 
sentiments.
  I also wish to commend my good friend, the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), for offering this resolution.
  Although we come to the floor and pass resolutions, and sometimes we 
don't take the time to read them, I hope that all of my colleagues do 
read this inspirational story of the Sharp family and the way that they 
helped so many flee the Nazi atrocities, and I rise today in strong 
support of Mr. McGovern's resolution.
  It recognizes Reverend Waitstill Sharp and his wife Martha Sharp as 
genuine American heroes. Further, it pays tribute to the Reverend Sharp 
and his wife Martha for having their names added to the Wall of 
Rescuers in the permanent exhibit of the United States Holocaust 
Memorial Museum on September 14 of this year.
  It further commends the organization founded to support the Sharps' 
work, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, for its role in 
rescuing Jews and opponents of the Nazi regime in Europe from the years 
1939 to 1945, as well as carrying on to this day the legacy of the 
Sharps by working to save the lives of people in places like Darfur, 
Sudan, and to protect human rights worldwide.
  Furthermore, it requests that a copy of this resolution be provided 
to the direct descendants of these courageous individuals in 
remembrance of their valiant efforts.
  Mr. Speaker, the Sharp family is an example for all to emulate. They 
demonstrated unparalleled courage in the face of Nazi aggression by 
providing relief and humanitarian assistance to Jewish refugees, 
particularly children, and to establish escape routes that were the 
difference between life and death for many Jews during the Holocaust. 
They deserve to be honored and they deserve to be remembered today and 
always.
  Elie Wiesel has said that he decided to devote his life to telling 
the story of the Holocaust because, in his words, ``Having survived, I 
owe something to the dead, and anyone who does not remember betrays 
them again.''
  We would be betraying the victims as well as the survivors if we did 
not also remember and honor those who risked their own lives to save 
the lives of others. For this reason, I ask my colleagues to render 
their full support to the resolution before us.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I commend my good friend from Florida for 
her eloquent and powerful statement.
  Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to yield such time as he may consume to 
my dear friend from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), the author of this 
resolution, senior member of our Rules Committee.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, let me begin by thanking the distinguished 
chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the distinguished ranking 
member of the Foreign Affairs Committee for bringing to the floor today 
H. Res. 52, legislation that pays tribute to the Reverend Waitstill 
Sharp and his wife Martha, the couple who fought genocide. I also want 
to express my gratitude to both of my colleagues for their eloquent 
words in support of this legislation.
  Last year on September 14, I was privileged to join the wife of the 
distinguished chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Annette 
Lantos, at a ceremony held at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, 
D.C., honoring the Reverend Waitstill and Martha Sharp as they became 
the second and third Americans to be added to the honor roll of 21,000 
Righteous Gentiles and non-Jews whose efforts saved countless lives 
during the Holocaust. At that ceremony we were joined by family members 
of the Sharps in honoring the memory of this distinguished husband and 
wife team.
  Mr. Speaker, on that same day The Washington Post wrote an article 
about the Sharps, calling them ``The Couple Who Fought Genocide'' and I 
would like to share with my colleagues excerpts from that article:
  ``As the Nazis marched across Europe in 1939 and 1940, a Unitarian 
minister from Massachusetts and his wife rushed into the coming 
Holocaust to save Jews and other refugees, including scores of 
children. When they set out for Europe in January 1939, Germany had 
seized the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia and refugees were flowing 
across the continent. The American Unitarian Association asked numerous 
ministers to go to Europe before Waitstill, 37, and his social worker 
wife, Martha, 33, agreed.
  ``Prague, Czechoslovakia, was home to one of the world's largest 
Unitarian congregations, which was helping refugees of all stripes--
Jews, trade unionists, political dissenters, and others. The Sharps 
arrived to lend a hand in February 1939, and 1 month later, the city 
was occupied by the Nazis.
  ``On March 15, 1939, the day the Germans took Prague, Martha Sharp 
guided an anti-Nazi leader to asylum at the British Embassy. A few days 
later, the Reverend Waitstill Sharp arranged for a member of the Czech 
Parliament to be smuggled out of a hospital morgue in a body bag. The 
Nazis soon closed the Sharps' office and threw their furniture into the 
street, but the couple stayed another 5 months and got out just ahead 
of the Gestapo.
  ``On their second foray to Europe, they worked in Marseilles, France, 
and helped smuggle across the Pyrenees into neutral Portugal. One of 
their close collaborators was Varian Fry, a 32-year-old New York editor 
who devoted himself to saving European intellectuals and who was the 
first U.S. citizen placed by Yad Vashem on its `Righteous Among the 
Nations' honor roll, which includes Oskar Schindler and Raoul 
Wallenberg.
  ``Since the Sharps burned most of their records to keep them out of 
Nazi hands, no one knows how many lives they actually saved. Their 
grandson, Artemis Joukowsky, III, of Boston, estimates they helped 
3,500 refugees in Prague, though it is unclear how many survived. In 
Marseilles, they pioneered routes that hundreds used to escape.
  ``Marianne Scheckler-Feder of Laguna Hills, California, has a fuzzy 
but enduring memory of Martha Sharp, reinforced by a fading black-and-
white photograph taken on a sun-dappled street in the French port of 
Marseilles.

                              {time}  1500

  `` `I remember a figure. She was a very, very elegant lady. Kind of 
serious and very concerned. You looked up to her. She demanded 
respect,' Sheckler-Feder said, who is now 79 years old.
  ``Thousands of refugees from across Europe had flocked to Marseilles 
in hopes of gaining passage abroad, only to be interned in work camps 
when France surrendered to Germany in 1940 and the Nazis set up a 
collaborationist government in Vichy. Sheckler-Feder was 12. She was 
one of three Jewish sisters, nearly identical triplets, who had fled 
with their parents from Vienna, a bare step ahead of the Nazis.

[[Page H804]]

  ``Marseilles was the end of the road, the end of hope, until they met 
Martha Sharp. She pestered Vichy officials to issue exit visas for 29 
children, including nine Jews. With almost as much difficulty, she 
persuaded our State Department, which was rife with anti-Semitism at 
that time, to let the children and 10 adults into the United States.
  ``Sheckler-Feder and her sisters traveled by train to Lisbon and 
sailed in December 1940 aboard the Excambion, a ship stripped of all 
furnishings except sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows to accommodate 
as many passengers as possible. Their parents eventually followed.
  ``Sheckler-Feder has no doubt that were it not for Martha Sharp, her 
family would have perished: `What she did for us is outstanding. It 
will never be forgotten.' ''
  Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to have introduced this bill with the 
esteemed chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Tom 
Lantos, along with House Members of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial 
Council, Representatives Cantor, LaTourette, and Waxman, the Members of 
the House congressional delegations representing Rhode Island and 
Massachusetts, and other bipartisan co-sponsors.
  I want to thank Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the majority leader and the 
minority leader, John Boehner, for supporting this consideration on the 
Suspension Calendar.
  It is my hope that all of us in this House will not only pay tribute 
to the memory and legacy of Reverend Waitstill and Martha Sharp but 
will recognize the example they set. There are many urgent situations 
confronting our world today where people's lives are in grave danger. 
Many people in communities even face the threat of genocide, as is the 
case in Darfur. I hope that we can learn from the Sharps' example that 
each of us can make a difference, can save the lives of others, and all 
we have to do is step up and answer the call. It is my hope that the 
inspiration of the Sharps will compel our government and other 
civilized governments across this world into taking more proactive and 
more effective steps to stop the genocide that is now going on in the 
Sudan.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to pass this resolution. Again, 
I want to thank my friend Mr. Lantos and my friend Ms. Ros-Lehtinen for 
their eloquent words of support.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, again I congratulate Mr. McGovern for 
authoring this important resolution. And that selfless and giving 
nature of the American spirit as exemplified by this tremendous family 
is alive and well with so many people trying to stop the genocide in 
Darfur and in other dark places of the globe.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. 
Res, 52, which honors Rev. Waitstill Sharp and Martha Sharp for their 
outstanding heroism during the Holocaust. Although the couple lived 
safely with their two children in Massachusetts in 1939, both felt a 
calling to provide aid to those in need overseas. They traveled to 
Czechoslovakia and began providing food for the refugees fleeing the 
Nazi regime. However, when they arrived, the Nazis invaded 
Czechoslovakia and the situation grew more dangerous.
  Instead of returning home, they found that they could better serve 
those in harm's way by helping them escape from the region. Despite the 
numerous life-risking situations and constant pursuit by the Gestapo, 
the couple stayed and succeeded in helping over 2,000 people escape 
danger throughout World War II.
  I am pleased that they received official recognition as ``Righteous 
Among Nations'' last June, in the Yad Vashem ceremony in Israel, for 
truly their righteous actions are unparalleled, and we are incredibly 
honored to call them our fellow citizens. The Sharps were some of the 
first Americans to receive the award, setting an incredible example of 
righteousness and good will for all who follow them.
  In addition, I would like to note the powerful words of their 
daughter, Martha Sharp Joukowsky, who accepted the award on their 
behalf. She reminded us that her parents' actions represent ``the 
unseen efforts of a much wider circle of people who made their work 
possible'' and that this ``is the kind of network that is needed again 
today to stop the slow genocide in Darfur.'' Sadly, we must recognize 
that suffering and oppression does not end with one war or one crisis 
in our past but continues into our present day. In order to truly pay 
tribute to the Sharps, we must acknowledge our present condition. So I 
urge my colleagues, as they remember the Sharps today, to also remember 
the urgency of the devastating situation in Darfur. I am sure if they 
were alive today, they would devote all their efforts to save the 
people there from this modern-day Holocaust.
  I urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 52, to honor Reverend and 
Mrs. Sharp for their heroic rescue efforts during World War II.
  Mr. BACA. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 52, legislation 
paying tribute to Reverend Waitstill and Martha Sharp, an American 
couple who left the comfort and safety of their home in Massachusetts 
to save the lives of Jews in danger of being killed during the 
Holocaust.
  Waitstill Sharp was a Unitarian minister and his wife Martha was a 
social worker.
  In the late 1930s, amid the horrors of the Holocaust and a refugee 
crisis in Europe, the American Unitarian Association asked numerous 
ministers to cross the Atlantic and offer assistance. The Sharps 
agreed, despite the dangers and despite having young children at home 
whom they would have to leave behind in the care of friends and 
neighbors and members of their congregation.
  In February 1939, the Sharps arrived in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where 
one of the world's largest Unitarian congregations was assisting Jewish 
refugees and others who opposed the Nazis, including trade unionists 
and political dissenters. A month later, the Germans occupied Prague, 
increasing the urgency of the Sharps' mission but also the risk. They 
remained in Prague almost six months.
  Through their courage, creativity and persistence they were able to 
lead hundreds of people, likely thousands, to safety.
  They again heeded the call to action, returning to Europe in 1940, 
this time based in Marseilles, France, where they helped smuggle people 
across the Pyrenees into neutral Portugal. The escape routes that they 
established enabled hundreds of refugees to survive.
  Among those whom the Sharps saved from persecution and slaughter at 
the hands of the Nazis were many children, including Jewish children 
who are now elderly, living freely in America, and remember with 
gratitude the couple who saved their lives almost 70 years ago.
  I should note that the Sharps and others who worked to save Jews not 
only had to worry about the Nazis and the Gestapo, Vichy officials, 
collaborators and informers but also had to overcome bureaucracy and 
anti-Semitism even among the U.S. State Department. Historians have 
documented that inaction, indifferences, failures and even outright 
hostility by American officials resulted in the tragic death of Jews 
during the Holocaust.
  But today we do not dwell on this; instead we honor the Sharps for 
persevering despite such obstacles and adversity.
  Some of the Sharps' surviving relatives and admirers claim they were 
merely ordinary people who did what anyone would have done in the face 
of suffering. While I would like to believe that all people of 
compassion would come to the aid of people in need, especially when 
lives are at stake, sadly I know that is not the case. It was not true 
during the Holocaust, and it is not true today as millions of people in 
America and around the world suffer poverty, hunger, disease and even 
genocide and yet still not enough is being done to help them.
  The special and extraordinary nature of the Sharps' actions is clear 
by the rare and high honors they have deservedly received.
  In June 2006, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' 
Remembrance Authority in Israel honored Reverend Waitstill Sharp and 
Martha Sharp posthumously as ``Righteous Among the Nations'' for 
risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
  And in September 2006, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 
Washington, D.C. honored the Sharps.
  There were definitely other brave, compassionate people who were 
inspired by their faith, values or their sense of right and wrong and 
therefore took steps, both small and large, to help Jews during the 
Holocaust. Some provided food and shelter, some refused to inform on 
their neighbors or cooperate with authorities enforcing murderous 
policies, some actively resisted against the Nazis, and some helped 
transport Jews to safety. But this was not the norm in Europe during 
the Holocaust. And we know the tragic, horrific results: over 6 million 
Jewish men, women and children perished.
  So today we acknowledge the Sharps as American heroes, and I would 
add as heroes of humanity. Martha Sharp is the first American woman--
and she and Waitstill are only the second and third Americans--to be 
added to the honor roll of 21,000 ``righteous'' gentiles, or non-Jews, 
whose efforts saved countless lives during the Holocaust.
  We also commend the Unitarian Universality Service Committee. UUSC 
was founded to

[[Page H805]]

support the Sharps' work and helped rescue Jews and other refugees from 
Nazi persecution. The organization has continued to do good work in 
support of human rights all over the world and is actively engaged in 
efforts to stop the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
  As we honor the Sharps, let us be inspired by their heroic example 
and let us all commit ourselves to doing what we can--and what we 
must--to bring an end to human suffering.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) that the House suspend the rules 
and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 52.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of 
those voting have responded in the affirmative.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will 
be postponed.

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