[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 27 (Tuesday, February 13, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E341]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    CONGRATULATIONS TO SOUTH FLORIDA'S HOLOCAUST DOCUMENTATION AND 
                            EDUCATION CENTER

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. KENDRICK B. MEEK

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 13, 2007

  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor and pay tribute 
to all victims of the Holocaust and to congratulate South Florida's 
Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, its founders and museum 
curators for their fine work in educating and reminding the public 
about the Holocaust and remembering and honoring its victims.
  An important part of the Center's permanent exhibits is one of only 
eight authentic World War II railcars that transported Jews from the 
Warsaw Ghetto to the Nazi death camps.
  An estimated 3 million Jews were packed into the cars like the one on 
display in Hollywood, FL, which has a faded swastika still painted on 
the side. The persecuted Jews were often kept inside for days without 
food or water before being murdered. This railcar was used during the 
world's darkest time when over 6 million Jews were murdered along with 
approximately 3 million more victims of Nazi aggression, including; 
Christian Poles, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexual men, and 
people with disabilities.
  This railcar will be placed on an unused track near the Holocaust 
Museum, which is located in my district at 2031 Harrison Street in 
Hollywood, FL, the center of the second-largest population of Holocaust 
survivors in the Nation.
  To the residents of South Florida, the students enrolled in area 
schools, and to the millions of visitors to the region, I encourage you 
to visit the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center to study, 
understand and contemplate the consequences of man's inhumanity to man 
which occurred in Europe prior to and during World War II.
  That the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center is one of four 
Holocaust museums in the country where these railcars are on display 
demonstrates that the Jewish community in South Florida is among the 
strongest in the Nation, forever committed to preserving the memory of 
the 6 million Jews who tragically were killed during the Shoah.
  This railcar will undoubtedly serve as a reminder for eternity that 
the poignant expression ``Never Again'' will never ring hollow again.
  I congratulate the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center for 
attaining and displaying this railcar, and for helping to teach the 
entire South Florida community lessons of tolerance and understanding.

                          ____________________