[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 58 (Tuesday, April 21, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E899-E900]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          COMMEMORATING YOM HASHOAH, HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 21, 2009

  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, today I remember the millions 
of souls who died at the hands of the Nazis and, specifically, the 
approximately six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. I 
remember the approximately one and a half million children who were 
brutally murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. In the United 
States Congress and all over the world, we embrace this solemn day of 
remembrance. It is Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laGvura, `Remembrance Day 
for the Holocaust and Heroism,' known commonly in Israel and abroad as 
Yom HaShoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day.
  I have always aspired to stand by the saying `Never be a bystander.' 
For that reason, I find it appropriate to recall the story which took 
place on the 27th of the Hebrew month Nisan, which is the day in 1951 
the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, designated as Yom HaShoah. On this 
day in 1943, a small group of less than one thousand Jewish rebels in 
Poland's Warsaw Ghetto were in the midst of fighting back against the 
elite Waffen-SS soldiers who had been tasked with ``liquidating'' the 
Ghetto. With only a few firearms, a tiny supply of ammunition, and a 
small number of makeshift explosives, it took the Nazis nearly a month 
to defeat the small band of Jewish fighters. Better known as `the 
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising,' this was the most significant act of Jewish 
resistance during the Holocaust. They never lost hope and, although the 
story ultimately ended tragically, it remains today an inspiration to 
us all of the unshakable will of human beings to live in freedom.
  I quote my friend, the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, 
when he spoke at the Central Memorial Assembly in Warsaw on the 50th 
Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1993: `There were those 
who believed

[[Page E900]]

that, with the fall of the Nazis, racism would be abolished from the 
earth. They were mistaken. Fifty years after the fall of Hitler, his 
successors have arisen in various corners of the world.'
  Today is a time for reflection, but it is not enough to simply 
remember. We must continue to fight hatred and intolerance wherever it 
exists, for human freedom depends on the presence of justice, the 
justice that was denied to so many during the dark days of World War 
II. To ignore that lesson is unforgivable.
  Today in the Darfur region of Sudan, genocide is taking place. This 
conflict has engulfed millions of people and cost hundreds of thousands 
of lives. Innocent people are being murdered, starved, and driven from 
their homes simply because of the color of their skin.
  As we commemorate Yom HaShoah, it is my hope that all people will 
banish the sort of dark hatred that gave rise to the Holocaust and, 
more recently, to the events in Darfur. May our consciences prevent us 
always from being bystanders in times and places where that sort of 
evil is present. Today I remember the past and take a stand for our 
future.

                          ____________________