[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 12 (Thursday, January 28, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S335]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        65TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LIBERATION OF AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU

  Mr. LeMIEUX. Mr. President, this week marks the 65th anniversary of 
the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp. It 
was 65 years ago this week when the Soviet army entered Auschwitz and 
liberated more than 7,000 prisoners. It is estimated that a minimum of 
1.1 million people were murdered in the camp as part of the Nazis' 
deliberate and systematic campaign to exterminate as many as 6 million 
European Jews and Roma. Winston Churchill called it a ``crime that has 
no name.''
  Stories from the survivors are a chilling reminder of the unspeakable 
horrors that can be perpetrated by evil men when the forces of good are 
slow to respond. Some of these personal testimonies are preserved in 
museums around our Nation, including the U.S. Holocaust Memorial 
Museum.
  In 1948, the United Nations pledged in the Genocide Convention that 
the horrors of the Holocaust would ``never again'' be repeated. Sadly, 
this pledge has not been upheld. In Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Sudan 
people have been murdered solely on the basis of their national, ethnic 
and religious affiliations.
  I urge my colleagues and members of the international community to 
renew our commitment to ``never again'' allow genocide to take place. I 
also call upon the Obama administration to continue upholding our 
pledge to protecting the personal freedoms of individuals around the 
globe.

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