[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 13 (Friday, January 29, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S357-S358]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            65TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LIBERATION OF AUSCHWITZ

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, on January 27, 1945, the Nazi 
concentration camp at Auschwitz, including Birkenau and other related 
camps near the Polish city of Oswiecim, was liberated by the Soviet 
Army. This week, people have gathered at Auschwitz and in many other 
places to mark the 65th anniversary of that event. I am pleased that 
President Obama presented a video address in which he underscored--
using Elie Wiesel's words--the sacred duty of memory.
  Auschwitz-Birkenau was the principal and most notorious of the six 
death camps built by Nazi Germany to achieve its goal of the mass 
extermination of the Jewish people of Europe. Built in Nazi-occupied 
Poland initially as a concentration camp for Poles and later for Soviet 
prisoners of war, it soon became a prison for a number of other 
nationalities.
  Ultimately, a minimum 1,300,000 people were deported to Auschwitz 
between 1940 and 1945, and of these, at least 1,100,000 were murdered 
at that camp. An estimated 6 million Jews--more than 60 percent of the 
pre-World War II Jewish population of Europe--were murdered by the 
Nazis and their collaborators at Auschwitz and elsewhere in Europe. In 
addition, hundreds of thousands of civilians of Polish, Roma, and other 
nationalities, including in particular disabled individuals, 
homosexuals, political, intellectual, labor, and religious leaders, all 
of whom the Nazis considered `undesirable,' as well as Soviet and other 
prisoners of war, perished at Auschwitz.
  On that day of liberation, 65 years ago, only 7,000 camp prisoners 
who had passed through the infamous Auschwitz gates, the ones who 
promised

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``Arbeit Macht Frei''--``Work Will Make You Free''--managed to survive 
the selections, torture, starvation, disease, inhuman medical 
experiments, and executions that occurred at Auschwitz.
  According to a new survey published this week by the Organization for 
Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, at least 41 of the OSCE's 56 
participating states commemorate the Holocaust with official events. 
Thirty-three participating states have established official memorial 
days for Holocaust victims, and January 27 is the official Holocaust 
Memorial Day in many European countries, including Denmark, Estonia, 
Germany, Greece, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. I am deeply 
gratified that since 2005, the United Nations has also observed January 
27 as a day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust. In fact, 
Auschwitz-Birkenau was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 
1979.
  I personally visited Auschwitz in 2004 and cannot overstate the 
importance of the Memorial Museum there today in the effort to teach 
future generations about the Holocaust. The recent theft of the 
``Arbeit-Macht-Frei'' sign--which, fortunately, was recovered--has 
certainly heightened awareness of the need for additional security 
measures there, and I support the efforts to secure increased funding 
for the preservation of the Memorial Museum.
  Teaching about the Holocaust is an obligation that must be met not 
only at Auschwitz, but at places where people learn around the globe. 
As chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, I 
am deeply concerned by the rise of anti-Semitism and violent extremism 
in some OSCE participating states. In particular, I am deeply troubled 
by the continued prevalence of Nazi-era discourse to describe Roma. As 
Thommas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human 
Rights, has said:

       Even after . . . the Nazi killing of at least half a 
     million Roma, probably 700,000 or more, there was no genuine 
     change of attitude among the majority population towards the 
     Roma.

  With this concern in mind, I was pleased to learn that the United 
Nations invited the OSCE senior advisor for Romani issues, Andrzej 
Mirga, to participate in the commemoration they organized this year. 
Sadly, as Mr. Mirga observed, although approximately 23,000 Romani 
people were sent to Auschwitz, none were among the survivors liberated 
there 65 years ago.

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