[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 15 (Tuesday, February 2, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H443-H445]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     COMMEMORATING 65TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LIBERATION OF AUSCHWITZ

  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1044) commemorating the 65th 
anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration and 
extermination camp, honoring the victims of the Holocaust, and 
expressing commitment to strengthen the fight against bigotry and 
intolerance, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
  The text of the resolution is as follows:

                              H. Res. 1044

       Whereas during the Holocaust, an estimated 6,000,000 Jews 
     and other targeted groups were murdered by the Nazis and 
     their collaborators;
       Whereas, on January 27, 1945, Auschwitz, a Nazi 
     concentration and extermination camp, including Birkenau and 
     other related camps, was liberated by the Soviet Army;
       Whereas Auschwitz, located in Poland, was the largest 
     complex of the Nazi concentration and extermination camps;
       Whereas according to the Holocaust Memorial Museum, between 
     1940 and 1945, the Nazis deported at a minimum 1,300,000 
     people to Auschwitz, and of these, murdered 1,100,000;
       Whereas an estimated 960,000 Jews were systematically 
     murdered in Auschwitz during the Holocaust;
       Whereas Auschwitz was also used to murder Poles, Roma, 
     Soviet Prisoners of War, those helping to hide Jews and 
     others the Nazis deemed inferior or that held different 
     political views;
       Whereas victims of Auschwitz were systematically murdered 
     in gas chambers and many were starved to death, tortured, and 
     subjected to forced labor and criminal medical experiments;
       Whereas the complex of the Auschwitz concentration and 
     extermination camp has come to symbolize the mass murder and 
     inhumanity committed during the Holocaust;
       Whereas the famous ``Arbeit Macht Frei'' (Work Will Make 
     You Free) sign over the entrance to Auschwitz was stolen on 
     December 18, 2009, and later recovered and the Polish police 
     arrested the alleged culprits behind the theft;
       Whereas according to the Contemporary Global Anti-Semitism 
     Report released by the Department of State's Office of the 
     Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, ``[o]ver 
     the last decade, United States embassies and consulates have 
     reported an upsurge in anti-Semitism . . . and that [a]nti-
     Semitic crimes range from acts of violence, including 
     terrorist attacks against Jews, to the desecration and 
     destruction of Jewish property . . .''; and
       Whereas in 2005, United Nations General Assembly resolution 
     60/7 established January 27, the anniversary of the 
     liberation of Auschwitz, as International Holocaust 
     Remembrance Day for the world to honor the victims of the 
     Holocaust: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
       (1) commemorates the 65th anniversary of the liberation of 
     Auschwitz;
       (2) honors the victims of Auschwitz and other Nazi 
     concentration and extermination camps, and all those who 
     perished at the hands of the Nazis;
       (3) expresses gratitude to the Allied soldiers, underground 
     fighters, and all those whose efforts helped defeat the Nazi 
     regime and liberate Auschwitz and other concentration and 
     extermination camps during World War II;
       (4) reaffirms its commitment to enhance Holocaust education 
     at home and abroad and to ensure that what happened in 
     Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration and extermination 
     camps is never allowed to happen again; and
       (5) urges all countries to enhance their efforts to combat 
     bigotry, racism, intolerance, and anti-Semitism.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from

[[Page H444]]

Florida (Mr. Klein) and the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida.


                             General Leave

  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. 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 Florida?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this 
resolution and yield myself as much time as I may consume.
  As an original cosponsor of this legislation, I would like to thank 
the author of this resolution, my good friend from Florida (Ms. Ros-
Lehtinen) for authoring this important statement. This resolution 
recognizes the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
  As the many in this Chamber know, Auschwitz was one of several Nazi 
concentration and extermination camps. Auschwitz served as a death 
factory of Eastern Europe's Jewish community and many others who were 
persecuted and murdered by the Nazis. On January 27, 1945, Auschwitz 
was liberated by Allied Forces, and that day is commemorated around the 
world as International Day of Holocaust Remembrance.
  Today, Auschwitz is a reminder of the consequences of hatred, 
bigotry, and humanity's worst. The words, ``Never again,'' are a 
mission, a goal to ensure that humanity never again sinks to those 
depths. This resolution reminds us of this purpose and focuses our 
efforts on education and prevention.
  This is something that I have personally been working on for many 
years. As a member of the Florida Senate, I helped pass the first 
requirement for Holocaust education in public school curriculum. Now, 
many States have followed suit, and more American children of all walks 
of life are learning these important lessons.
  In Congress, I have learned that Holocaust education can take many 
forms. Just down the street from the U.S. Capitol is the United States 
Holocaust Memorial Museum. Since I've come to Congress, Congressman 
Mike Pence and I have sought to bring new Members of Congress every 2 
years to the Holocaust Museum so they can bear witness to this tragic 
history. They take this knowledge with them and bring it back to their 
districts across America and use their new understanding to raise 
awareness of anti-Semitism and bigotry around the world.
  I would like to thank Ms. Ros-Lehtinen for focusing this resolution 
on Holocaust education. As the generation of American liberators and 
Holocaust survivors begins to pass away, the mission of education and 
of ``Never again'' is more critical than ever.
  Finally, I would like to acknowledge the many ceremonies that were 
held last week in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 
including one at Auschwitz, attended by Poland's President and Prime 
Minister, along with education ministers from nearly 30 nations and 
about 150 Holocaust survivors. At this commemoration, Israeli Prime 
Minister Netanyahu proclaimed, ``We will not allow the deniers of the 
Holocaust . . . to erase or distort the memory [of what happened].'' 
This is our mission as well, and today the House of Representatives 
should speak with one voice in support of this mission.
  I urge my colleagues to support this resolution, and I reserve the 
balance of my time.

                              {time}  1545

  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  I rise today in support of my bill, House Resolution 1044, 
commemorating this year as the 65th anniversary of the liberation of 
Auschwitz, the largest of the Nazi extermination camps. Over a million 
people were systematically tortured and brutally murdered there. The 
Nazis at Auschwitz conducted cruel medical experiments on prisoners, 
including children. They intentionally infected prisoners with diseases 
and performed forced sterilizations and castrations on adults.
  Most of those who perished at Auschwitz were Jews. But others that 
the Nazis perceived as enemies or inferior to Hitler's Aryan image were 
also murdered at Auschwitz. It was hell on Earth. Leo Schneiderman, a 
Holocaust survivor said the following about his arrival at Auschwitz, 
and I quote: ``When we came in, the minute the gates opened up, we 
heard screams and barking of dogs, and then we got out of the train. 
And everything went so fast. Men separated from women. Children torn 
from the arms of mothers. The elderly chased like cattle. The sick, the 
disabled were handled like packs of garbage. My mother ran over to me 
and grabbed me by the shoulders, and she told me, `Leibele, I'm not 
going to see you no more. Take care of your brother.' ''
  After years of misery and suffering, only a few thousands had 
remained when the Soviet Army arrived on a snowy day in 1945. Most of 
those survivors were too weak to realize that they had been liberated. 
We must remember what happened and ensure that humanity always prevails 
over hateful savagery and oppression.
  The resolution we are considering today, Mr. Speaker, commemorates 
the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and honors the 
victims who perished at the hands of the Nazis. It expresses gratitude 
to the people whose efforts helped defeat the Nazi regime. It reaffirms 
the commitment of the House to bolster Holocaust education here in the 
United States and abroad, and to ensure that what happened during the 
Holocaust is never allowed to happen again.
  And it also urges all countries to enhance their efforts to fight 
bigotry, racism, intolerance, and anti-Semitism. We must heed the 
lessons of history, remain vigilant, and stand firmly against purveyors 
of hatred who incite to violence against Israel, against the Jewish 
people, and all of us who stand for liberty and the fundamental rights 
of all human beings. As Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said at a 
ceremony last week which marked the 65th anniversary of the liberation 
of Auschwitz, and I quote: ``We will always remember what the Nazi 
Amalek did to us, and we won't forget to be prepared for the new 
Amalek, who is making an appearance on the stage of history and once 
again threatening to destroy the Jews. We will not take this lightly 
and believe that these are empty statements. We will never forget and 
always remember to stand guard.''
  So as we commemorate the 65th anniversary of the liberation of 
Auschwitz, I urge my colleagues to keep those words in mind and work to 
support and ensure that the world will never again see another 
Holocaust. I would also like to use this opportunity to say that I will 
be introducing a bill this week that will open the door for Holocaust 
survivors to bring Holocaust-era insurance claims against insurance 
companies in the U.S. courts. This bill will force insurance companies 
to disclose the names of Holocaust insurance policy holders.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to render their full 
support to this resolution.
  I reserve the balance of our time.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield 2 minutes to the 
gentleman from Texas, Judge Poe, a member of our Committee on Foreign 
Affairs.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Auschwitz was one of several if not many 
concentration camps that were established by the Nazis. In 1945, a 
young, 18-year old teenager who'd never been more than 50 miles from 
home showed up, along with other members of the Seventh Army, at a 
place called Dachau in Germany, and he helped liberate that 
concentration camp. That camp had been open from 1933 to 1945, where 
scientific experiments were done on people, ordered by the Nazis. This 
was the first concentration camp in Germany. That 18-year old that 
helped liberate that camp was my father. And he never talked much about 
World War II. But from time to time, even to this day, he mentions the 
word Dachau because that had such a tremendous impact on him.
  I have had the opportunity, along with my son Kurt, to go to Germany 
to

[[Page H445]]

see this place where people were tortured, humiliated, and murdered by 
the Nazis. Auschwitz was one. There are many others. And yet we should 
remember all the places where people were tortured in the name of hate, 
and we should remember the survivors of these concentration camps, and 
we should remember them forever.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to yield 2 minutes to the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Royce), the ranking member on the 
Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade.
  Mr. ROYCE. I rise in support of this resolution commemorating the 
65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I'm an original 
cosponsor of this bill. But I'd like to thank the author of this 
resolution, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, and Chairman Berman as well for their 
leadership.
  Mr. Speaker, during World War II, my father was part of the Allied 
Forces who liberated Dachau. It was a concentration camp of similar 
horrors to that of Auschwitz, as Mr. Poe expressed. And when they took 
the camp, he took pictures to document the tragedy, to document the 
horror of what he witnessed, and he has used them ever since, even to 
this day, in terms of lecturing to high school classes.
  Mr. Speaker, importantly, we are marking this anniversary. We do so 
to remember the Holocaust and its victims. Inevitably the refrain 
``Never Again'' comes to our lips. But, unfortunately, we know that 
this type of terror continues. Maybe not on the magnitude that it 
occurred during the Holocaust, but in the North Korean police state, 
where 200,000 are held in a system of political concentration camps 
which are modern day gulags, and the pictures of those imprisoned in 
North Korea, malnourished, with striped pajamas, are jarringly familiar 
to those of us who saw those photographs, either at Dachau or at 
Auschwitz.
  Of course, like Nazi Germany, many of the regimes that have no 
respect for their own, like North Korea, are hostile also to us. High 
school students my father has lectured about World War II often ask why 
the world was so asleep to Adolf Hitler's horrors. Of course the world 
was only slowly learning about the depth of what was occurring in camps 
like Auschwitz. But with respect to today's tragedies, we don't have 
such an excuse.
  Mr. Speaker, on the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, 
all of us, Congress and the administration, can resolve to do more in 
the cause of freedom, to do more to commit the United States to make 
certain that nothing like the Holocaust ever occurs again. And we can 
do more to remember the victims of that senseless slaughter.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, 
and we yield back the balance of our time.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlelady and the 
speakers this afternoon on this very important resolution. I urge 
Members of this Chamber to support this resolution and send a strong 
message worldwide, never again.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, the Auschwitz concentration camp serves as a 
tragic reminder of the millions of innocent men, women and children who 
lost their lives in the Holocaust. Yet it also is a standing testament 
to all those who risked their own lives to defeat the Nazi regime.
  I would like to thank the Ranking Member, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, for 
bringing this resolution to the floor, and I am proud to cosponsor H. 
Res. 1044, a resolution commemorating the 65th anniversary of the 
liberation of Auschwitz.
  On January 27, 1945, Allied Forces liberated the Auschwitz 
concentration camp where victims were systematically murdered in gas 
chambers, starved, tortured and subjected to forced labor and cruel 
medical experiments. According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, 
over one million people lost their lives at Auschwitz.
  Auschwitz was the largest Nazi concentration and extermination camp, 
and its buildings have come to symbolize the sheer inhumanity of the 
Holocaust. As we mark the 65th anniversary of the liberation of 
Auschwitz, let us recommit ourselves to combating bigotry, racism, 
intolerance and anti-Semitism.
  As the co-chair of the Congressional Anti-Semitism Caucus, I stand in 
support of the resolution. With its passage, we remember the truth of 
the Holocaust and say with one resounding voice, ``Never again!''
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Klein) that the House suspend the rules and 
agree to the resolution, H. Res. 1044, as amended.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground 
that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum 
is not present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.
  The point of no quorum is considered withdrawn.

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