[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 88 (Monday, June 9, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H5136-H5137]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PERMITTING USE OF ROTUNDA FOR CEREMONY AWARDING CONGRESSIONAL GOLD
MEDAL TO NEXT OF KIN OR PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF RAOUL WALLENBERG
Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
concur in the concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 36) permitting the
use of the rotunda of the Capitol for a ceremony to award the
Congressional Gold Medal to the next of kin or personal representative
of Raoul Wallenberg.
The Clerk read the title of the concurrent resolution.
The text of the concurrent resolution is as follows:
S. Con. Res. 36
Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives
concurring),
SECTION 1. USE OF ROTUNDA FOR CEREMONY TO AWARD CONGRESSIONAL
GOLD MEDAL TO THE NEXT OF KIN OR PERSONAL
REPRESENTATIVE OF RAOUL WALLENBERG.
(a) In General.--The rotunda of the Capitol is authorized
to be used on July 9, 2014, for a ceremony to award the
Congressional Gold Medal to the next of kin or personal
representative of Raoul Wallenberg in recognition of his
achievements and heroic actions during the Holocaust.
(b) Preparations.--Physical preparations for the ceremony
described in subsection (a) shall be carried out in
accordance with such conditions as the Architect of the
Capitol may prescribe.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from
Michigan (Mrs. Miller) and the gentleman from California (Mr.
Lowenthal) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Michigan.
General Leave
Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that
all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their
remarks on the concurrent resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Michigan?
There was no objection.
Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as
I might consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the concurrent resolution,
permitting the use of the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol for a ceremony to
award the Congressional Gold Medal to the next of kin or personal
representative of Raoul Wallenberg.
The issuing of the Congressional Gold Medal is in recognition and in
honor of this individual's heroism and selfless humanitarian actions.
Raoul Wallenberg was born on August 4, 1912, in Sweden; and in 1931,
Mr. Wallenberg attended college in my home State of Michigan, at the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
In the years that followed his graduating at the top of his class in
architecture, he quickly established himself in business in his home
nation of Sweden, and like so many others, then he also witnessed the
ever-growing threats coming from Germany.
At the age of 32, Mr. Wallenberg was recruited by the U.S. War
Refugee Board, a board that was established by then-President Roosevelt
and whose mission was to rescue the Jewish from occupied territories
and to provide relief to those sent to concentration camps.
Mr. Wallenberg later became known as an individual who led one of the
War Refugee Board's most extensive operations.
Mr. Wallenberg was given status as a Swedish diplomat and traveled to
Hungary in the summer of 1944, a few months after Nazi forces occupied
that nation.
Sweden was a neutral country; and, therefore, Nazi forces or the
complying Hungarian authorities could not easily arrest or otherwise
harm Swedish citizens. This enabled Mr. Wallenberg to save tens of
thousands of Hungarian Jews from concentration camps.
Shortly following Nazi occupation, the rounding up of Hungarian Jews
and their transference into Nazi custody began. When Mr. Wallenberg
arrived in Budapest that summer, the Nazis had already deported nearly
444,000 Hungarian Jews, with almost all of them being sent to the
Auschwitz or Birkenau killing centers.
We now know that the SS killed approximately 320,000 of these
individuals upon arrival and used the rest as forced labor. When Mr.
Wallenberg made it to Budapest, only about 200,000 Jews remained in the
city, but there were plans made by the Hungarian authorities under Nazi
rule to deport those as well.
Provided with diplomatic credentials and the authorization from the
Swedish Government, Mr. Wallenberg took heroic action to save as many
of these individuals and families as he could by creating and
distributing protective Swedish certificates.
Through the War Refugee Board and assistance from Sweden, Mr.
Wallenberg was able to use funds to set up hospitals, nurseries, a soup
kitchen, and dozens of safe houses for the Jewish of Budapest. These
safe houses actually formed the international ghetto, holding some of
the same protective Swedish certificates that Wallenberg handed out.
Faced with the further breakdown of the Hungarian Government and
increased Nazi control, deportations of the Jewish population resumed;
but this time, the authorities decided to force tens of thousands to
march toward Austria, due to the railroad being cut off by the Soviet
troops.
That fall, Mr. Wallenberg personally worked to stop the further
deportation
[[Page H5137]]
of many by securing the release of those who had already had some of
the same protection certificates that he had worked to distribute, and
he was able to help them return to safe houses within the city.
Mr. Wallenberg was not alone. He worked with many of his colleagues
and other diplomats who participated in the same types of rescue
operations and issued their own neutral countries' protective
certificates to Jewish people and found ways to house them.
By the end of 1944, Mr. Wallenberg and others were able to keep the
authorities from destroying the ghetto and the individuals who resided
there.
By the beginning of 1945, Soviet forces came to Budapest and
liberated the city in February. More than 100,000 Jewish people
remained.
But what happened to Mr. Wallenberg, like so many others during this
time, is unknown. Mr. Wallenberg was last seen in Soviet custody, and
it is thought he may have died in prison.
Mr. Speaker, the end of Mr. Wallenberg's life remains a mystery, but
the life that he led and especially the actions he took while living in
Budapest for those 6 months and saving as many as so many innocents are
forever, forever remembered.
Raoul Wallenberg is a hero, not just for those who were in Budapest
at that time, but a hero that the world remembers.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Wallenberg's memory lives on and serves as the best
kind of reminder for what it means to serve and accomplish the greater
good for all of humanity, and it is certainly fitting that we gather,
as a Congress, in the rotunda of the United States Capitol, to formally
remember and pay tribute to this man, a man who used the tools he was
given to work tirelessly for the lives of others, a man who did so
much, even at his own peril.
Awarding Mr. Wallenberg the Congressional Gold Medal is the very
least that we can do as a grateful Nation and as a grateful member of
the world.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LOWENTHAL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of Senate Concurrent Resolution 36.
Few people in history have shown the sort of bravery for which we will
be honoring Raoul Wallenberg.
As Sweden's special envoy to Hungary during the Second World War, Mr.
Wallenberg quietly issued thousands--and I say thousands--of protective
passports and sheltered as many Jews as he could in Swedish Embassy
buildings, protecting them from being rounded up by the Fascist
authorities. It is estimated that his efforts saved potentially up to
100,000 Jews from the horrors of the Holocaust.
Sadly, as the gentlewoman from Michigan pointed out, Mr. Wallenberg
would never see the impact of his great work. As the Iron Curtain
descended on Eastern Europe, he was apprehended by Soviet authorities,
never to be seen again; but if not for his commitment to the protection
of human rights, untold thousands would not be among us today.
One of the lives that he saved was that of our former colleague,
Congressman Tom Lantos, who wrote the bill making Raoul Wallenberg an
honorary citizen of the United States in 1981.
In 2012, we posthumously awarded Raoul Wallenberg the Congressional
Gold Medal in recognition of his achievements and heroic actions during
the Holocaust. This resolution will allow the use of the rotunda for a
ceremony presenting the Gold Medal to his family in honor of Mr.
Wallenberg for his noble and selfless actions.
I urge all Members to support Senate Concurrent Resolution 36, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
{time} 1800
Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, as well, I would urge all of my
colleagues to support S. Con. Res. 36, which is a resolution
authorizing the use of the rotunda of the Capitol for a ceremony to
award the Congressional Gold Medal to the next of kin or personal
representative of Raoul Wallenberg.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Miller) that the House suspend the
rules and concur in the concurrent resolution, S. Con. Res. 36.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the concurrent resolution was concurred in.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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