[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 3 (Thursday, January 8, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E35-E36]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   COMMENDATION OF DR. TIMOTHY SNYDER

                                  _____
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 8, 2015

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise as co-chair of the Congressional 
Polish Caucus to announce that this week in Washington, at an historic 
ceremony to be held today at the Polish Embassy, Thursday, January 8, 
preeminent American scholar and historian Dr. Timothy Snyder will be 
awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of 
Poland by Minister of Foreign Affairs Grzegorz Schetyna on behalf of 
the nation of Poland.
  We in Ohio are celebrating this occasion because we know the global 
significance of Dr. Snyder's work. His scholarship allows liberty's 
flag to fly higher. An Ohioan by birth, Dr. Snyder--now Bird White 
Housum Professor of History at Yale University--has been documenting 
the complicated, epic history of what he terms ``The Bloodlands,'' the 
20th century history of Europe between Hitler and Stalin. With the 
opening of the Soviet archives after the fall of the Soviet Union, Dr. 
Snyder has led a team of incredible scholars from many nations in 
piecing together the complex, and often under reported history, of what 
happened to people in Europe before, during, and after World Wars I and 
II.
  He places the historical and political complexities that led to World 
War II in a broad, contextual framework unparalleled by other efforts. 
He factually documents the suffering that innocent people from various 
nations endured in places that still today have seriously inadequate 
archival memory of what occurred. Dr. Snyder, in my opinion, is one of 
the most indefatigable and profound scholars of our time.
  As author of the bill that created the World War II Memorial here in 
our nation's Capital--which has now been visited by over 42 million 
people--it is clear to me the American people through their own 
families understand the magnitude of what was at stake. But as Dr. 
Snyder rightly points out, ``America's soldiers never reached far 
enough east. He states, ``American and British forces liberated German 
concentration camps such as Belsen and Dachau. But the western Allies 
liberated none of the important death facilities . . . the Red Army 
liberated Auschwitz, and it liberated the sites of Treblinka, Sobibor, 
Belzen, Chelmno. Majdanek. American and British forces reached none of 
the bloodlands and saw none of the major killing sites.'' Even America 
was shielded from the bloody truth of tyranny's grip on the continent 
of Europe.
  The people of Poland even more fully comprehend the betrayal and 
suffering that their Slavic ancestors endured in Poland and Sovietized 
Ukraine. The Jewish people of the world know too what happened there 
and why the struggle for Israel's existence continues to this day. The 
people of Belarus, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania and 
adjoining nations know too. With the systematic ethnic slaughter that 
occurred, Dr. Snyder's masterful work pays homage to all victims, in 
the most complete and objective presentation I have read. Yet, still 
more scholarly work needs to occur.
  This past August, the people of Poland commemorated the memory of the 
Warsaw Uprising. Those brave Poles honored at that national remembrance 
lived and died by the motto ``Freedom Means Never Surrender.'' Poland 
never surrendered. Her capital was levelled. And the martyrdom of 
Poles--fully twenty percent of the people of that nation--humbles us 
mortals who stand in awe of their valor against insurmountable odds. 
What distinguishes Snyder's work is its comprehensiveness and depth in 
paying tribute to the fallen across that entire war torn region.
  We will fly a flag over the U.S. Capitol honoring the work of 
American scholar Dr. Timothy Snyder and his legion of dedicated 
scholars. I have come to respect Dr. Snyder's work because his 
scholarship helped me reach my own epiphany and conclusion about why it 
has taken the world so long to appreciate what the people of Poland 
suffered during that gruesome period. Nearly all of the educated and 
academic leaders of Poland were annihilated at Katyn in 1940, when over 
23,000 were rounded up and summarily shot by Stalin's NKVD, the Soviet 
secret police. There simply was almost no Polish memory left able to 
record and relate. It has taken new generations of those able to probe 
the carnage to enlighten the pages of memory.
  So, please let me express sincere gratitude to the government of 
Poland for bestowing this great honor on a native son of Ohio who has 
gone on to serve the cause of historical truth. As a history major 
myself from my own alma mater--the great University of Wisconsin--I

[[Page E36]]

recall the words of that University's motto: ``Whatever limitations may 
trammel inquiry elsewhere, we believe that the great State University 
of Wisconsin should encourage the continual sifting and winnowing by 
which alone the truth can be found.'' Dr. Timothy Snyder and his 
associates surely live those words. Congratulations! Onward truth. 
Onward liberty.

                          ____________________