[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 120 (Tuesday, July 28, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1144]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      IN HONOR OF PETER L. FISCHL

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. NORMA J. TORRES

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 28, 2015

  Mrs. TORRES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Peter L. Fischl of 
Ontario, California for his life-long work dedicated to remembering the 
Holocaust. Having survived the heinous acts of violence and persecution 
brought about by Nazi Germany, Mr. Fischl turned the hardships he 
witnessed as a child into poetry that helps encapsulate the experience 
and honor the lives of the many who perished during this harrowing 
time.
  Mr. Fischl was a young boy during the onset of World War II. The 
German invasion of Hungary in 1944 forced him to separate from his 
family and take refuge inside of a Budapest Catholic school. While in 
hiding, Mr. Fischl's father, a successful businessman prior to the war, 
was discovered by the Gestapo and disappeared. Mr. Fischl survived the 
Holocaust along with his mother and sister, and later relocated to the 
United States in 1957.
  Years later, Mr. Fischl wrote a poem upon finding a picture in Life 
magazine of a young Polish child interned in the Warsaw concentration 
camp. ``To the Little Polish Boy Standing with His Arms Up'' is a 
poignant recollection of the horrors faced by many within the Jewish 
community during the Holocaust. It showcases the terror that many 
helpless civilians endured while also expressing a sense of frustration 
at the lack of intervention by the international community. Mr. 
Fischl's work forces us to confront the history of state-sponsored mass 
killings in hopes of encouraging us to work together to prevent future 
atrocities.
  Mr. Speaker, it has come to my attention that later this month, Mr. 
Fischl will be a special guest attending the International Quilt Study 
Center & Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Upon his 
arrival, a quilt square bearing his poem will be entered into the 
museum's collection. Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate Mr. 
Fischl for his honors and thank him for his contributions to 
remembering this important period of history.

                          ____________________