[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 110 (Friday, July 8, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1069]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   TO COMMISSION A STATUE OF ELIE WIESEL TO BE PLACED IN THE CAPITOL

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                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, July 8, 2016

  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of a bipartisan bill 
I introduced today with several of my colleagues to authorize a statue 
of Elie Wiesel to be placed in the U.S. Capitol building.
  Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel was a 
great American, whose moral leadership served as a beacon across our 
country and around the globe. President Obama rightly called him, ``the 
conscience of the world.''
  Wiesel was born in Romania in 1928. In 1944, at the age of fifteen, 
Elie Wiesel was sent to the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz, and 
later to Buchenwald. Both of his parents and his younger sister died in 
the concentration camps.
  After the war, Elie Wiesel became a journalist and wrote about his 
experiences during the Holocaust. He spent his life as a vocal witness 
against both the evil that gave rise to the Holocaust and man's 
inhumanity against his fellow man. His purpose was to speak the truth 
in the face of power and to clearly and repeatedly say ``Never Again.'' 
His memoir, Night, has been translated into over 30 languages.
  He fought against indifference, intolerance, and injustice.
  He helped create the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
  Elie Wiesel was one of the greatest moral forces in the world. He was 
brilliant, pure, honest, and courageous.
  I met Elie Wiesel when I was a Tennessee State Senator and he was 
honored at Vanderbilt. He was the inspiration for me founding the 
Tennessee Holocaust Commission in 1987. I have a picture of him and me 
hanging in the foyer of my Washington, DC office. The photo was taken 
when he was honored at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.
  His voice was strong and will be sorely missed. He was one of my 
heroes.
  I urge my colleagues to help pass this bill.

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