[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 171 (Tuesday, October 29, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1363-E1364]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING MR. EGON J. SALMON

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. MAX ROSE

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 29, 2019

  Mr. ROSE of New York. Madam Speaker, I rise today to ask all of my 
colleagues to join me in honoring the extraordinary courage and 
sacrifice of Egon J. Salmon, a veteran of World War II, on the 80th 
anniversary of his first attempt to flee Nazi Germany to the United 
States.
   Egon J. Salmon was born on June 4, 1924, in Rheydt, Germany, near 
the borders of Holland and Belgium. When Egon was nine years old, Adolf 
Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, leading Egon to face mounting 
anti-Semitism throughout his schooling, particularly with the passage 
of the 1935 Nuremberg Laws. On Nov. 9, 1938, Egon was an eyewitness to 
Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, when more than 250 synagogues 
in Germany were destroyed.
   Egon's father Paul, who fought in the cavalry for the Kaiser in 
World War I and owned a major textile firm, was rounded up and arrested 
along with 30,000 Jewish men. He was taken by the Nazi SS to Dachau, 
the first Nazi concentration camp, and was released four weeks later on 
the condition that he immediately leave Germany. Paul entered the 
United States on a visitor's visa but was placed on a waiting list for 
a permanent visa. He then left for Cuba to await the arrival of his 
wife and two children in hopes of returning to the United States.
   While Paul waited in Cuba for the family's U.S. quota number to be 
called, Egon, his mother Erna and 9-year-old sister, Edith, booked 
passage on the SS St. Louis to Havana on May 13, 1939. They were not 
permitted to disembark and on June 4th, Egon spent his 15th birthday 
watching the lights of Miami while the ship was sent back to Nazi 
Germany. No country, including the United States, would accept the 
Jewish refugees. They were finally given haven in Brussels,

[[Page E1364]]

Belgium, until a U.S. visa arrived in March of 1940. The family left 
for the United States just before the Nazis invaded Belgium. With much 
persistence and against all odds, the Salmon family joined a small 
group of German Jewish refugees on Staten Island. To support his family 
Paul became a door-to-door salesman and went into the import-export 
business.
   Egon attended New Dorp High School on Staten Island and was drafted 
into the U.S. Army upon graduating. He trained for combat duty in South 
Carolina and was granted U.S. citizenship before being sent overseas to 
North Africa and then to Naples, Italy, in 1943. Egon served in the 
U.S. Army in the Italian Campaign until 1945, overcoming great 
prejudices against Germans and Jews in his unit. He was placed in a 
unit that occupied Austria for nine months, using his ability to speak 
German to benefit his new country. He was awarded the combat infantry 
badge and three battle stars for his service.
   After he returned to Staten Island, Egon joined his father's 
business and then established Salmon Real Estate in 1956, which 
continues to operate to this day. Egon served as president of the 
Staten Island Board of Realtors and was a New York City Tax 
Commissioner. With his wife Marie, a native Staten Islander, Egon took 
an active role in the Jewish Community Center of Staten Island. In 
2016, Egon and Marie established the Egon J. Salmon and Family 
Commemoration of Kristallnacht and the St. Louis at Wagner College in 
New York to strengthen Staten Island's first Holocaust Center and to 
remind those of all faiths in his beloved borough to ``Never Forget.''
   The story of Egon Salmon and his family is the epitome of the 
American dream. He fled persecution in search of a better life and 
sacrificed for his new home in the United States Army. He gave back to 
his community by starting a business and creating jobs, and his family 
continues to serve our community to this day. So Madam Speaker, today I 
ask my colleagues in the House to join me in commending Egon Salmon and 
his family and thank them for their heroism and service to the United 
States.

                          ____________________