[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 70 (Thursday, April 28, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H4578-H4579]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Green) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, and still I rise, a proud, 
liberated Democrat.
  I rise today on this occasion of remembrance, remembrance of the 
victims of the Holocaust. I rise to associate myself with comments that 
have been made by others.
  I would first note for the Record that there was a joint resolution 
approved on September 18, 1978, a joint resolution designating April 28 
and 29 of 1979 as Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust.
  President Carter, who signed H.J. Res. 1014, Public Law 95-371, 
approved on September 18, 1978, indicated in a public statement, ``The 
resolution was passed unanimously by both Houses of Congress. This 
reflects our Nation's wholehearted conviction that the lessons of the 
Holocaust must never be forgotten.''
  Madam Speaker, I acknowledge and associate myself with a statement 
from President Joe Biden, dated April 22, 2022. It is styled, ``A 
Proclamation on Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust, 
2022.''
  In this statement, he indicates, among many other things that I 
associate myself with, ``The world must never forget the truth of what 
happened across Europe during the Holocaust or forget the horrific 
crimes and suffering the Nazi regime inflicted on millions''--I 
underscore it by saying it twice--``millions of innocent people.''

A Proclamation on Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust, 2022

       On Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and throughout 
     this week of remembrance, we reflect on the horrors of the 
     Holocaust when the Nazi regime systematically murdered 6 
     million Jews and millions of other innocents, including Roma, 
     Sinti, Slavs, persons with disabilities, LGBTQI+ individuals, 
     political dissidents, and many others. We stand with Jewish 
     people in the United States, Israel, and around the world in 
     grieving one of the darkest chapters in history. We honor the 
     memories of the victims. We embrace the survivors. We commit 
     to keeping alive the promise of ``never again.''
       The world must never forget the truth of what happened 
     across Europe during the Holocaust or forget the horrific 
     crimes and suffering the Nazi regime inflicted on millions of 
     innocent people. Entire families were wiped out. Communities 
     were shattered. Survivors were left with agonizing memories 
     and fading tattoos etched into their skin by the Nazis, 
     reducing them to numbers. It is forever recorded into the 
     history of mankind, and it is the shared responsibility of us 
     all to ensure that the Shoah is never erased from our 
     collective memory--especially as fewer and fewer survivors 
     remain. The truth must always be known and shared with future 
     generations in perpetuity.
       I have taught my own children and grandchildren about the 
     horrors of the Holocaust, just as my father taught me. I have 
     taken my family to bear witness to the darkness at the Dachau 
     concentration camp so that they could understand why we must 
     always speak out against antisemitism and hatred in all of 
     its pernicious forms. The legacy of the Holocaust must always 
     remind us that silence in the face of such bigotry is 
     complicity.
       Remembrance is our eternal duty, but remembrance without 
     action risks becoming an empty ritual. As individuals, we 
     must never be indifferent to human cruelty and human 
     suffering. As nations, we must stand together across the 
     international community against antisemitism, which is once 
     again rearing its ugly head around the world. We must combat 
     other forms of hatred and educate new generations about the 
     Holocaust. We must reject those who try to deny the Holocaust 
     or to distort its history for their own ends. We recognize 
     that, just as the Holocaust was an act of pure antisemitism, 
     so too Holocaust denial is a form of antisemitism. We watch 
     with dismay as the term ``Nazi'' is deployed to make flawed 
     historical parallels. Efforts to minimize, distort, or blur 
     who the Nazis were and the genocide they perpetrated are a 
     form of Holocaust denial and, in addition to insulting both 
     the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, spread 
     antisemitism.
       My Administration has stepped up our efforts to counter all 
     the ugly forms antisemitism can take, including Holocaust 
     denial and distortion. We co-sponsored a United Nations 
     resolution that charged the international community with 
     combating Holocaust denial through education. We are 
     partnering with the German government to improve Holocaust 
     education and counter Holocaust denial and distortion. A 
     renowned scholar of the Holocaust and antisemitism, Deborah 
     Lipstadt, was recently confirmed as Special Envoy to Monitor 
     and Combat Antisemitism.
       In addition to speaking out against the evils of 
     antisemitism, I signed--and my Administration continues to 
     implement--legislation that gives us more tools to combat 
     crimes that are based on a victim's actual or perceived race, 
     religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender 
     identity or disability. We issued the first-ever National 
     Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism. My Administration 
     has implemented increased funding for a program that helps 
     threatened nonprofits--including houses of worship and other 
     religious affiliated entities--to improve their safety and 
     security. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I met 
     with Bronia Brandman and the Vice President met with Ruth 
     Cohen--both Auschwitz survivors--at the White House so we 
     could bear witness to their stories, combat Holocaust denial 
     and distortion, and give life to the lessons of that most 
     terrible period in human history.
       Those like Bronia and Ruth who survived the Holocaust and 
     went on to build new lives inspire our Nation and the world, 
     and they are living testaments to the enduring resilience of 
     the human spirit. It is the responsibility of all of us to 
     recognize the pain that they carry and to support them by 
     ensuring that the cruelty of the Holocaust is never 
     forgotten. Today and every day, we stand against antisemitism 
     and all other forms of hate and continue our work to ensure 
     that everyone can live in a world that safeguards the 
     fundamental human dignity of all people.
       Now, Therefore, I, Joseph R. Biden Jr., President of the 
     United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested 
     in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, 
     do hereby proclaim April 24 through May 1, 2022, as a week of 
     observance of the Days of Remembrance of Victims of the 
     Holocaust, and call upon the people of the United States to 
     observe this week and pause to remember victims and survivors 
     of the Holocaust.
       In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 
     twenty-second day of April, in the year of our Lord two 
     thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United 
     States of America the two hundred and forty-sixth.
                                              Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise to place in the Record a 
statement from Speaker Pelosi styled, ``Pelosi Statement on Holocaust 
Remembrance Day.'' Among the many things said that I agree with is this 
statement: ``This occasion serves as a reminder of the profound danger 
posed by hateful violence when met with indifference.'' Hateful 
violence when met with indifference.

             Pelosi Statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day

       ``On Holocaust Remembrance Day, we pause to reflect on the 
     unfathomable evils of the Shoah. As we mourn the six million 
     Jews and countless others murdered across Europe, we also 
     honor the survivors who have bravely shared their stories so 
     that such atrocities may never be repeated. More than seven 
     decades later, we remain outraged by the Nazis' barbaric 
     crimes and unwavering in our commitment to fulfilling 
     humanity's sacred promise: Never Again.
       ``This occasion serves as a reminder of the profound danger 
     posed by hateful violence when met with indifference. In 
     2020, I had the solemn privilege of leading a Congressional 
     delegation to Poland and Israel to commemorate the 75th 
     anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, bearing witness 
     to hate's destructive consequences. The epidemic of 
     antisemitism still remains today, threatening Jewish 
     communities both at home and around the world. Shadows of 
     these same dark forces have reached into more communities, 
     from the surge of bigoted violence across the country to 
     crimes against humanity being perpetrated abroad, including 
     against Ukraine.
       ``Our nation must never fail to call out and defeat these 
     perilous threats wherever and whenever they arise. In 1943, 
     my father Thomas D'Alesandro appealed to `the American sense 
     of justice and decency' as he implored the Roosevelt 
     Administration to take action against the horrors of the 
     Holocaust. Today, driven by those fundamental American 
     values, the Congress is working to preserve our collective 
     memories of the past, educate the next generation and speak 
     out against all of hate's vile manifestations. Congressional 
     action has helped forge a safer, more just society: from 
     combating antisemitism by strengthening Holocaust education 
     resources and establishing Congressionally mandated Days of 
     Remembrance to fighting hate-fueled violence by enacting the 
     COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act and the Emmett Till Antilynching 
     Act.
       Today, joining with House colleagues to honor those 
     murdered in the Shoah, I recalled the moving words inscribed 
     on San Francisco's Holocaust Memorial: `In remembrance is the 
     secret of redemption.' Let us

[[Page H4579]]

     reflect on that truth as we seek to find redemption in a 
     future of dignity and justice for all. May we never forget 
     the horrors inflicted on so many innocent souls, and may we 
     never relent in our righteous fight to put an end to the 
     scourge of hate.''

  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise and desire that the 
statement from Majority Leader Hoyer be acknowledged. His statement is 
styled, ``Hoyer Statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day.'' And I 
associate myself with many of the things in this statement, but the 
thing that I want to associate myself with the most are the final words 
in his statement: ``Never Forget. Never Again.'' I associate myself 
with his statement.

              Hoyer Statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day

       ``On Yom HaShoah, we remember the six million Jews and 
     millions of others murdered by the Nazis during the 
     Holocaust. The genocide perpetrated by Adolf Hitler and his 
     fascist collaborators--and enabled by the indifference of 
     millions of people in Germany and across Europe--continues to 
     bear scars to this day, with the families of victims and 
     survivors still living with immense trauma and grief. The 
     Holocaust was not only an immeasurable tragedy for the Jewish 
     people; it was also a low point for humanity, when the worst 
     evils of human hatred were unleashed in a way that was 
     methodical and on an industrial scale in an effort to 
     dehumanize and destroy an entire ethnic group. First by 
     enacting degrading racial laws and forcing Jewish people to 
     live in squalid ghettos and wear identifying marks for the 
     purposes of ostracism and discrimination, and later through a 
     systematic program of either deportation to labor and death 
     camps or the massacre of entire communities by mobile killing 
     squads, the Nazis taught the world a lesson on what happens 
     when antisemitism and other forms of racism and bigotry are 
     allowed to fester unchecked and are taken to their extreme. 
     Every human being who inhabits our planet has a 
     responsibility to learn the lessons of the Holocaust because 
     it is a warning to all of humanity. `Never Again!' must be a 
     promise kept by all. ``Terrifyingly, however, we are now 
     seeing in our day a dangerous rise in violent antisemitism 
     here at home and around the world. Extremists of all kinds 
     have revived Nazi tropes, and too many make light of Adolf 
     Hitler and the reality of his crimes against humanity. There 
     ought to be no celebration or even condoning of him or those 
     who helped him perpetrate the Holocaust. At the same time, 
     some have chosen to invoke the Holocaust flippantly when 
     engaging in debates about policy, which is not only deeply 
     inappropriate but also insulting to its victims, its 
     survivors, and their families. In much the same vein, the 
     misuse of the Holocaust and Nazism by Vladimir Putin in an 
     attempt to justify his unjustifiable and criminal invasion of 
     Ukraine--as well as the disgusting misuse of the Holocaust to 
     criticize the Jewish State of Israel, a democracy based in 
     human rights and the rule of law--is a cynical and disturbing 
     effort to twist history upside down. Together, all who 
     support truth and cherish human rights and human dignity must 
     oppose such statements and efforts.
       ``The Nazis tried to destroy the Jewish people, but their 
     resilience, defiance, and heroism--and the sacrifices of so 
     many brave American servicemembers who were liberators and 
     rescuers--overcame Hitler's evil plans. Today, the success 
     and vibrancy of the State of Israel and the flourishing of 
     Jewish communities in America and around the world is a 
     living testament to Nazism's defeat and to the triumph of 
     justice. I'm proud to be the Majority Leader in a House that 
     affirms, again and again, that antisemitism has no place in 
     our country or in our politics--and to continue serving as a 
     leader in the broad, bipartisan coalition in Congress 
     ensuring that our ally Israel remains safe and strong and 
     that America and Israel can be successful together in rooting 
     out hatred, injustice, and antisemitism on Earth. ``Never 
     Forget. Never Again.''

  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, I have Jewish friends, as I 
believe most people do, and I have spoken to them about the horrors of 
the Holocaust. I have been to Israel, and I have been to Yad Vashem. I 
assure you, a visit to Yad Vashem can become a seminal moment in your 
life because of what it shows with clarity about the horrors of the 
Holocaust.
  I am so proud that our leadership has gone on record in remembrance, 
and I am proud that this Congress passed a resolution signed by 
President Carter initially for days of remembrance.

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