[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 13, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H1174-H1175]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING FREEDOM FIGHTERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 9, 2023, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. 
Jackson Lee).


                         Women's History Month

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the graciousness of Ms. Kaptur 
for this time.
  I honor, in this month, Women's History Month, and salute the many 
women who have invested in the lives of so many.
  I honor the teachers who have taught young people. I honor Ivalita 
Jackson and Valerie Bennett, who came from Florida, my aunt and my 
mother, as two young women and made their way and provided 
opportunities for me.
  I salute the first person who was nominated as a Presidential 
candidate, Hillary Clinton. I salute Rosa Parks, who opened the doors 
for opportunity and integration and who refused to back down. I honor 
those in my own community, like Maxine Seales.
  I honor those who are yet to be recognized, the young girls who 
question whether or not they can be the very best. My commitment to 
them and my message to them is that there is no limit to the 
opportunities that you can have. As this month honors women who have 
created history, you have a pathway for history as well.
  I will continue, as a Member of the United States Congress, to invest 
in opportunities for girls so they can see there is no limit and to 
make sure that, as we move forward, our young men will understand there 
are no limits for them equally.
  This is Women's History Month, and I stand here today and salute 
these women.
  Might I finish by saying I honor those women who have stood up 
against human trafficking and fought against the scourge of 
mistreatment of women around the world and who have looked for the 
equality of girls around the world.
  Since I just met with her just a few weeks ago, I honor Malala, a 
strong fighter for education in Pakistan, a young woman who should be 
honored during Women's History Month.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Texas for her 
words.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to share some history.
  Two of the greatest freedom fighters I have ever had the privilege to 
know were two Polish Americans, a husband and wife.

  The husband, who escaped capture from a Soviet work camp during World 
War II, lived to age 97. He also survived three Nazi death camps.
  Each of them lived by the motto: Freedom means never surrender.
  A 30-minute film about their valiant lives can be viewed online at 
PBS or YouTube at no cost under the title ``Freedom Means Never 
Surrender.''
  I ask all Americans to learn something about Colonel Marian 
Wojciechowski and Wladyslawa Poniecka-Wojciechowski.
  These great Americans were born in Poland after World War I. 
Separately, they endured horrific torture as their homeland of Poland 
was invaded and obliterated by Nazi Germany on the west and Stalinist 
Russia to the east. Their lives were changed forever.
  Then Poland, as a nation, was squeezed out of existence as 6 million 
of its citizens were slaughtered into submission by two tyrannies. No 
nation on Earth lost a higher percentage of its citizens during World 
War II than did Poland.
  Here in America, our land of comforts and possibilities, the 
blessings of liberty to date have shielded us from the harsh reality of 
dictatorship. Most people could not possibly imagine the torture and 
cruelty that bore down on the lives of this particular couple.
  What a high privilege to be afforded the deep honor of representing 
human beings of such noble bearing. I bow low to their dignity and 
resolve, having borne such enormous suffering.
  They went on to lead constructive lives and become citizens of the 
United States of America.

[[Page H1175]]

  By sharp contrast, recently, I watched the latest Russian dictator, 
Vladimir Putin, be interviewed by a very shallow American TV 
commentator. With a straight face, Putin presented this gullible 
American with a complete fabrication of what happened to the Polish 
city of Danzig and the entire Polish nation during World War II.
  The American TV anchor swallowed Putin's sadistic comment that Hitler 
offered Poland an amicable choice during World War II as to whether it 
should be invaded. Wow. What a lie. For any American to sit in front of 
that lying mass murderer and reply ``okay'' is not only offensive, but 
it is dead wrong.
  That vapidness cuts through the hearts of Poles, Polish Americans, 
and people of Polish heritage across our world. What an embarrassment 
for any U.S. broadcaster to utter such drivel.
  Here are some facts. Poland lost a higher percentage of its citizens 
in World War II than any nation in the world, 6 million people, 25 
percent of its population, 3 million of Christian heritage and 3 
million of Jewish heritage, at the hands of Hitler and Stalin. Try that 
on for size.
  Across Europe today lie the bodies of over one-half million of our 
fellow citizens, Americans, 500,000 soldiers who gave their lives in 
the last century, ushering in for our generation the longest period of 
peacetime ever in history between great powers. Think about that.
  This latest lying Russian dictator, unprovoked, is again threatening 
Poland and greater Europe, our closest allies, with nuclear weapons. 
Putin has directed, with no provocation, the invasion of the adjacent 
nation of Ukraine, an independent nation since 1991, throwing off 
centuries of repression.

                              {time}  1115

  The people of Ukraine are fighting to be free.
  Putin is responsible for the loss of at least 100,000 Ukrainian lives 
and God knows the abduction of how many children--30,000? He is trying 
to take them back to Russia and reprogram them. Think of the Ukrainian 
mothers and fathers.
  Likely 300,000 Russians have died already.
  So how can any U.S. broadcaster call himself an American patriot when 
he becomes a pawn of a mass murderer?
  Let us turn to Putin's most recent torture and execution of an 
innocent man in a frigid prison above the Arctic Circle. Just a couple 
of weeks before Putin's reelection campaign this month, he killed a 
potential opponent, Alexei Navalny. Most Americans really had not heard 
the name Alexei Navalny, he was laid to rest earlier this month in 
Russia, his motherland. He was a freedom fighter. He was a freedom 
fighter with thousands and thousands of supporters.
  Putin could not stand Navalny's opposition to Russia's brutal 
dictatorship, but Navalny stood tall to pure evil with every breath of 
his being. Navalny's sheer heroism, sharp humor, and beautiful poetry 
reveals his deep, soulful cry for liberty for all of Russia's people.
  Alexei Navalny never flinched. He even humored his captors. He had 
such courage. He uttered poetry to his beloved wife. He knew his fate, 
and he was not afraid. He walked into the sun. He stood tall despite 
torture 24 hours of every day.
  For him, too, freedom meant never surrender. He was a prophet in his 
own town, like the Ukrainian poet laureate, Taras Shevchenko, who two 
centuries ago wrote words affirming the human quest for liberty and the 
worth of each person.
  He harkened the birth of Ukraine as a free nation. Shevchenko knew, 
like Navalny, his imprisonment, punishment, and ultimate death in a 
grim St. Petersburg, Russia, prison would lay a cornerstone for liberty 
for generations to come, and this is that moment for the people of 
Ukraine.
  Liberty remains so frightening to Putin and to those who impose 
serfdom, persecution, and death on those who do not submit to 
ownership. It is hard to believe this savagery exists in our current 
era.
  During the past century, Europe's hallowed ground was blessed with 
over 500,000 American lives so our youth would never have to meet 
Navalny's fate. Navalny gave his life for liberty over tyranny, just as 
our soldiers did across Europe in World Wars I and II. The free world 
we have inherited after 1946 was created from a new order of allied 
nations supported by NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, our 
defense shield.
  So to see a craven son of liberty give airtime to a cold despot who 
is killing innocents as the cameras roll is an international affront to 
liberty.
  Let us recall the prophetic words of the Ukrainian poet, Shevchenko, 
from his poem: ``My Friendly Epistle.''

     In fields commissioned by the devil . . .
     And what will sprout? You soon will see what kind of harvest 
           there will be.
     Break then your chains.
     In your own house you will see true justice, strength, and 
           liberty.
     Seek the highest good that stands--true liberty, that sacred 
           good, in fair fraternal brotherhood.

  Alexei Navalny said, just before his passing, to his wife Yulia: 
``Baby, you and I have everything like in the song: again cities 
between us, airport's runway lights, blue snowstorms and thousands of 
kilometers. But I feel that you are with me every second, and I love 
you more and more.''
  Those were his last words to his wife, to his children, and to the 
free world.
  Let us remember the cornerstones of liberty that are built through 
the sacrificial lives, not just of our soldiers but by people hundreds 
of years ago in Russia and today's Ukraine who are giving everything--
everything--so that their people may be free.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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