[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 7] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages 9216-9217] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]BENJAMIN MEED SPEECH ON THE DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE ______ HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of new york in the house of representatives Tuesday, May 11, 1999 Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I would like to share with my colleagues the remarks of Mr. Benjamin Meed who recently gave an exceptionally moving speech about Yom Hashoah, The Days of Remembrance, at Congregation Emanu-El in my district in New York City. Mr. Meed is Chairman of both The Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization (WAGRO) and The Days of Remembrance Committee, United States Holocaust Memorial Council. He is also the President of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. Mr. Meed is a champion of humanitarian causes around the world. Tribute to the Six Million Jewish Martyrs--56th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Today, Jews gather to pay tribute to the memory of our Six Million brothers and sisters murdered only because they were Jewish; We gather to honor the fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto; to grieve; and to continue asking the questions: Why did it happen? How could the civilized world allow it to happen? Why were we so abandoned? Six million times, why? This year's national Days of Remembrance theme is dedicated to the voyage of the SS St. Louis. It is a story of refuge denied; it is a tale of international abandonment and betrayal. Why were they refused entry into this country? How can we ever understand why this was allowed to happen? Today, it is inconceivable to us just how that ship in those days was turned away. Today 54 years ago the American soldiers came across Nazi Germany slave labor camps and liberated Buchenwald and saved many of us who are here present today. Our gratitude will remain with us forever. We will always remain grateful to these soldiers for their kindness and generosity, and we will always remember those young soldiers who sacrificed their lives to bring us liberty. Today, wherever Jews live--from Antwerp to Melbourne, from Jerusalem to Buenos Aires, from New York to Budapest--we come together to remember to say Kadish collectively. Remembering the Holocaust is now a part of the Jewish calendar. We are together in our dedication to Memory and our aspiration for peace and brotherhood. Yom Hashoah, the Days of Remembrance, time to collectively bear witness as a community. And what lessons did we derive from these horrible experiences? The most important lesson is obvious--it can happen again the impossible is possible again. Ethnic cleansing, genocide, is happening as I speak. It can happen to any one or any group of people. The slaughter in Kosovo and in other places must be brought to an end. Should there be another Holocaust, it may be on a cosmic scale. How can we prevent it? All of us must remain vigilant--always aware, always on guard against those who are determined to destroy innocent human life for no other reason than birthright. It is vital that we remember; it is our commitment to those who perished, and to each other; a commitment taken up by our children and, hopefully, by the generations to come. What we remember is gruesome and painful. But remember we must. Over the years, we have tried to make certain that what happened to us was communicated and continues to be told, and retold, until it becomes an inseparable part of the world's conscience. And yet, some fifty years after the Holocaust, we continue to be repulsed by revelations about the enormity of the crimes against our people. And we are shocked to learn of the behavior of those who could have helped us, or at least, not hurt us, but who, instead, actually helped those whose goal was to wipe us out. Sadly, many of those who claimed they were neutral were actually involved with the German Nazis. They were anything but not neutral. The world has now learned that the Holocaust was not only the greatest murder of humanity, the greatest crime against humanity, but also the greatest robbery in the history of mankind. Driven from our homes, stripped of family heirlooms--indeed of all our possessions--the German Nazis and their collaborators took anything that was or could be of value for recycling. They stole from the living and even defiled the Jewish dead, tearing out gold fillings and cutting off fingers to recover wedding bands from our loved ones who they had murdered. But the German Nazis did not--could not--do it alone. The same people who now offer reasonable sounding justifications for their conduct during the Holocaust were, in those darkest of times, more than eager to profit from the German war against the Jews. None of the so-called ``neutral'' nations has fully assumed responsibility for its conduct during the Holocaust. The bankers, brokers, and business people who helped Nazi Germany now offer some money to survivors, but they say little about their collaboration. They utter not a word about how they sent fleeing Jews back to the German Nazi's machinery of destruction, nor about how they supported the Nazis in other ways--no admission of guilt; no regret; no expression of moral responsibility. We must guard against dangerous, unintended consequences arising from all that is going on now. Hopefully, family properties and other valuables will be returned to their rightful owners. But the blinding glitter of gold--the unrealistic expectations created by all the international publicity--has diverted attention from the evil which was the Holocaust. For five decades, we survivors vowed that what happened to our loved ones would be remembered and that our experiences would serve as a warning to future generations. We must continue to make sure that the images of gold bars wrapped in yellow Stars of David do not overshadow the impressions of a mother protecting her daughter with her coat, upon which a Star of David is sewn, or of a young boy desperately clutching his father's hand a Auschwitz/Birkenau before entering the gas chambers. The search for lost and stolen Jewish-owned assets has generated enormous publicity and excitement, but it also has created serious concerns. Gold, bank accounts, insurance policies and other assets have become [[Page 9217]] the focal point of the Holocaust. That somehow minimizes Germany's murderous role. Great care must be taken to find a balance. The various investigations must continue to uncover the hidden or little publicized truths about the so-called neutral countries that collaborated, and to recover what rightfully belongs to the victims, survivors and their families. The focus should never be shifted from the moral and financial responsibility of Germany for the slaughter of our people--acts for which there is no statute of limitations, acts for which Germany remains eternally responsible. Our books should not and cannot be closed. Let us Remember. ____________________