[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13728]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




HONORING THE LIFE OF RABBI ROLAND B. GITTELSOHN AND HIS STIRRING EULOGY 
                              ON IWO JIMA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Braley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I rise today during Jewish American 
Heritage Month to honor the life and memory of Rabbi Roland B. 
Gittelsohn, who was the first Jewish chaplain ever appointed by the 
Marine Corps.
  Most Americans don't recognize the name of Rabbi Gittelsohn, but they 
should. Rabbi Gittelsohn delivered a stirring eulogy to the war dead on 
Iwo Jima that is second only to the Gettysburg Address of President 
Lincoln as a stirring ode to the principles of democracy that are the 
bedrock of this country and the young men and women who paid the 
ultimate price for our freedom.
  During World War II, Rabbi Gittelsohn was assigned as a Jewish 
divisional chaplain of the 5th Marine Division. During the Battle of 
Iwo Jima, Rabbi Gittelsohn was right in the heart in the action, 
ministering to the needs of Marines of all faiths, with the knowledge 
that his life was in grave danger.
  After the fighting was over, Rabbi Gittelsohn was asked to give a 
sermon at an ecumenical memorial service dedicating the 5th Marine 
Division cemetery on Iwo Jima, but due to prejudice he only gave 
remarks at a small Jewish service. Here are his words.
  ``Here before us lie the bodies of comrades and friends, men who 
until yesterday or last week laughed with us, joked with us, trained 
with us, men who fought with us and feared with us. Somewhere in this 
plot of ground there may lie the man who could have discovered the cure 
for cancer. Under one of these Christian crosses or beneath a Jewish 
Star of David, there may now rest a man who was destined to be a great 
prophet, to find the way perhaps for all to live in plenty, with 
poverty and hardship for none. Now they lie here silently in this 
sacred soil, and we gather to consecrate the earth in their memory.
  ``It is not easy to do so. Some of us have buried our closest friends 
here. To speak in memory of such men as these is not easy. No, our poor 
power of speech can add nothing to what these men have already done. 
All that we can even hope to do is to follow their example, to show the 
same selfless courage in peace that they did in war; to swear that by 
the grace of God and the stubborn strength and power of the human will, 
their sons and ours will never suffer these pains again. These men have 
done their job well. They have paid the ghastly price of freedom.
  ``We dedicate ourselves, first, to live together in peace the way 
they fought and are buried in this war. Here lie officers and men, 
Negroes and whites, rich men and poor, together. Here, no man prefers 
another because of his faith or despises him because of his color. 
Here, there are no quotas of how many from each group are admitted or 
allowed. Among these men there is no discrimination, no prejudices, no 
hatred. Theirs is the highest and purest democracy.
  ``Any man among the living who fails to understand that will thereby 
betray those who lie here dead. Whoever of us lifts up his hand in hate 
against a brother or thinks himself superior to those who happen to be 
in the minority makes of this ceremony and the bloody sacrifice it 
commemorates an empty, hollow mockery. To this, then, as our solemn, 
sacred duty, do we the living now dedicate ourselves to the rights of 
Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, of white men and Negroes alike, to 
enjoy the democracy for which all of them have paid the price.
  ``When the last shot has been fired, there will be those whose eyes 
are turned backward, not forward, who will be satisfied with wide 
extremes of poverty and wealth in which the seeds of another war can 
breed. We promise you, our departed comrades, this too we will not 
permit. This war has been fought by the common man. Its fruits of peace 
must be enjoyed by the common man. We promise, by all that is sacred 
and holy, that your sons, the sons of miners and millers, the sons of 
farmers and workers, the right to a living that is decent and secure.
  ``When the final cross has been placed in the last cemetery, once 
again there will be those to whom profit will be more important than 
peace. To those who sleep here silent, we give our promise: We will not 
listen. We will not forget that some of you paid the ultimate price for 
men who profit at your expense. We will remember you as you looked when 
we placed you reverently, lovingly, in the ground.
  Thus do we memorialize those who, having ceased living with us, now 
live within us again. Thus do we consecrate ourselves to the living to 
carry on the struggle they began. Too much blood has gone into this 
soil for us to let it lie barren. Too much pain and heartache have 
fertilized the earth on which we stand. We here solemnly swear, this 
shall not be in vain. Out of this, and from the suffering and sorrow of 
those who mourn this, will come, we promise, the birth of a new freedom 
for the sons of men everywhere.''
  My father served in the 5th Marine Division on Iwo Jima, and it is to 
his memory and the memory of Rabbi Gittelsohn that I offer these 
poignant words.

                          ____________________