[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 22]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 31321]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCING LEGISLATION TO HONOR THEODOR CRIVEANU FOR SAVING ROMANIAN 
                       JEWS DURING THE HOLOCAUST

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 13, 2007

  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to 
introduce legislation with my colleagues and friends Representatives 
Dan Burton, Chris Smith, and Linda Sanchez that will properly recognize 
the selfless efforts to save innocent lives during the Holocaust of 
Theodor Criveanu and all other righteous individuals.
  Non-Jews who sacrificed their lives in an effort to save Jews from 
their fate at the Nazi's hands are known to the world as the 
``Righteous Persons.'' The most renowned among these righteous persons 
is probably Oscar Schindler. Oscar Schindler should rightly be 
recognized as the altruistic and extraordinarily courageous non-Jew who 
saved more Jewish lives from the gas chambers than any other.
  But many other brave individuals risked their lives by rescuing Jews 
during the Holocaust that have still yet to be recognized.
  Thousands of these hero's stories have remain untold because the 
Nazis mercilessly ended their lives. For those that survived the 
Holocaust and for those that did not, I rise today to honor their 
heroism and their memory.
  In 1963, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance 
Authority in Israel, initiated a worldwide project to grant the title 
of Righteous Among the Nations to individuals who were not Jewish and 
who risked their lives to rescue and protect Jews and others during the 
Holocaust. To date, more than 21,000 heroic individuals have been 
honored as Righteous Among the Nations.
  Theodor Criveanu was one of such courageous righteous individuals.
  When serving as a reserve officer in the Romanian military, he was 
assigned the task of presenting military authorities with a list of 
Jews who would be given work permits to work in the ghetto instead of 
being deported to Transnistria. Risking his life to defy Nazi orders, 
Mr. Criveanu secretly issued work permits in numbers that exceeded the 
work permit quota and to Jews who were not essential to the workforce, 
saving countless of innocent Jewish lives.
  The brave efforts of Mr. Criveanu have not gone unnoticed. On August 
8, 2007, Yad Vashem named Theodore Criveanu as Righteous Among the 
Nations, posthumously honoring him for his courageous work to block the 
deportation of Romanian Jews to Nazi death camps.
  Today I rise to honor these individuals for their bravery and 
humanity. Mr. Criveanu and other such individuals deserve to be 
remembered and revered by the United States Congress.

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