[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6546-6547]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Quigley) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Yom HaShoah, 
Holocaust Remembrance Day. I rise in memory of the devastating 
atrocities that were committed in Nazi-occupied Europe, where more than 
6 million people lost their lives. In every generation, we must bear 
witness to the events of the Holocaust to fully understand what 
transpired and to ensure that this would never happen again.
  To fully comprehend the horrors of the Holocaust, we must lay our 
eyes on the hallowed grounds where the cruelest crimes against humanity 
were perpetrated. I recently returned from Ukraine. There, I stopped to 
pay my respect at the site of the Babi Yar massacre in Kiev. To stand 
in the place where more than 100,000 people were shot and buried in a 
mass grave brings reality to the horrible accounts of the massacre. 
Every person had a name and a story.
  I have twice visited Auschwitz-Birkenau. I walked through the rooms 
where the prisoners slept, filled now with the possessions they left 
behind. I saw the fields where prisoners stood waiting in line for 
their meager rations. I saw the walls where Jews were lined up before 
Nazi soldiers shot them.

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  I saw the gas chambers where you could still see scratches on the 
walls from prisoners desperate to escape.
  Every person had a name and a story.
  When I followed the train tracks out of Auschwitz, I reversed the 
path that led so many to their final resting places. From that moment, 
I have committed to remember what happens when senseless hatred 
prevails.
  Unfortunately, the hatred and intolerance that led to these crimes 
against humanity is still alive today.
  At some point, no survivors of the Holocaust will be alive to recount 
their heroic and heartbreaking tales of survival. We must make sure 
that we never repeat this dark mark on world history by teaching our 
children tolerance, and never forgetting the innocent victims of the 
Holocaust.

[[Page 6547]]

  The Hebrew word ``yizkor'' means ``we will remember.'' Though 
Holocaust Remembrance Day was observed on April 28 this year, I ask 
that we dedicate ourselves to remembering the horrors of the Holocaust 
and commit to prevent genocide in our lifetimes and in the future.

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