[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 13]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 18496]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        IN RECOGNITION OF STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. ROD BLUM

                                of iowa

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 18, 2015

  Mr. BLUM. Mr. Speaker, I rise in honor of Struggle for Freedom and 
Democracy Day. Today is a day celebrated by our Czech and Slovak 
friends to commemorate the difficult road to independence and 
democracy.
  On this day, seventy-six years ago, soldiers from Nazi Germany 
mercilessly murdered nine Czech students and professors celebrating the 
independence of the Czechoslovak Republic.
  Fifty years later, on November 17, 1989, a peaceful student 
demonstration honoring those that lost their lives to the Nazis was 
terminated by riot police, igniting the Velvet Revolution which ended 
the Communist control in Czechoslovakia and subsequently, the eventual 
establishment of independent, democratic Slovak and Czech Republics.
  Today, we honor and remember those who sacrificed to fight tirelessly 
against oppressive regimes. The journey to establishing republican 
governments is perilous and we, as a people, must continue to support 
democratic institutions in Central Europe and around the world. As a 
co-chair of the Slovak Caucus and a member of the Czech Caucus, I am 
proud to support continued political, economic, and cultural ties 
between the United States, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.

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