[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2177-2178]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      DENOUNCING HOLOCAUST DENIERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to denounce this sad 
reality: the depraved beliefs of Holocaust deniers have somehow crawled 
into our national conversation. What is worse is that it is occurring 
at a time when our government has decided to turn its back on refugees 
fleeing violence and oppression.
  What is deeply concerning is that all of this is emanating from the 
White House, clearly directed by President Trump's top political 
strategist, Stephen Bannon. Mr. Bannon was the force behind Breitbart 
News, an alt-right outlet that traffics anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, 
and White nationalism.
  When President Trump picked Mr. Bannon as a chief strategist, 
countless groups condemned it. The Anti-Defamation League's Jonathan 
Greenblatt warned us that Bannon's views were ``hostile to core 
American values.'' That concern was made crystal clear by the statement 
President Trump issued on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 
about 10 days ago.
  The statement inexplicably left out the defining aspect of the 
Holocaust--the systemic murder of 6 million Jewish people. It is 
crucial to understand why this global day of remembrance even takes 
place. The United Nations created this calendar event in 2005, partly 
because fewer Holocaust survivors with personal accounts of the horror 
they experienced were still alive.
  Another reason was to combat the smoldering bigotry that still 
attempts to minimize the death of millions of murdered European Jews. 
The failure to mention this basic fact on such a day--as all past 
administrations have--is unbelievable and unacceptable.
  What is bone-chilling in its insensitivity and callous indifference 
is that, when questioned about the omission, President Trump's White 
House spokeswoman acknowledged it was intentional. His spokeswoman said 
in defense of leaving out any reference to Jews or anti-Semitism in the 
statement: ``Despite what the media reports, we are an incredibly 
inclusive group and we took into account all of those who suffered.''
  Compounding this refusal to acknowledge that Jews were the main 
target of the Holocaust, the White House spokesman called critics of 
the statement ``pathetic'' and ``nit-picking.'' He tried to gloss over 
it by suggesting a Jew helped prepare the statement.
  The fact is, undeniably, that the Holocaust was about the Jews. 
Hitler established what he called the final solution, a state-sponsored 
policy to exterminate the Jews and rid them from the planet.
  Omitting any reference to Jews as the primary driver of Hitler's and 
the Nazi's intentions, is nothing short of sanctioning Holocaust denial 
by blurring the hatred that was its driving force. Yes, it is vital to 
recognize that others were systematically targeted for extermination, 
but the number of Jews murdered and the great lengths taken to 
identify, capture, and annihilate them are unprecedented in human 
history.
  This is why we mourn those who lost their lives in one of history's 
darkest moments. This is why we recommit ourselves to upholding the 
principle of ``never again.'' This is why we have an International 
Holocaust Remembrance Day.
  A cruel irony is that on this very same day, Trump released his 
punishing Muslim ban that Bannon reportedly crafted to stop refugees 
from coming into our country. The executive order bans travel to the 
United States from seven predominantly Islam countries, though we are 
told that this is not a Muslim ban.
  The bumbling rollout of the order and unmitigated chaos it caused, 
has drawn scorn from across the political spectrum, and from allies 
across the world. Fortunately, our legal system has acted as a check on 
this ban so far. But it is the Islamophobia at the root of it, which is 
what Mr. Bannon and the alt-right crowd have long promoted. The Jewish 
community was quick to see the disturbing historic similarities.
  In May of 1939, the German liner St. Louis sailed to Cuba with 937 
passengers, most of them Jews fleeing the Third Reich. The bulk of the 
Jewish passengers had applied for U.S. visas and planned to stay in 
Cuba, but anti-Semitic protests prevented them from even disembarking 
there. After intense

[[Page 2178]]

negotiations to try to have Cuba accept the refugees failed, the United 
States turned the ship away, and the passengers were forced to return 
to Europe. One-third of them were ultimately exterminated by the Nazis.

                              {time}  1015

  It was a shameful chapter in our history. Those harsh forces are 
still at work around the globe, and it is those very same aspirational 
principles that drive so many immigrants to come to this great Nation.
  The idea that someone such as Mr. Bannon has actively worked to 
oppose these values in the past sickens me. The idea that Mr. Bannon 
now sits on the principals committee on the National Security Council 
is also deeply troubling. The prospect that his alt-right views could 
politicize the decisions that put American troops and lives at risk is 
inexplicable and inexcusable.
  But make no mistake, this outrage lies at the feet of Donald Trump, 
who allowed this oblique denial to go out in his name.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I stand here today to say that I will not be silent. 
In the face of cruelty and suffering, I will stand with those who 
refuse to be bystanders. I will join my voice with those who 
courageously ask questions instead of thoughtlessly taking orders.
  Mr. Speaker, the controversy over the Holocaust statement was never 
just a quibble about words. It is about the memory of 6 million 
murdered Jews. It is about making sure that no one, especially in the 
United States of America, denies that its primary purpose was, at its 
core, about Jews. And if we are to make certain that this never happens 
again, we cannot erase them from history or allow history to repeat 
itself. Never again.

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