[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 105 (Thursday, June 2, 1994)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 28463-28464]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-13591]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: June 2, 1994]




                Editorial note: For the President's remarks honoring 
                our veterans, see volume 30, issue 22 of the Weekly 
                Compilation of Presidential Documents.


                        Presidential Documents 


                
                Proclamation 6697 of May 30, 1994

 

D-Day National Remembrance Day and Time for the 
                National Observance of the Fiftieth Anniversary of 
                World War II, 1994

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Fifty years ago on June 6, 1944, the largest armada of 
                land, sea, and air forces ever assembled embarked on a 
                great crusade across the English Channel to free the 
                European continent of a tyranny that had taken hold and 
                threatened to strangle the very freedoms we cherish 
                most. Over 5,000 ships and 10,000 aircraft carried more 
                than 130,000 soldiers, sailors, and airmen from the 
                United States, Great Britain, Canada, Poland, France, 
                Norway, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand, 
                Australia, Luxembourg, and Belgium to the shores of 
                Normandy. More than 9,000 Americans never returned.

                D-Day was considered crucial not only by the Allies, 
                but also by the Axis powers. Field Marshall Irwin 
                Rommel, commander of the enemy forces in the area, 
                dubbed the first 24 hours as ``The Longest Day,'' 
                referring to the fact that if the Allies were 
                successful in establishing a beachhead, many more units 
                would follow, overwhelming the enemy in the West. 
                However, for the Allied forces, June 6, 1944, was truly 
                ``The Longest Day'' for a different reason. For the men 
                who landed on the beaches that fateful day, each minute 
                of combat was like an eternity as they were 
                continuously bombarded by the unyielding Nazi forces.

                But the enemy was unsuccessful, as the Allied forces 
                had more than just their will to win urging them on. As 
                defenders of justice, they were driven by the desire to 
                restore the peace and freedom that the Nazi occupation 
                had denied to millions of people. Anne Frank wrote of 
                the impending invasion in her diary:

                ``It's no exaggeration to say that all Amsterdam, all 
                Holland, yes the whole west coast of Europe, right down 
                to Spain, talks about the invasion day and night, 
                debates about it, and makes bets on it and--hopes . . . 
                . The best part of the invasion is that I have the 
                feeling that friends are approaching. We have been 
                oppressed by those terrible Nazis for so long, they 
                have their knives at our throats, that the thought of 
                friends and delivery fills me with confidence.''

                For Anne Frank, that deliverance never came, for she 
                died in a concentration camp just months before the end 
                of the war. But millions of others were delivered from 
                oppression and fear. Those who landed on the beaches of 
                Normandy, not only on D-Day but also throughout the 
                rest of the war, were responsible for the liberation of 
                many of the concentration camps as well as cities, 
                towns, and villages throughout Europe that had suffered 
                for so many years.

                Thus, 1944 was a year of triumphs and sorrows. The 
                Allies made great advances in bringing liberty to 
                millions, while families and friends on the home front, 
                faced with the knowledge that many of their loved ones 
                would not return, continued to build the ``Arsenal of 
                Democracy.''

                It is to those millions of American men and women, 
                veterans and civilians, those who came home from the 
                war and those who made the ultimate sacrifice that we 
                say ``a grateful Nation remembers.'' We must never 
                forget the high price paid by the valiant to ensure the 
                freedoms of the many.

                The Congress, by House Joint Resolution 303, has 
                designated June 6, 1994, as ``D-Day National 
                Remembrance Day.''

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim June 6, 1994, as D-Day 
                National Remembrance Day, and May 30, 1994, through 
                June 6, 1994, as a Time for the National Observance of 
                the Fiftieth Anniversary of World War II. I call upon 
                all Americans to observe this period with appropriate 
                programs and activities.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                thirtieth day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen 
                hundred and ninety-four, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and 
                eighteenth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)>

[FR Doc. 94-13591
Filed 5-31-94; 2:52 pm]
Billing code 3195-01-P