[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 16 (Monday, April 26, 1993)]
[Pages 635-636]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Reception Honoring the Opening of the United States 
Holocaust Memorial Museum

 April 21, 1993

    Thank you so much for that magnificent statement and for the kind 
introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, Hillary and I, and the Vice 
President and Mrs. Gore are deeply honored to welcome all of you here to 
the White House this afternoon to mark the opening of the United States 
Holocaust Memorial Museum.
    All of us are honored to be joined by the heads of state of so many 
distinguished nations: of Israel and Portugal, Croatia and Romania, 
Bulgaria and Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, the Slovak 
Republic, Albania and Moldova. These fine people, as you heard, and I 
had a lot of conversations this afternoon and we are a little late, and 
for that I apologize. I do want to say that for a while some of my 
friends in the audience were speculating, as Mandy had to stand up and 
sing again and again, that I was really testing the proposition that he 
has not only the best voice but the strongest lungs in the United States 
of America.
    This afternoon I was interrupted on a couple of occasions to go back 
and work with the Congress in our attempt to create more jobs for the 
American people, but I spent a great deal of time talking to these world 
leaders about things that concern us all and that are very relevant to 
the occasion which has brought all of you here today. I was honored to 
see the President of Israel on this day when we announce the resumption 
of peace talks in the Middle East starting next week. We know this is 
the beginning, not the end of the process; but what a fine day it is to 
begin.
    I was honored to talk with the leaders of these other nations about 
things of profound concern to the Jewish community in America. How can 
we keep democracy alive in Russia and the other republics of the former 
Soviet Union and throughout Eastern Europe? How can we stand against the 
awful principle of ethnic cleansing which has too much currency in the 
world today, given the experiences of so many people in a world so 
recently gone by?
    I want to thank Benjamin Meed, not only for what he said but for 
what he has done. I want to thank Bud Meyerhoff and Bill Lowenberg who 
made a very significant contribution to this week's events through their 
services as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Museum Council. I understand 
that we have here in this audience two half-siblings of Raoul 
Wallenberg: Nina Lager and Guy von Dardel. And I want to recognize them 
and all the rest of you whose generosity and dedication and 
determination never to forget has helped make this day a reality. I want 
to recognize the members of the Cabinet and the distinguished Members of 
the United States Congress who are here and thank them for their 
presence and their dedication. Finally, there are many friends of the 
Gores and the Clintons who are here tonight whom I've not seen since the 
election. And I want to thank you and say that we're going to take more 
time shaking hands on the way out than we did on the way in, and I hope 
we'll be able to see all of you.
    We've gathered here to mark the opening of this Holocaust Museum. We 
do so to help ensure that the Holocaust will remain ever a sharp thorn 
in every national memory, but especially in the memory of the United 
States, which has such unique responsibilities at this moment in 
history. We do so to redeem in some small measure the deaths of millions 
whom our nations did not, or would not, or could not save. We do so to 
help teach new generations the dangers of antidemocratic despots, racist 
ideologies, and ethnic hatreds.
    Late Monday night, I walked through the museum with the museum's 
Director,

[[Page 636]]

Jeshajahu Weinberg. He did a brilliant job of telling me about the 
incredible work in the relatively brief time of 2 hours and 10 minutes. 
And I say that in all seriousness. When the Vice President went through 
the museum, he said, if you go back there you ought to allow at least 2 
hours so that you can really absorb what you will see and feel. I can 
personally now attest to how darkly it teaches and how deeply it moves 
all who step inside with their ears, their eyes, and their hearts open. 
It is the testament not only to the worst and most depraved examples of 
human conduct but also to the best, the bravest, and the most loving in 
the human soul. I hope that all of you who are here and all of the many 
visitors who come to Washington from now on will take the opportunity to 
visit and be touched by this wonderful place.
    Many of the leaders who join us today are from countries now making 
bold transitions toward democracy, as I have said. As a Nation that's 
been struggling with it for more than 200 years now, we understand some 
of the challenges of that transition. Even after 200 years there are 
parts of it we have trouble getting right. The Holocaust Museum will 
stand as a stark reminder that, of the many tasks of democracy, the most 
imperative perhaps, are those of fostering tolerance for ethnic and 
religious and racial differences, of fostering religious freedom and 
individual right and civic responsibility; each of us to take 
responsibility for the welfare of all of us.
    The event we have joined to commemorate is one of immeasurable 
sorrow; yet today we speak of hope, as others have said. For while the 
faces pictured within the museum remind us of the worst of an old 
Europe, the faces I see within this tent suggest the best of a new 
Europe and a new world: a Europe no longer divided by ideology, no 
longer braced for all-consuming war, where freedom is replacing 
repression, where people can devote less of their resources to 
preparation for hostilities and more for investment for prosperity. We 
know, of course, that the new Europe is not yet free of old cruelties 
and that contemporary horrors like the slaughter of innocents in Bosnia 
have not disappeared. Indeed, one of the eternal lessons to which this 
museum bears strong witness is that the struggle against darkness will 
never end and the need for vigilance will never fade away.
    Still, we have grounds to hope that the seeds of democracy in Europe 
will one day soon bear the fruit of a more peaceful civic culture in 
which neighbor no longer lifts up sword against neighbor, within 
countries or across national borders. Our own people have long waited 
and too often have had to fight for that kind of Europe. Now that these 
historic transitions are underway, I want you to know that the United 
States will remain fully engaged in Europe and in its transitions toward 
a new and better future. For, as we vow never to forget the dark days of 
a half-century ago when all humanity fell apart, we can also celebrate 
in this event the process of coming together by rededicating ourselves 
to making sure that the process works, that this time all of us will get 
it right. It is a coming together of Israel and those nations that saw 
much of the worst persecution of the Jews. A coming together of Western 
Europe and Central Europe and Eastern Europe and, indeed, the first 
coming together of those regions ever as democratic states. It is a 
coming together among free peoples determined to confront and remember 
the horrors that befell past generations so that we can create a world 
of justice and peace for our generation and for the children to come.
    I thank all of you for coming here today. But more than that, I 
thank you for living the lives that brought you here today. God bless 
you all.

Note: The President spoke at 6:43 p.m. on the South Lawn at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to entertainer Mandy Patinkin and 
Benjamin Meed, president, American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust 
Survivors.