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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD— Extensions of Remarks E650 HON E650 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Ð Extensions of Remarks April 23, 1998 and in some cases sacrificed their lives so TRIBUTE TO JACK TRAMIEL success in view of the immense obstacles that that we may lead free and prosperous lives impeded their path makes their stories all the we now have in the United States. It also HON. TOM LANTOS more remarkable. sends a dangerous signal to America's youth OF CALIFORNIA One other element that is also common to that it is appropriate to disrespect and dis- IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES these five outstanding business leadersÐthey count devotion to one's community and coun- are ``Founders'' of the U.S. Holocaust Memo- Thursday, April 23, 1998 try. This is simply unacceptable. rial Museum here in Washington, D.C. They Mr. Speaker, the Daughters of the American Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, today represent- have shown a strong commitment to remem- Revolution have always fostered and pre- atives of the Congress, the Administration, bering the brutal horrors of the Holocaust, served the very ideals of basic human free- and the Supreme Court gathered in the Great paying honor to its victims, and working to dom and loyalty to family, community, and na- Rotunda of this historic building for the Na- prevent the repetition of this vicious inhuman- tion which our flag symbolizes. I ask all mem- tional Civic Commemoration to remember the ity. bers to join me in thanking and commending victims of the Holocaust. This annual national Mr. Speaker, Jack Tramiel is one of the five the Willard's Mountain Chapter of the NSDAR memorial service pay tribute to the six million Holocaust survivors and leading American en- on behalf of all Americans, especially those in Jews who died through senseless and system- trepreneurs highlighted in this article. Jack our local communities in upstate New York, for atic Nazi terror and brutality. At this somber began as a typewriter repairman and moved their impressive efforts over the years in en- commemoration, we also honored those he- on to establish his own firm, Commodore, suring that patriotism and pride in our nation roic American and other Allied forces who lib- which initially manufactured typewriters and will remain alive and well in America for many erated the Nazi concentration camps over half adding machines. In 1976 he moved into the years to come! a century ago. field of computers and took Commodore to Mr. Speaker, this past week Fortune Maga- $700 million in sales in 1983. As we here in f zine (April 13, 1998) devoted several pages to the Congress mark the annual Days of Re- an article entitled ``Everything in History was membrance in honor of the victims of Nazi ter- HONORING VARIAN ASSOCIATES, Against Them,'' which profiles five survivors of ror, I am inserting the profile of Jack Tramiel INC. Nazi savagery who came to the United States from Fortune Magazine be placed in the penniless and built fortunes here in their RECORD. HON. ANNA G. ESHOO adopted homeland. It is significant, Mr. Speak- JACK TRAMIELÐSILICON VALLEY FOUNDER, OF CALIFORNIA er, that four of these five are residents of my COMMODORE INTL. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES home state of California. Mr. Jack Tramiel of Only 10 when the Nazis marched into his city of Lodz, Poland, in 1939, Jack Tramiel Thursday, April 23, 1998 the San Francisco Bay Area, was one of the five that Fortune Magazine selected to high- (then named Idek Tramielski) initially had a Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to light in this extraordinary article, and I want to kid's thrilled reaction to the sheer spectacle honor Varian Associates, Inc. upon their 50th of the scene: weapons glinting in the sun, pay tribute to him today. soldiers goose-stepping, planes overhead. ``It anniversary of incorporation. Jack Tramiel, like the other four singled out was a fantastic thing,'' he remembers. Varian Associates was formed by brothers by Fortune Magazine, has a unique story, but Reality crashed down after that. Lodz's Russell and Sigurd Varian, along with a num- there are common threads to these five tales JewsÐone-third of the city's 600,000 peopleÐ ber of associates from Stanford University. of personal success. The story of the penni- were ordered out of their homes and into a The company first opened its doors July 1, less immigrant who succeeds in America is a crowded ghetto. For nearly five years Jack 1948, with just six employees and total capital familiar theme in our nation's lore, but these (an only child) and his parents lived there in of $22,000 to conduct general research in the one room, scavenged for food, and workedÐ stories involve a degree of courage and deter- his father at shoemaking, Jack in a pants field of physical science. Varian was one of mination unmatched in the most inspiring of factory. The faces that the Tramiels saw in the first companies to recognize the signifi- Horatio Alger's stories. the ghetto changed constantly: Jews left, cance and importance of a strong industry-uni- These men were, in the words of author new Jews came in, often from other coun- versity connection, and encouraged the forma- Carol J. Loomis, ``Holocaust survivors in the tries. Later Tramiel learned that the Jewish tion of Stanford Industrial Park, becoming its most rigorous sense,'' they ``actually experi- leader of the ghetto was parceling out its initial resident. Varian has grown from its mod- enced the most awful horrors of the Holo- residents to the Germans, believing that the est beginnings into one of Silicon Valley's community would be left in relative peace as caust, enduring a Nazi death camp or a con- long as he periodically delivered up a contin- greatest success stories, winning over 10,000 centration camp or one of the ghettos that gent of its residents for deportationÐand no patents, receiving countless Industrial Re- were essentially holding pens for those doubt extermination. search 100 Awards, and continually producing camps.'' In August 1944 the Tramiels themselves one or more of our nation's 100 most promis- They picked themselves up ``from the very were herded into railroad cars, told they ing new products yearly. cruelest of circumstances, they traveled to were going to Germany to better themselves, Varian has evolved into a world leader in its America and prospered as businessmen. They and instead shipped to Auschwitz. Jack's most vivid memory of the three-day trip is current line of businessÐhealth care systems, did it, to borrow a phrase from Elie Wiesel, that each person received a whole loaf of analytical instruments, and semiconductor when everything in history was against them.'' bread as a rationÐa feast beyond his imagi- manufacturing equipment. The company em- They were teenagers or younger when World nation. At journey's end, the men were sepa- ploys over 7,000 individuals at over 100 plants War II began. They lost six years of their rated from the women (at which point Jack and offices in nine countries, and generates youth and six years of education. ``they were lost track of his mother) and then them- sales well in excess of one billion dollars an- deprived of liberty and shorn of dignity. All lost selves split into two groups, one permitted nually. Since its inception, Varian has had a relatives, and most lost one or both parents. for the time being to live, the other sent to strong commitment to our community, exem- Auschwitz's gas chambers. Jack and his fa- Each . was forced to live constantly with ther were thumbed into the group that sur- plified by its establishment of our nation's sec- the threat of death and the knowledge that vived. ond Minority Small Business Investment Com- next time he might be `thumbed' not into a line A few weeks later, Jack and his father pany and its leadership role with the Urban of prisoners allowed to live, but into another were ``examined'' by the notorious Dr. Josef Coalition on fair housing, among others. line headed for the gas chambers.'' Through Mengele and thumbed again into a survivors Varian was recognized by Industry Week Mag- luck and the sheer will to survive, these were line. ``What do you meanÐexamine?'' azine as one of the World's 100 Best Man- some of the very fortunate who lived to tell the Tramiel is asked. ``He touched my testicles. He judged whether we were strong enough to aged Companies in 1997. story of that horror. work.'' Having passed, Tramiel and his fa- Over the last 50 years, Varian has become The second part of their stories is also simi- ther were transported to a spot just outside one of our nation's most successful compa- larÐa variant of the American dream. These Hanover, Germany, and there set to building nies. Varian is a jewel in the crown of the 14th courageous men came to the United States a concentration camp into whose barracks Congressional District of California and Silicon with ``little English and less money.'' Despite they themselves moved. In weather that was Valley. their lack of friends and mentors, they found often bitter cold, they worked in thin, pa- Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me the drive to succeed. As Loomis notes, ``many jama-like garments, and they grew increas- ingly emaciated on a deprivation diet: wa- in celebrating the 50th anniversary of Varian's millions who were unencumbered by the tery ``soup'' and bread in the morning, and a inception and in commending the company for heavy, exhausting baggage of the Holocaust potato, bread, and more ``soup'' at night.
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