July 11, 2006 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks E1375 The cause was complications of a stroke, the specter of a government which knows nam war sentiment that surrounded her. But said Paige Otwell, a friend. all.’’ instead of idly watching others, Ms. Becker For nearly 50 years, while at the Harvard ‘‘Arrangements have to be devised,’’ it took some of the biggest steps a single per- School of Law and then the University of said, ‘‘to control the precious few who run Georgia School of Law, Professor Sohn the machines, and on whose wisdom and im- son could. She helped to start the Pa- served on commissions and organized con- partiality the fate of mankind may depend.’’ rade Committee, a peace protesting move- ferences around the world, championing dis- In 1977, Professor Sohn was a delegate to a ment in New York City. armament, human rights and increased pow- United Nations-sponsored conference that Norma’s efforts did not die with the Vietnam ers for the United Nations. drafted the Convention on the Law of the war, but rather her energy and intensity rose. He called for the creation of a permanent Sea, which the General Assembly adopted in In 1977, she helped create the Mobilization for United Nations peace force. He wanted na- 1982. Survival, which helped to bridge the broad tions with nuclear arsenals to hand them In 1981, after 35 years at Harvard, Professor antiwar movement with the intensifying anti- over to the United Nations and use their Sohn accepted an invitation from Dean military budgets for relieving poverty. He Rusk, who had been secretary of state under nuclear power sentiment. campaigned to have the 1948 United Nations President John F. Kennedy, to join him in However, Norma’s favorite endeavor was Declaration of Human Rights accepted as a teaching at the University the , of which she legally binding document, rather than a of Georgia. served as chairwoman from 1977 to 1983. statement of principles. In 1968, the General f Staff members of the league have praised Ms. Assembly adopted that premise. Becker for her outstanding leadership. Others Those proposals and others were seized TRIBUTE TO THOSE KILLED BY commended her always present energy. She upon by American isolationists to attack the BOMB ATTACKS ON INDIAN COM- had an innate ability to work well with every- United Nations. Professor Sohn called them MUTER TRAINS ‘‘the minimum requirements for peace, not a one. utopian scheme for a perfect world commu- Peace activists across the country are dev- nity.’’ HON. RUSH D. HOLT astated by this loss. But Norma’s spirit re- Louis Bruno Sohn was born on March 1, OF NEW JERSEY mains with us and encourages us to continue 1914, in what was then Lwow, now Lviv, then IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES the fight for peace. I enter into the RECORD part of Poland but now in Ukraine. He grad- with pleasure a piece by the War Resisters Tuesday, July 11, 2006 uated from John Casimir University there League as a reminder of the tremendous im- and then earned a law degree in 1939. Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ex- Professor Sohn’s parents, Isaak and pact Norma Becker has had on our country. It Fredericka Sohn, were doctors. His father, press my condolences to the families of those is critical that we keep her memory alive so taken to an internment camp after the inva- who were killed in today’s terrible bomb at- that many generations to come will know who sion of Poland, barely survived World War II. tacks on several Indian commuter trains. Re- Ms. Becker was as well as all the great things His mother died of pneumonia that first win- ports indicate that these deadly attacks have she accomplished. She set an example that ter. claimed the lives of at least 135 people and we should all be proud to mimic. Two weeks before the invasion, at the invi- injured more than 250 Indian citizens. My ANTIWAR LEADER NORMA BECKER DIES tation of a Harvard law professor who read thoughts and prayers and those of many one of his legal treatises, Professor Sohn had Norma Becker, teacher, civil rights activ- boarded a ship to the United States to be- Americans are with the families of those af- ist, and towering figure of the peace move- come a research fellow. In 1941, he married fected. These attacks were perpetrated for an ment during the Vietnam War, died of lung Betty Mayo, a Radcliffe student; she is his unknown reason but, of course, there can be cancer in her New York City home June 17. only survivor. no good reason or justification. I hope that She was 76. At Harvard, he became an assistant to United States officials will assist the Indian A founder of the Fifth Avenue Vietnam Manley O. Hudson, a judge on the Permanent Government in tracking down those who are Peace Parade Committee, which drew tens of Court of International Justice at the Hague, thousands to protest the Vietnam War, and a responsible. founder of the Mobilization for Survival coa- which was established by the League of Na- It was just over a year ago that a deadly ter- tions but suspended during the war. Judge lition, she was crucial to the antiwar move- Hudson was the Bemis Professor of Inter- rorist bombing shut down London’s transpor- ment. She served as chair of the pacifist War national Law at Harvard. Professor Sohn tation system. In March of 2004, similar bomb- Resisters League from 1977 to 1983. succeeded to the Bemis chair in 1961 and held ing attacks ripped apart the morning commute ‘‘One of the truly great has passed,’’ said it until 1981. in Madrid, killing 192 innocent civilians. We longtime War Resisters League staffer David In the summer of 1945, Judge Hudson and have been fortunate in the United States not McReynolds on hearing of her death. ‘‘As his assistant traveled to San Francisco for to experience similar terrorist attacks on our much as any, and more than most, she pro- vided leadership in hard times and for the the United Nations charter conference. railways. We must not be lulled, however. It is There, they helped draft the statute estab- long and horrific years of [the Vietnam] con- lishing the International Court of Justice, or long past time to take the steps necessary to flict.’’ World Court, as the successor to the Perma- keep the traveling public as safe as possible. Becker was a New York City schoolteacher nent Court of International Justice. In this moment of grief, we must stand with in 1963, when, as she said later, she was ‘‘re- In an interview in 1977, Professor Sohn re- our longtime friend and support her and all the cruited into the civil rights movement by called how Harvard had asked him to teach Indian people. Sheriff ‘Bull’ Connor of Birmingham [AL].’’ Appalled by media accounts of Connor’s use a course on the United Nations after his re- f turn from the charter conference, ‘‘because of dogs to subdue civil rights demonstrators, nobody else would teach anything so crazy.’’ WAR RESISTER NORMA BECKER Becker went South to teach in the summer In 1958, Professor Sohn was a co-author, FOUGHT FOR PEACE Freedom Schools. with Grenville Clark, of ‘‘ Over the next couple of years, Becker—and Through World Law’’ (Harvard University the burgeoning movement against the war in Press), which examined proposals to trans- HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL Vietnam—found that she was as gifted an or- form the United Nations into a world govern- OF NEW YORK ganizer as she was a teacher. In 1965, she ment. The book envisioned a time when the IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES helped to start the Peace Parade Committee, United Nations budget, then $55 million, which organized massive antiwar protests in would surpass $35 billion, with $25 billion set Tuesday, July 11, 2006 New York City. Wendy Schwartz, a younger aside to mitigate ‘‘the worst economic dis- Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to WRL activist who came to the antiwar parities between nations.’’ pay tribute to a truly outstanding woman, Ms. movement during those years, adds, ‘‘It was The authors also called for the elimination Norma’s energy, intelligence, and charm of all armaments in 12 years and envisioned Norma Becker. A teacher, civil rights activist, that helped make those demonstrations so that the United Nations would then have a and promoter of peace, Norma touched the large and so peaceful. She worked as well monopoly on military force and would main- lives of everyone who came in contact with with the disparate factions tain a peace force of 400,000 soldiers. her. On June 17, 2006, at the age of 76, we as she did with the police.’’ In 1967, Professor Sohn wrote a report for a lost Ms. Becker to lung cancer. In 1977, after the Vietnam War had ended, committee of international law experts, urg- Norma Becker started out her tremendous Becker helped create the Mobilization for ing the United Nations to study the threat to career as a schoolteacher in New York City. Survival, which linked the emerging move- individual freedom posed by computers, However, she soon moved to the South to ment against nuclear power to opponents of eavesdropping devices and genetic engineer- nuclear weapons and the wider antiwar ing. The report, submitted to the United Na- teach, after hearing about Birmingham, AL, movement. tions as part of the 20th anniversary of the Sheriff ‘‘Bull’’ Connor’s use of dogs against But whatever other organizations she Universal Declaration of Human Rights, said civil rights protesters. During that time, Norma worked with, Becker also remained involved the concept of national data banks ‘‘raises could not help but feel the growing anti-Viet- with the War Resisters League. Only a week

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