May 5, 2005 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE, Vol. 151, Pt. 6 8733 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution re- ORDER OF BUSINESS might of the Allied Forces finally ended forever ported yesterday the concerns of one Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. the murderous regime of and his bureaucrat at the National Conference Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to brutal henchmen and brought the curtain down of State Legislators. He complained take my special order at this time. on the European theater of World War II. Nev- that the REAL ID would cost States The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there ertheless, the Nazi dictatorship already had $500 million to implement. But my objection to the request of the gentle- succeeded in deliberately murdering more home State of Georgia, like many oth- woman from Florida? than six million Jews and countless other peo- ers, already require many of the stand- There was no objection. ple, in particular gypsies, persons with mental ards in this bill. So this figure is very or physical disabilities, and those perceived to questionable, extremely questionable. f have a different sexual orientation or set of But for the sake of argument, let us ac- GENERAL LEAVE political beliefs. They achieved this terrible end cept that figure as valid. Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. through a nefarious network of secret police, a Would it be worth $500 million to Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that perverted legal process, a barbarous system have avoided 9/11? The 19 attackers who all Members may have 5 legislative of concentration camps that doubled as killed 3,000 Americans in New York and days within which to revise and extend human extermination factories—and the tacit Washington on that day had 63 driver’s their remarks and include extraneous and often active participation of many, many licenses between them, which they material on the subject of this special others from a wide variety of backgrounds and used, as we all know, to board the air- order. national origins. We observe Holocaust Remembrance Day liners they crashed into the World The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there in part to honor the memory of those men, Trade Center and the Pentagon. $500 objection to the request of the gentle- women, and children who perished in this million would be the deal of the cen- woman from Florida? tragedy unparalleled in the course of human tury to have avoided the loss of all There was no objection. these Americans. events. We observe Holocaust Remembrance f Day to pay tribute to the courage and suffering Beyond our battle against terror, HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY of so many who lost their lives. But we also this bill addresses a growing threat to observe Holocaust Remembrance Day for an our very culture, to our way of life, and The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a all too practical, and unfortunately still nec- the reasons that people all over the previous order of the House, the gentle- essary, purpose: because we must never for- world want to come here to start with. woman from Florida (Ms. WASSERMAN get. We are a Nation that respects the law, SCHULTZ) is recognized for 5 minutes. The six decades that have intervened since abhors corruption and graft. And as a Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. the Nazi regime was forcibly ended may make result, we have built the greatest econ- Speaker, today is Holocaust Remem- seem like a chapter in history omy on Earth by having established a brance Day, Hoshoa. from a bygone era. Yet each succeeding gen- firm foundation of public honesty; reli- Today is a day of reflection and re- eration has a moral obligation to remember able documents; trustworthy personal, membrance, not just for Jews, but for the Holocaust and its lessons for humanity: business, and official records. Those everyone who needs to learn from the that mankind has an enormous capacity for standards are in stark contrast to most world’s injustices in order not to re- evil; that, if left unchecked, evil can and will of the Third World, where graft and peat them. Today we need not just say, prevail; and that in order to overcome a mas- cronyism and corruption are the norm. ‘‘never again.’’ We must live our lives sive concentration of power in the hands of That is why people from those coun- by this mantra. those who would achieve evil ends, we have tries want out, because they cannot A few weeks ago, I attended a solemn a moral obligation to act and to intervene on feed themselves under the economic ceremony to remember the 60th anni- behalf of those without the capacity to resist conditions created by this corruption. versary of the liberation of Auschwitz. such evil. These lessons, we must never for- But illegal immigrants begin their As I reflected upon the horror of the get. journey by bringing that corruption to death camps where at least 1.5 million For the unfortunate truth is that each suc- this country, by intentionally vio- innocent people from many different ceeding generation in the decades following lating our immigration laws and cross- nations died, 90 percent of whom were the Holocaust has been obliged to grapple ing our borders illegally, and with the Jews, I asked myself the following with mass murder on a geopolitical scale. help of their own corrupt government. question: how far have we come as a From the tyranny of Josef Stalin’s Gulag Ar- Once here, they continue the process civil society and a world in the last 60 chipelago; to the Cultural Revolution of Com- by falsifying identification documents, years? How much have we learned? munist China; to the killing fields of Cambodia; which they then use to corrupt our Have we honored their memory by not to the ‘‘ethnic cleansing’’ in Bosnia and public records at both the State and allowing these atrocities to be re- Kosovo; to the senseless slaughters in Rwan- Federal level. peated? da, the Sudan, and Darfur; to the tumbling Unfortunately, my answer had to be twin towers at Ground Zero; and in countless not far enough. In the last 15 years, we other corners of the earth, man’s capacity to b 1445 have seen genocide raise its ugly head inflict grievous harm on his fellow man con- In the process, they have created an in Bosnia, Rwanda and, most recently, tinues to rage on, all too often unchecked. underground criminal industry based in the Darfur region in Sudan, where at Mr. Speaker, my distinguished colleagues, on graft and deceit, with the sole pur- least 180,000 people are dead and over 2 that is why we must never forget. We must pose of undermining the public records million people displaced from their never forget the more than 6 million victims, of this Nation. homes. their grievous suffering, and the tremendous On Yom Hoshoa, let us recommit and loss experienced not only by their loved ones To allow this to continue would be reaffirm our vigilance against acts of who survived them, but by all of mankind. We far more damaging than just allowing horrific inhumanity. Let us make sure must never forget the names associated with false information. It would allow a cul- that the lost souls from the Holocaust that greatest of all human tragedies, names ture of corruption to take seed and did not die in vain. which still to this day all too readily roll off the grow in this country, until the weeds of Mr. ROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to tongue, drenched in a thousand tears: Ausch- graft choke the economy and the pub- commemorate Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Re- witz, Dachau, Treblinka, —the Shoah. lic integrity of America, as it has the membrance Day, the annual observance of But above all, we must never forget, be- nations that the illegal immigrants the mass genocide perpetrated in the mid- cause we must continue to look forward, as flee from, especially south of us. twentieth century by , the most well as behind us. Man must never again I urge the Senate, I urge the Senate evil tyranny in the annals of human history. allow his fellow man to stand by while the to join us in passing this essential first On Sunday, May 8th, we mark the sixtieth wholesale extermination of entire peoples is effort against illegal immigration. anniversary of V–E Day, when the combined attempted under our very noses. We must

VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:15 Mar 11, 2009 Jkt 039102 PO 00000 Frm 00058 Fmt 0688 Sfmt 9920 E:\BR05\H05MY5.001 H05MY5 erowe on PROD1PC63 with BOUND RECORD 8734 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE, Vol. 151, Pt. 6 May 5, 2005 never forget the maxim offered by Edmund has visited hundreds of classrooms and spo- nity. And it still operates on a global scale. Burke centuries before the Holocaust: that the ken to thousands of students about his life in Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is German concentration camps during the Holo- has termed the failure of the United States for good men to do nothing. caust. Sam Harris—born Szlamek Rzeznik— and other nations to intervene to prevent the Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to has taken his remarkable life story and made genocidal massacres of 1994 in Rwanda as commemorate the Holocaust Martyrs’ and He- it a driving force in his effort to help America’s her ‘‘deepest regret’’ from her years of public roes’ Remembrance Day, known in Hebrew as children learn the value of tolerance. service. Every public servant should see Hotel Yom Hashoah. In September 1939, when Sam was 4 years Rwanda; in fact, I think every citizen should This is the day that not only the Jewish peo- old, he and his siblings were taken from their see the film, which drives home painfully the ple should mourn the loss of the six million home and confined in the Deblin Ghetto in Po- effects of the world’s indifference. people stolen from this earth, but a day recog- land. Three years later, they were sent to the And now researchers at the Holocaust Mu- nized by all. concentration camp at Deblin and then at Cze- seum in Washington have issued a Genocide We must never forget the attempted exter- stochowa until that camp was liberated by So- Emergency for Darfur in western Sudan, mination of the Jewish people but we must viet troops in 1945. Only Sam and 2 of his sis- where some 300,000 people have died at the also never forget so we can ensure that is ters survived their time in the camps, and Sam hands of violent men, or from the devastation never happens again. is among the youngest remaining survivors of left in their wake, in the past 2 years. Indeed We still see these mass slaughters around the Holocaust. the Holocaust—and the indifference and inac- the world whether it’s in Sudan or what we Currently, Sam volunteers with the Holo- tion that permitted the Holocaust—have been saw in the 1990’s in Rwanda. caust Memorial Foundation of Illinois, dis- frequently invoked as Congress has struggled The world community must take immediate cussing genocide and the Holocaust with ele- to shape our country’s response. action so the murder of so many Jews never mentary, middle and high school students to ‘‘Simply saying ‘never again’ does not save happens again to any of our brothers and sis- ensure that history does not repeat itself. Part lives,’’ one colleague wrote recently. Our ters around the world. of their effort is the creation of the Illinois Hol- country’s diplomatic efforts and the initiatives This day has a bit more of a special mean- ocaust Museum and Education Center, due to of the United Nations and the African Union ing to me this year; 2005 marks the 60th anni- begin construction in the near future. have thus far fallen woefully short. The inter- versary of the end of the concentration camps It is important to note that this will not be national community needs to impose far more that stole the lives of six million innocent simply a museum. It will also focus on edu- stringent economic and diplomatic sanctions human beings in ways that are still cation as a means to prevent hatred and big- on Sudan and to muster a much larger peace- unfathomable to me. otry. So it is fitting that Sam Harris and his keeping force—and our country needs to in- I had the unique opportunity this year to at- Holocaust Memorial Foundation colleagues re- vest a great deal more in getting this done. In tend the United Nations General Assembly main focused on the future, not only with their this connection, I commend to colleagues Special Session on the 60th anniversary of the museum but also on using the classroom as Nicholas Kristof’s column in the April 17th edi- Liberation of the Nazi Death Camps. a forum to help understand and deter geno- tion of the New York Times. Today is a solemn day of remembrance. But It was a very emotional day listening to the cide. given the persistence of evil and the perils our speeches made by many of the world’s lead- Sam said to me that if children were to take world faces, it must also be a day of resolve ers who were in attendance. one thing from him, it should be this: ‘‘When and action. We keep faith with those we re- Also this was the first time that I know of there is a bully in the play yard, they should member by vowing ‘‘Never again’’ and not that the United Nations convened to com- step forth and stop the bully.’’ That is advice stopping at that, but overcoming the indiffer- memorate the Holocaust, and the first time that we all can live by, whether we are in the ence and inaction that would allow unmitigated that the United Nations convened a special schoolyard, in the boardroom or in Congress. evil—the ultimate atrocity of genocide—to con- session at the request of . Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join tinue. Along with many of my colleagues, I con- with me today, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise tacted foreign embassies I have close relation- not only to honor the memory of the 6 million today to recognize Holocaust Martyrs’ and He- ships with to urge them to encourage their people killed during the Holocaust, but to roes’ Remembrance Day, known in Hebrew as home governments to write a letter to Sec- thank people like Sam Harris and the Holo- Yom Hashoah, to memorialize the 6 million retary General Annan to allow the general as- caust Memorial Foundation of Illinois for their Jews murdered by the Nazi regime during the sembly to hold the special session. tireless work in the promotion of tolerance and Holocaust. Over 135 countries responded to make sure understanding. In 1933, Europe’s Jewish population was that the special session got underway. Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, over nine million. However, by 1945, almost My day at the U.N. also brought me to a ‘‘Take care and watch yourselves closely so two out of three European Jews had been special breakout session sponsored by B’nai as neither to forget the things that your eyes killed as part of the , a policy to B’rith International with several Holocaust sur- have seen nor to let them slip from your mind murder the Jews. However, the Nazis’ cruelty vivors to talk about their experiences and how all the days of your life; make them known to was not just limited to Jews, they also mur- they survived the death camps. your children and your children’s children dered gypsies, the mentally and physically dis- One of the speakers was my good friend . . .’’ (Deuteronomy 4:9) abled, homosexuals, and those deemed reli- from California, Mr. LANTOS. When we speak On this day of remembrance we confront gious dissidents, like Jehovah’s Witnesses. about Yom Hashoah in Congress we should stark, unmitigated evil, evil that could impose We must remember the lives of those who remember that we have a survivor among us and did impose starvation, torture, unimagi- were subjected to unspeakable atrocities, tar- and should listen and respect his words when nable cruelty, and—for 6 million human geted simply because of their religious beliefs. he speaks about the current humanitarian cri- beings—death. We also confront the evil that We must remember those mothers, fathers, sis like he has done most recently with Sudan. let this happen, the evil of indifference. It is in- sisters, brothers, daughters, and sons who At the end of the day a special exhibit was difference that Elie Weisel describes as the perished so brutally in the camps, in the ghet- held by the Vad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs’ ‘‘epitome of evil.’’ ‘‘The opposite of love is not tos, and in the gas chambers of Nazi Ger- and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority about hate,’’ he says, ‘‘it is indifference. . . . The op- many. the Auschwitz death camps. posite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference.’’ This year, Yom Hashoah comes as we mark It’s impossible to describe the overwhelming It was indifference that enabled millions to the 60th anniversary of the end of World War feeling you get when you see the visuals of avert their gaze as the Nazis undertook geno- II. We must never forget what can happen to the condition the victims of the concentration cide on a scale never before imagined. Re- civilized people when bigotry and hatred rule. camps were in. It still troubles my heart that membrance of the Holocaust affects us deeply We all share the responsibility to combat ig- one human could do this to another. as we empathize with the victims and what norance, intolerance, and prejudice no matter We must never forget and never allow this they endured but also as we recognize: the what the form. And 60 years later, it is still en- to happen again in the world to any group of scourge of indifference, the temptation to indif- tirely unbelievable that individuals con- people. ference, are all too familiar to us today. templated in seriousness the systematic de- Ms. BEAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay Indifference often prevents us from express- struction of over 6 million people. On this anni- tribute to a constituent and friend of mine who ing love, achieving justice, or realizing commu- versary, as we honor lives lost, I extend my

VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:15 Mar 11, 2009 Jkt 039102 PO 00000 Frm 00059 Fmt 0688 Sfmt 9920 E:\BR05\H05MY5.001 H05MY5 erowe on PROD1PC63 with BOUND RECORD May 5, 2005 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE, Vol. 151, Pt. 6 8735 condolences to those who lost loved ones in environment free from anti-Semitic harass- that confronted them. The scale of that suf- the Holocaust. They will always be remem- ment, violence or discrimination; promoting fering was unimaginable. bered. educational programs; promoting remem- The allied powers, faced with the enormous Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to brance of the Holocaust, and the importance task of bringing to justice the perpetrators of commemorate Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Mar- of respecting all ethnic and religious groups; this genocide, together established the Inter- tyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, which combating hate crimes, which can be fueled national Military Tribunal. The legacy of Nur- memorializes the 6 million Jews murdered by by racist and anti-Semitic propaganda on the emberg lives on in the tribunals held for per- the Nazis during their campaign of genocide in Internet; encouraging and supporting inter- petrators of war crimes in Rwanda, Sierra World War II. We mourn the innocent lives lost national organizations and NGO’s; and en- Leone, and the former Yugoslavia among oth- and vibrant communities destroyed while the couraging the development of best practices ers. world shamefully stood silent, and honor those between law enforcement and educational in- Today we remember those destroyed by the heroes of the who faced cer- stitutions. Nazis, but unlike sixty years ago, we cannot tain death when they refused to submit to the As we commemorate Yom Hashoah, let us stay silent when confronted by such crises as Nazi’s planned extermination of their commu- honor the memory of those who perished in the genocide now occurring in Darfur. We nity. the Holocaust by pledging to fight intolerance, must renew our commitment never to remain To this day, Mr. Speaker, many European hate crimes, and violence in our community indifferent in the face of such assaults on in- countries have failed to right the past wrongs and around the world. We shall never be silent nocent human beings. of the Holocaust by failing to adequately re- again. Mr. BISHOP of New York. Mr. Speaker, I dress the wrongful confiscation of property by Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to rise today in solemn observance of Yom the Nazi and communist regimes. These sei- commemorate Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Hashoah, commemorating the commencement zures took place over decades; they were part Remembrance Day, a day on which we recall of the . Today the Gateway Monument in the War- of the modus operandi of repressive, totali- the atrocities committed during the Second saw Ghetto serves as a fixed memorial to the tarian regimes; and they affected millions of World War, celebrate the liberation of these victims who were herded onto railroad cars for people. The passage of time, border changes, horrific concentration camps, and call for con- deportation to Treblinka, one of many death and population shifts are only a few of the tinued efforts to fight anti-Semitism around the camps scattered throughout the European things that make the wrongful property sei- world. countryside. The Gateway Monument has zures of the past such difficult problems to ad- While 60 years have now passed since the etched upon its stone the names of four hun- dress today. end of World War II, and our Jewish brothers dred Jews who martyred themselves for the While I recognize that many obstacles stand and sisters from around the world have man- cause of saving the lives of their neighbors in the way of righting these past wrongs, I do aged to become a remarkably successful and and their own children, and to defend their re- not believe that these challenges make prop- innovative people despite the horrors they ligion from annihilation. However, another erty restitution or compensation impossible. were forced to face, it is imperative that we great monument exists, but in the form of the On the contrary, I believe much more should continue to remember the events of the Holo- retelling of the heroic story of the uprising, one caust to ensure that future generations remain have been done—and can still be done now— generation at a time. while our elderly are still aware. The crime of genocide, which con- Mordecai Anielewicz, a young man of twen- living. tinues to be committed today as we have seen ty-three years, led an army of beleaguered Today I also want to sound the alarm about in Armenia, Rwanda, Sudan, and elsewhere, men and women against their oppressors, the a disturbing trend that Jews face today: a ris- is one of the most reprehensible acts that can Nazi war machine. On this day, Holocaust ing tide of anti-Semitism throughout the world. be committed by man. To attempt eradication Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, we I serve as the Ranking Member of the Com- of an entire population based on a misguided celebrate and honor those who offered resist- mission on Security and Cooperation in Eu- prejudice is absolutely vile, and the United ance in a valiant attempt to defy deportation to rope (CSCE), commonly known as the Hel- States should do everything in its power to try death camps. Mordecai Anielewicz wrote in sinki Commission. Last year I traveled as part and prevent such atrocities from happening in his last letter to Yitzhak Cukierman, friend and of the U.S. Delegation, with former Secretary the future. co-founder of the Jewish Fighting Organiza- of State Colin Powell, to attend a special con- Today, we call to memory the atrocities of tion, ‘‘The fact that we are remembered be- ference in Berlin addressing anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, while at the same time hon- yond the ghetto walls encourages us in our held under the auspices of the Organization oring those individuals that persevered despite struggle.’’ for Security and Cooperation in Europe them. The success of such Holocaust sur- In our united causes to ‘Never Forget’, nor (OSCE). The OSCE is a 55-nation regional vivors as our dear colleague, Congressman to repeat the senseless atrocities of the Holo- security organization which promotes democ- TOM LANTOS, serves to remind us that while caust, we must be ready to confront similar racy and human rights in Europe, Central the crime of genocide can take our lives and genocidal slaughter throughout the world. Mr. Asia, and North America. our freedom, it cannot and must not break our Anielewicz’s heroism and the courage of the Before traveling to Berlin, I made a point to will and determination. over four hundred resistance fighters of the visit Auschwitz for the first time. I was shocked Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to Warsaw Ghetto resistance have earned more and stunned to see how efficient the Nazi op- commemorate Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ than words as their legacy. Our nation and eration was: they wanted to maximize the Remembrance Day, marking the 60th anniver- those of the developed world must offer our number of individuals that could be killed. sary of the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto own resistance to despot leaders who seek to Seeing the remains of that factory of intoler- uprising. commit murder on the basis of religion or ance, hate and death, it reaffirmed how we Today, as those who witnessed the horrific race. must continually stress the importance of ad- crimes perpetrated during the Holocaust are Mr. Speaker, Mordecai was correct in his vancing understanding throughout the OSCE becoming fewer, great effort must be taken to assessment of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising’s region and the entire world. We must tirelessly ensure that both we and generations to come impact outside the ghetto walls. Indeed, the work to build understanding and respect be- will never forget this, the most monstrous resistance has been remembered beyond the tween different communities to prevent future event in the history of the modern world. ghetto walls, as it has become a testimonial to acts of prejudice and injustice. This year, we mark this solemn day by re- the human spirit that will be remembered At the Berlin Conference, I had the privilege flecting on the liberation of the Jews of Europe throughout all humanity, for all time. of participating as a member of the U.S. dele- and the pursuit of those responsible for com- Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to gation, and I gave the official U.S. statement mitting these heinous offenses. Sixty years commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day. in the session on tolerance. The meeting ago as allied forces pressed farther into The Chief U.S. Counsel to the Nuremberg ended with the issuance of the Berlin Declara- reaches of Nazi-occupied Europe, the names Military tribunal said of the Holocaust: ‘‘The tion of Action. of places such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Da- wrongs which we seek to condemn and pun- The Berlin Declaration laid out a number of chau, and Mauthausen had yet to be seared ish have been so calculated, so malignant, specific steps for states to take to combat the into our collective conscious. As allied soldiers and so devastating, that civilization cannot tol- rising tide of anti-Semitism, including: striving broke down the doors of the camps, they were erate their being ignored, because it cannot to ensure that their legal systems foster a safe overwhelmed by the sights of human suffering survive their being repeated.’’

VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:15 Mar 11, 2009 Jkt 039102 PO 00000 Frm 00060 Fmt 0688 Sfmt 9920 E:\BR05\H05MY5.001 H05MY5 erowe on PROD1PC63 with BOUND RECORD 8736 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE, Vol. 151, Pt. 6 May 5, 2005 Today, Jews around the world take a mo- throughout Europe, including 6 million Jews. We grieve today not just for the Jewish ment to pay tribute to the heroes that were Numbers only tell a small part of the story deaths; Jews were not the only ones to perish lost. In Israel, where they refer to the day as though. Numbers don’t reflect the utter devas- in the Holocaust. This atrocity was visited Yom Hashoah, the ceremony began yesterday tation that European Jews faced after the end upon Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled, with survivors and their families gathering to- of the war. Numbers don’t describe the per- Catholics, Africans, trade-unionists, Jehovah’s gether for a memorial ceremony at Yad sonal and very individual tragedy of whole Witnesses, Protestant Pastors and anyone Vashem in Jerusalem. During the ceremony, families and communities that were destroyed who opposed the Reich. six torches were lit, representing the six million by the hate of places like Auschwitz, Dachau The Holocaust was and is an offense, not murdered Jews, and wreathes were laid. and Flossenburg. The Day of Remembrance only to the victims, their families and their Today’s ceremony in Israel began with the pushes us to think beyond the numbers; it friends, but to humanity. Some demonize the sounding of a siren for two minutes throughout forces us to remember that each of these Nazi brutality, calling it inhuman. But I think the entire country. For the duration of the si- numbers represents a person—someone’s fa- the fact that the Holocaust was a human event rens, work was halted, people walking in the ther or mother, son or daughter, niece of makes it all the more terrible. And it makes streets stopped, cars pulled off to the side of nephew, or grandchild—a precious life that our obligation to prevent such a thing from the road and everyone stood at silent atten- was never lived to its fullest. ever happening again even more essential tion. Each of us—the next generations—must re- and pressing. Mr. Speaker, genocide is a horror that has dedicate ourselves to speaking out for reli- Pastor Niemoller famously reflected on his inaction at the time of the Holocaust: touched many cultures and religions. Just a gious tolerance, peace and justice. We must few weeks ago, I joined several thousand Ar- First they came for the Communists, but I keep this sentiment within our hearts and was not a Communist, so I said nothing. menians in Times Square for a commemora- minds each and every day. Then they came for the Social Democrats, tion of the 90th Anniversary of the Armenian Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, today, commu- but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did Genocide. The date marks the beginning of a nities in the United States, Israel, and around nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but genocide that took the lives of more than one the world will gather to observe Holocaust I was not a trade unionist. And then they million Armenians in three years during World Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I War I. known in Hebrew as Yom Hashoah. This sol- did little. Then when they came for me, Even Hitler exploited the Armenian Geno- emn day commemorates the beginning of the there was no one left to stand up for me. cide to justify his atrocities against the Jews, Warsaw Ghetto uprising, and this year it coin- On this day of remembrance, let us pledge asking ‘‘Who, after all, speaks today of the an- cides with the 60th anniversary of the end of that this will not be our legacy. nihilation of the Armenians?’’ just before Ger- the War World II. On this day, we remember Ms. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to many’s invasion of Poland. Today, the Arme- the six million Jews murdered during World commemorate Yom Hashoah, a day of re- nians are still fighting for recognition of the War II. membrance for Holocaust Martyrs and He- genocide from the Turkish government. I join all those here today in mourning the roes. But Mr. Speaker, despite our attempts to innocent lives and vibrant communities lost, Between 1939 and 1945, over 12 million in- shed light on the horrors of the Holocaust and destroyed by Nazis while the most of world si- nocent people—including over 6 million the Armenian Genocide, the sad truth is that lently and shamefully watched. We must com- Jews—were murdered because of their reli- gion, their race or because of where they were genocide is not a crime of the past. bat anti-Semitism and intolerance wherever it born. Even today, after the passage of 60 Since February 2003, the Sudanese Gov- exists in the world today. ernment has used a combination of Arab It is vital that we remember this dark period years, it is difficult to fully comprehend the in- tense hatred and intolerance that so con- ‘‘Janjaweed’’ militias, its air force, and orga- in history. The Holocaust made clear man’s sumed this dark period in human history. nized starvation to kill more than 380,000 capacity to do evil. We remember this tragic On this day of remembrance we cannot Darfurians and displace almost 3 million. Esti- event and firm our resolve that history will not think of just those who died, but also of those mates suggest that the Sudanese continue to be repeated. As human beings, we have a re- individuals who embodied the triumph of the kill at least 15,000 more Darfurians each sponsibility to keep the Holocaust at the fore- human spirit, who bravely acted in the face of month. front of our collective historical memory. overpowering hatred, and of the lessons of The Sudanese government, like the Turkish I thank all those who have put today’s pro- their actions. Rather than succumbing to the government, denies any evidence of genocide. gram together to commemorate the Day of despair of their situation, the Jews fought Even the United States government seems to Remembrance and I appreciate all those who against their oppressors in the Warsaw Ghetto be unwilling to label the crisis as ‘‘genocide.’’ participated. uprising in April and May of 1943. In a defiant Mr. Speaker, we as Americans have a Mr. Speaker, the Day of Remembrance re- declaration, the Jews of Terezin proclaimed a moral obligation to stop genocide wherever minds us that we as people, we as nations, theme of liberation each time they sang and whenever it occurs. Americans can never must take action against hatred and incitement Verdi’s ‘‘Requiem.’’ The thread of hope contin- again show the same lack of interest that targeted against any group; we saw how fail- ued despite the hopeless moments. As such, F.D.R. showed toward the genocide of the ure to take action over 60 years ago turned to when we remember the Holocaust, we re- Jews during World War II. No world leaders mass devastation and murder. member not only the needless death of so should ever be able to stand and justify their Mr. Speaker, by taking the time to remem- many, but also the heroic voices which con- crimes by asking if anyone remembers the an- ber Yom Hashoah here in our Nation’s Cap- tinue to inspire us today. nihilation of Darfur? ital, we are keeping our promise that we will Sadly, we still struggle as a human race to Today, we commemorate one of the darkest never forget the past and will fight to protect stamp out the evils of anti-Semitism, racism periods in human history in the hopes that it our future, a future that we hope is one step and xenophobia. Several years ago in my will never be repeated. Future generations— closer to the goal of ‘‘never again.’’ hometown of Sacramento, we saw the ability not just Jews, but all people—must learn the Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. of good to overpower intolerance during an act history of the Holocaust so that the lives that Speaker, I rise today in remembrance of and of arson on three area . We wit- were taken were not lost in vain. in mourning for the millions who perished in nessed the heroics of average citizens who Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in rec- the Shoah, the Holocaust, the most systematic rushed into these burning buildings to save ognition of the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ and brutal persecution of a people ever per- precious books, manuscripts and a Remembrance Day, known in Hebrew as Yom petrated in human history. which had already survived the Holocaust dec- Hashoad. Although 60 years have passed We grieve for all human suffering and mis- ades earlier. since the end of World War II, not a day ery. The death of one is not more significant While Yom Hashoah is a somber day of re- should go by without the world remembering because of his or her race or their creed. But membering those who were killed in the Holo- the important lessons we so painfully learned there were so many ones lost in that time. caust, it is also a day that offers hope. Hope from the Holocaust. And not just individuals, whole families, whole that the strength and courage in all of us will The Day of Remembrance was established villages, an entire way of life in many cases. overcome injustice and intolerance. by Congress as our nation’s annual com- Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, these countries will Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I memoration of the victims of the Holocaust: 12 never regain the vitality they lost when they rise today to commemorate the 60th anniver- million people died in concentration camps lost their Jewish people. sary of the end of the Holocaust. This year’s

VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:15 Mar 11, 2009 Jkt 039102 PO 00000 Frm 00061 Fmt 0688 Sfmt 9920 E:\BR05\H05MY5.001 H05MY5 erowe on PROD1PC63 with BOUND RECORD May 5, 2005 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE, Vol. 151, Pt. 6 8737 anniversary is particularly compelling not only brings great pain to my heart as we remember in the Holocaust, and the courage of those because it marks six decades since the libera- the victims of one of history’s darkest and who survived. tion of the Jewish people from history’s dark- most murderous eras. To try and grasp the Mr. CANTOR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today, on est hour, but also because our world has significance of the death toll that resulted from Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, to failed to heed the universal message of the the Holocaust is both a saddening and frus- honor the memory of the victims who perished Holocaust. Crimes against humanity anywhere trating exercise. Six million Jews not only lost in World War II during the Holocaust. are an affront to all people everywhere. their lives, but were murdered on the basis of This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Indeed, I would be doing a disservice to the nonsensical, inhumane reasoning—reasoning liberation of Europe from the evil hands of the Holocaust survivors throughout South Florida that dictated action through hate on the basis murderer Adolf Hitler. Hitler’s shadow caused if I do not address that most unconscionable of religious discrimination. The end result, darkness to fall upon the earth.He slew the in- crime of genocide. Sixty years ago the world sadly though, was much worse than what is nocent and pure, men and women and chil- failed to aid the victims of the Nazi regime. our conventional idea of religious discrimina- dren, with vapors of poison, and he burned We conveniently dodged our duty by claiming tion. The end result in this tragic situation was them with fire. When the light of freedom unsubstantiated evidence, a lack of effective genocide. shined again, tens of millions were dead, cities resources to respond, and the existence of And though my heart weighs heavily as I re- and nations were in ruin, and a world stood more pressing concerns elsewhere in the flect on the injustices suffered and the lives awestruck at the horrors that had occurred. world. lost, there is a part of me that sees an oppor- Justice Robert Jackson, a justice on the Today, we are remembering the Holocaust tunity to celebrate human resilience as we International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in while again evading taking the necessary commemorate this somber day. In the face of 1945, said: steps to end the genocide in the Darfur region some of the most intense hatred and inhu- The wrongs which we seek to condemn and of the Sudan. Hundreds of thousands of peo- manity that this world has ever seen, it gives punish have been so calculated, so malignant ple have been killed and millions displaced me great hope to think of the many who and so devastating that civilization cannot from their homes by a bloodthirsty militia tolerate their being ignored, because it can- seized upon the greatest power that any indi- not survive their being repeated. backed by the Sudanese military and govern- vidual human-being can posses, and in fact, a ment. Yet we insist that our resources are power that each and everyone of us posses. We in the United States, the birthplace of spread too thin, that events elsewhere in the That power is the power to choose. Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King, world command our attention, and that decid- And in the face of oppression, persecution enjoy a great deal of freedom. We must not ing upon the strict definition of these crimes and destruction, there were so many who take these freedoms for granted. We must not should determine whether we respond force- chose to resist, whether it was through phys- forget that genocide and human rights abuses fully or not. Mr. Speaker, shame on us for ical action, words written and spoken, or in have occurred and continue to occur around using the same old excuses. spirit. Some of these people were heroes the world. We must not remain silent. We Elected officials often speak about spread- whose names we celebrate, some were he- must dedicate ourselves to continuing to edu- ing freedom, establishing democracies, and roes only to those who knew them and some cate people around the globe about the hor- ensuring minority rights around the world. were simply heroes in and of themselves. rors of the Holocaust. We must be forever These are noble endeavors indeed, Mr. To these people we owe a debt of gratitude mindful of the danger of such intolerance and Speaker. But what about spreading the saving and respect. Now, more than ever, as the ensure that it never happens again. Let us stand here today and affirm our obli- of human lives? The sacred Jewish text the world continues to wrestle with violence gation to civilization that we will never forget. Talmud reminds us that to save one life is to spawned by religious and cultural intolerance, save the whole world. How many worlds are we cannot forget or underestimate our own Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I rise to lend dying every day in Darfur? I am sure that the power to choose to act out against this type of my voice to the cause of remembrance. Today Holocaust survivors here in the Capitol Build- hatred and oppression. Let us never forget is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance ing today can tell us because they witnessed that silence and inaction provide fertile breed- Day. This is a day aside on the Jewish cal- firsthand the cataclysmic annihilation of their ing ground for grave injustices. We all have a endar to remember the murdered Six Million of families, their neighbors, their friends, and moral obligation to choose to act. the Holocaust and to remind us all what can their people. Their memories are still fresh, Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I rise happen when bigotry, hatred, and indifference their thoughts still lucid, and their commitment today in observance of Holocaust Remem- are allowed to permeate a society. to educating the world about the Holocaust is brance Day, to honor the memory of the six It has been 60 years since the end of the more than admirable. million Jews who died in the Nazi concentra- Holocaust. We mark this passing of time be- Sixty years ago, without rhyme or reason, tion camps during World War II. cause while the Holocaust serves as a vivid an entire nation of people were murdered, As the dedication in the United States Holo- reminder of the worst mankind has to offer, we wrenched from the Earth by an unholy evil. caust Museum’s Hall of Remembrance so must remain vigilant so that all might learn its This malevolence persists today in the form of thoughtfully observes: lessons. bigotry and intolerance, torture and genocide. . . . guard yourself and guard your soul care- Its horror demands that we fight tyranny. Every instance that we ignore and every crime fully, lest you forget the things your eyes Its victims show us the dangers of igno- that we brush off feeds the incipient hatred saw, and lest these things depart your heart rance. that compels the concentration camp, the all the days of your life, and you shall make Its lesson is that we must never embrace in- slave labor force, the disdain for human life, them known to your children, and to your difference if we are to advance in peace. and the ease with which it is taken. children’s children. Yom HaShoah is the occasion to pay tribute Mr. Speaker, we owe it to those whose Sixty years ago, in 1945, World War II to the lives lost and a time to rededicate our- names have since been lost to refuse to con- ended and Allied soldiers liberated the sur- selves to work together toward greater under- demn the genocide in Darfur with only our vivors of the . standing so that this unspeakable horror never words. We have come too far in 60 years to Through the survivor’s stories and other docu- visits our societies again. slide back again. If we have learned anything mented evidence, the full extent of the atroc- Mr. Speaker, I have been to Jerusalem. I from the Holocaust it is that it must not be al- ities committed by the Nazi soldiers became have been to and the Western lowed to happen again. Today is Holocaust known and we learned of the bottomless Wall. The emotional power of these places Commemoration Day, but it is not enough for depths of mankind’s capacity for cruelty. moved me to a greater belief in two things that us to simply remember. We must also never Observing Holocaust Remembrance Day is the power of faith is unbreakable and that forget. vitally important. As time passes, our tendency hard work and patience can achieve the goals Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in is to disbelieve that people could be so mon- of peace. Let us today allow Yom HaShoah to order to honor the millions who lost their lives strous as to commit such horrific deeds. That remind us of both faith and peace. during the Holocaust as we observe Yom is why we have to remain vigilant, to remem- Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ac- Hashoah, Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Re- ber what happened so that we can guard knowledge the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ membrance Day. against it ever happening again. Remembrance Day, known in Hebrew as Yom Each year, I am confronted with so many Mr. Speaker, thank you for this opportunity Hashoah. May 5th marks the anniversary of emotions as we commemorate this day. It to honor the memory of those who were killed the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, and this year is

VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:15 Mar 11, 2009 Jkt 039102 PO 00000 Frm 00062 Fmt 0688 Sfmt 9920 E:\BR05\H05MY5.001 H05MY5 erowe on PROD1PC63 with BOUND RECORD 8738 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE, Vol. 151, Pt. 6 May 5, 2005 especially important as the world marks the gary. There, in one of the most efficient depor- in the aftermath of the Holocaust serves as an 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. tation and murder operations of the Holocaust, example of steadfast determination. Through From 1938—1945, 6 million Jewish people, the Nazi and Hungarian regimes deported their example, we learn how the human spirit young and old alike, were systematically mur- 437,000 Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau in just can triumph over the hollowness of vengeance dered as a result of ignorance and hatred. eight weeks and killed tens of thousands more and anger. On this day we celebrate that spir- Nazi Germany also targeted gypsies, the later that year. it. handicapped, Political dissidents, and others Six decades have passed since Allied Mr. Speaker, I am proud to join the com- because they were different. troops liberated the labor and death camps, memoration of Yom Ha’Shoah and I hope that In Jewish communities around the world, and yet the memory of the horrors perpetrated all Americans will join me. there is a simple saying in regards to the Hol- against the Jewish people is seared into the Ms. LINDA T. SA´ NCHEZ of California. Mr. ocaust, ‘‘Never Forget.’’ Let us never forget collective conscious of the world. However, Speaker, communities will gather in the United the atrocities committed against a people Mr. Speaker, sadly, we cannot undo history, States, Israel, and around the world today to based on nothing more than their religious be- and we cannot reverse the atrocities carried observe Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Re- liefs. Let us never forget the 6 million mothers out by a barbarous German regime. membrance Day, known in Hebrew as Yom and fathers, sons and daughters, sisters and What remains for us is to honor and pre- Hashoah. This solemn day commemorates the brothers, grandfathers and grandmothers who serve the memories and lives of both the vic- anniversary of the beginning of the Warsaw were systematically murdered just 6 decades tims and the survivors of the Holocaust. Out of Ghetto uprising. This year, the day comes as ago. the great tragedy of the Holocaust emerges a the world marks the 60th anniversary of the I join my colleagues in remembering won- tremendous object lesson for humanity: hatred end of World War II. derfully vibrant communities that were sense- and bigotry can never be taken for granted or In order to prevent the unspeakable horrors lessly destroyed across Europe. I would also left unchecked. We must never forget. of the Holocaust from ever being repeated, we like to pay tribute to the thousands of Holo- Mr. Speaker, memory is critical—our own all have a responsibility to educate younger caust Survivors in the United States and and that of the victims of unprecedented evil generations. We must take time to remember around the world who continue to educate us and suffering. The Holocaust is a horror we the atrocities suffered by countless Jews dur- on the atrocities of the Holocaust. must remember, but not only because of the ing’ the World War II era. The martyrs gave I implore all of us to take this Remembrance dead; it is too late for them. Not only because their lives for their beliefs, protected their own Day one step further and stand up against of the survivors; it may even be too late for people, and stood up for their most sacred anti-Semitism, intolerance, ignorance, and dis- them. Preserving memory is a solemn respon- principles. The heroes did everything in their crimination in our nation and around the world sibility, aimed at saving men and women from power to stop the spread of evil across the today. apathy toward evil, if not from evil itself. We globe. It is the stories of these martyrs and Let us never forget. must never forget. heroes that need to be repeated, so that Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, today, Mr. Speaker, sixty years ago, much of the young people can better understand this dark Thursday, May 5, 2005, the people of the world overlooked the deadly plight of an entire period in history. world memorialize Yom HaShoah—a special people until it was almost too late. We have a One resource to help us teach the next gen- day of remembrance honoring the martyrs and sacred obligation—in order to truly keep faith eration is the United States Holocaust Memo- heroes of the Holocaust. Holocaust Remem- with the principles upon which our great nation rial Museum. I recommend a trip to this land- brance Day is a day that has been set aside was founded—to remain vigilant, to remember mark whenever someone from my district is to remember the victims of the Holocaust and the horrors of the past, to learn from them, visiting Washington, D.C. There is so much to remind each of us what can happen when and to protect against them for all eternity. We worth to what this museum has documented bigotry and hatred are not confronted. must never forget. for the world to see. The documents, photo- Mr. Speaker, I am humbled as I rise today Mr. Speaker, Nobel laureate and Holocaust graphs, and films offer an appropriate way of with my colleagues to honor the memories survivor, , perhaps summed it up remembering such a serious subject matter. and the lives of the more than 6 million victims best when he said, ‘‘to remain silent and indif- Despite the lessons of the Holocaust, dis- of Nazi hatred and aggression during the po- ferent is the greatest sin of all.’’ As Americans, crimination, persecution, and even genocide grom known to us as the Holocaust. I am also we must heed his call and embrace his chal- still persist around the world. Today, it is im- humbled to stand in this cathedral of freedom lenge. We must never forget. perative to renew our commitment to fighting and honor the lives of the many heroes who Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today injustice in all its forms. In doing so, we recog- fought so bravely against unimaginable odds in recognition of Holocaust Remembrance nize the sacrifices and suffering of the Holo- to defeat a genocidal madman. Day. On this Yom Ha’Shoah, we honor those caust. Let us all work to educate the next gen- More than 60 years ago, Adolf Hitler and his whose lives were lost in the atrocities of one eration, so that they never forget the martyrs Nazi regime set out to eradicate European of the darkest periods in human history. and heroes who fought to protect their Jewish Jewry. So committed were they to the accom- We pay tribute to all who lost their lives dur- traditions, and never gave up in the face of plishment of this goal, their so-called ‘‘Final ing World War II and reflect on the loss of evil. Solution,’’ that even in the waning days of more than six million Jewish lives. We honor Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, today is World War II, when defeat was imminent, the the heroes who perished in the one of the Yom Ha-Shoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, and Germans continued even more urgently round- most valiant battles for liberty and justice the I rise to honor the memory of the 6 million ing up Jews all over Europe and sending them world has ever known. Jewish souls extinguished in the greatest act to their deaths. The most fitting tribute that we can offer to of organized depravity in history. Mr. Speaker, driven by a radical and un- the countless heroes who suffered under the There have been many barbaric regimes compromising anti-Semitic ideology, the Nazis Nazi regime is to work to ensure that they did and there have been many other vicious cam- redoubled their efforts to reach every last Jew not suffer in vain. As we reflect on the paigns of annihilation undertaken both before before the war ended. They were in a rush; unfathomable loss suffered during the Holo- and after the Holocaust. Some even produced time was running out. Depleting sorely-needed caust it is also important that we vow to build more victims. The Shoah, however, is unique resources from the war effort, German forces a more peaceful world. Today, more than fifty and is thus deserving of special attention, not swept across Europe, assembling and annihi- years later, we must teach our children about because the victims were Jews—many mil- lating community after community, individual the horrific events that transformed the world lions of innocent non-Jews were murdered by after individual, from their homes, ghettos and so that the mistakes of the past are never re- the Nazis—but because the Holocaust re- hiding places. peated. It is important that we fight ignorance vealed a painful and abiding truth about hu- Mr. Speaker, during the last year of the war on a daily basis through a dedication to learn- manity that remains with us. In squalor of the in Europe, German defeat was all but accom- ing about the origins and realities of the Holo- camps, in the ashes of the crematoria, and in plished, and yet their hatred and bigotry sur- caust. the fires of the ovens, it was demonstrated vived and thrived. Consequently, the Nazis With examples of malice and terror that the norms of civilization, the boundaries of murdered more than 700,000 Jews in that last everpresent in today’s society, we are re- morality, and the protections of society and full year of the war, including most of the Jews minded of the strength and courage of the government are no more protection than a of the last large community in Europe, Hun- Jewish people. Their dedication to begin anew fragile tissue of behavior, one torn aside with

VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:15 Mar 11, 2009 Jkt 039102 PO 00000 Frm 00063 Fmt 0688 Sfmt 9920 E:\BR05\H05MY5.001 H05MY5 erowe on PROD1PC63 with BOUND RECORD May 5, 2005 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE, Vol. 151, Pt. 6 8739 shocking ease to reveal the latent bestiality in fering, terror and ultimate death endured by will become even harder for aid workers to human beings. the victims of the Holocaust. reach those most desperately in need. Three The imperative of Holocaust for us today, as Remembrance Day serves as a reminder million Sudanese have already been dis- legislators and participants in American gov- that we must never forget the appalling trag- placed, and children are dying in refugee ernment is the same for all Americans and, in edy of the Holocaust, and the six million Jews camps from illness and malnutrition. truth, all humanity. That imperative is to re- who lost their lives. Mr. Speaker, innocent people are being member. There are many reasons why: To re- Unfortunately, the struggle against anti- killed because of their ethnicity, and I ask, member all those people murdered for the Semitism continues today, as recent reports ‘‘Never again?’’ crime of their birth and rededicate ourselves to indicate an increase in violence against the Children are starving in relocation camps, preventing such a crime from being repeated. Jewish community around the world. Last year and I ask, ‘‘Never again?’’ To remember that bigotry and ignorance can alone there were reports of anti-Semitic dese- Homes are being burned, women raped, metastasize in politics with horrific con- cration and vandalism of about 40 schools, and men mutilated. Is this what we call Never sequences. To remember that whole commu- 140 statues and cemeteries, 60 synagogues Again? nities can be wiped out with the power of the and 60 businesses around the world. The Voices rise from the ashes at Auschwitz, the modern state and to recommit ourselves to the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United killing fields in Cambodia and the hills of protection of the weak and powerless. To re- States also rose by 17 percent in 2004. Rwanda, begging us to intervene. It is time we member all those men and women and chil- Sixty years after the end of the Holocaust, answer their cries, not with words, but with ac- dren who were cremated and dumped into it is important that we strengthen our fight tion. It is time to pass the Darfur Genocide Ac- mass graves, not just to end their lives, but to against anti-Semitism and religious intoler- countability Act, H.R. 1424. We must increase deny their very existence. ance. our aid to refugee camps, halt the spread of But most of all we must remember because It has been said that those who cannot re- disease, and provide food where there is fam- it can happen again. member the past are condemned to repeat it. ine. It is happening again. It is happening in Yom Hashoah reminds each of us where rac- Towards the end of her life, Anne Frank Sudan. Right now. Today. Some 400,000 Su- ism, bigotry and religious intolerance can lead, wrote, ‘‘I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, danese have already been killed and, if today so that something as horrific as the Holocaust when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that is a typical day, 500 more will join them as the is never repeated. everything will change for the better, that this world wrings its hands and wonders what to Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility do. This lassitude, this fecklessness, this dis- to bear witness to the millions who perished in will return once more.’’ graceful toleration of genocide is nothing new the Holocaust. Mr. Speaker, today, on this Day of Remem- either. We saw it when there was slaughter in From 1933 to 1945, a dark cloud descended brance, let us make Anne Frank’s vision our Southeast Europe. And we saw it as a geno- on Europe and death rolled like thunder own, and ensure that this cruelty too will end. cide was perpetrated with machetes in Rwan- across the Continent. Six million Jews died Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, today da. And even before the Holocaust, it hap- unspeakable deaths at the hands of the Nazis. is Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remem- pened to the Armenians and today we debate Thousands of homosexuals, political dis- brance Day, known in Hebrew as Yom whether it ever happened at all. sidents, blacks and gypsies were corralled into Hashoah. We must remember the Holocaust because concentration camps, tortured, and killed. This is an appropriate date for this purpose genocide is real. It is not history, it is reality. Righteous Germans gave their lives to protect because it is the anniversary of the beginning Today, genocide is a reality in Sudan. To- their neighbors, and millions of civilians suc- of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. But in reality, morrow, when Iran acquires nuclear weapons, cumbed as bombs fell like rain during air Americans and all other civilized people will we see the mullahs attempt to finish Hit- raids. should consider every day a Holocaust Re- Mr. Speaker, we hear the screech of sirens ler’s barbaric work? Impossible? Incomprehen- membrance Day because forgetting the evils piercing the night, and we say ‘‘Never Again.’’ sible? Sophisticated people will ask, ‘‘Who of the past can too easily be the prelude to We see shattered glass littering the streets would harness the power of a modern state to their recurrence. and we say ‘‘Never Again.’’ And never was this truer than this year, as the absurd goal of killing Jews? Who would We feel bodies pressed against each other we mark the 60th anniversary of the final days risk their state over it?’’ in cattle cars—no room to move, no air to of the Second World War when Allied soldiers We must remember. A world that doesn’t breathe—and we say ‘‘Never Again.’’ keep Auschwitz fixed in its mind will see it re- We hear the hiss of gas pouring from show- moving across Europe encountered and liber- built. We must remember. er spigots and see fingernails scratching at ated concentration camp prisoners. Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, concrete walls, and we say ‘‘Never Again.’’ Advancing from the west, U.S. divisions I rise today to commemorate Yom Hashoah, We remember the curl of smoke reaching freed the prisoners in the Dora-Mittelbau, Bu- Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance toward a white winter sky and ashes drifting chenwald, Flossenbu¨rg, and Dachau con- Day, and to remember the 6 million Jews who down amidst snowflakes. Never Again. centration camps in Germany and the were murdered in the Holocaust. Mr. Speaker, in the 60 years since the lib- Mauthausen camp in Austria. In northern Ger- Sixty years ago, as American, British, and eration of Auschwitz, Holocaust survivors many, British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen Soviet soldiers moved across Europe in a se- across the world have borne witness to the and Neuengamme. And Soviet troops, after ries of offensives on Germany, they encoun- atrocities of the Shoah. They have taught us liberating Auschwitz in Poland in January tered and liberated concentration camp pris- about the dangers of prejudice and ignorance. 1945, in May, 1945 liberated the Stutthof, oners. Advancing from the west, U.S. divisions They have shown us by their shining exam- Sachsenhausen, and Ravensbru¨ck concentra- freed the major concentration camps of Dora- ple the power of strength, education and activ- tion camps inside Germany. Mittelbau, Buchenwald, Flossenbuirg, and Da- ism. I rise today to thank these survivors for We now understand that many people in Al- chau in Germany, and Mauthausen in Austria. all they have taught us, and to express my lied countries had known, in greater or lesser In northern Germany, British forces liberated sympathy for the loved ones they lost long detail, about what had occurred in the camps. Bergen-Belsen and Neuengamme. ago. But it was these Allied soldiers who fully ex- In the east, Soviet divisions liberated Ausch- But, Mr. Speaker, I also rise today because, posed the full horror of Nazi atrocities—and witz in Poland in January 1945. Just a few somewhere in Darfur, Sudan the electricity the combat-hardened soldiers were unpre- weeks before the German surrender in early has gone out in a small town, signaling that an pared for what they found. May 1945, they liberated the Stutthof, attack is imminent. Soon, a village will be There were stacks of dead bodies, and bar- Sachsenhausen, and Ravensbru¨ck concentra- burned to the ground with only scorched earth racks filled with dead and dying prisoners, tion camps inside Germany. to testify to the lives once lived there. When while the stench of death was everywhere. In liberating the Nazi camps, the Anglo- the sun sets on this day, 500 more innocent And the camps still housed thousands of ema- American and Soviet soldiers exposed to the Sudanese will have died at the hands of ciated and diseased prisoners who resembled world the horror of Nazi atrocities. Janjaweed killers, bringing the death toll to skeletons because of forced labor and lack of Today, we must rededicate ourselves to over 400,000. food. Many were so weak that they could fighting intolerance, racism and apathy so that Meanwhile, the rainy season is fast ap- hardly move. Disease remained an ever future generations do not experience the suf- proaching in Sudan. In the coming weeks, it present danger and the liberators had to burn

VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:15 Mar 11, 2009 Jkt 039102 PO 00000 Frm 00064 Fmt 0688 Sfmt 9920 E:\BR05\H05MY5.001 H05MY5 erowe on PROD1PC63 with BOUND RECORD 8740 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE, Vol. 151, Pt. 6 May 5, 2005 down many of the camps to prevent the rising. We must remember the horror and we steps in servicing and caring for the Holocaust spread of epidemics. must remember to resist. A civilized nation survivor population: The Metropolitan Council General Dwight D. Eisenhower made a de- with the most deadly war machine in history, on Jewish Poverty; The United Jewish Organi- liberate visit to the Ohrdruf camp in order to descended to a level below any known beasts. zations of Williamsburg; The Council of Jewish witness personally the evidence of atrocities A clear lesson to our civilization is still rel- Organizations of Flatbush; The Jewish Com- that ‘‘beggar description.’’ Publicly expressing evant: Decent citizens should never stand by munity Council of Canarsie; The Conference shock and revulsion, he urged others to see passively and allow such atrocities to take of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany; the camps first-hand, lest ‘‘the stories of Nazi place. And vigilant citizens should actively re- Peasch Tikvah and all the Bikkur Cholim orga- brutality’’ be forgotten or dismissed as merely sist any erosion of their rights by a powerful nizations. Their selfless work for Holocaust ‘‘propaganda.’’ few. Unfortunately, Rwanda and Darfur are survivors continues to serve as an inspiration In the years that have followed, our memo- present day examples of our failure to take the to me and I am honored to recognize their ries of these atrocities have sometimes profound lesson of Nazi tyranny seriously. At hard work. dimmed. But they have been refreshed by the same time, submission to the U.S. govern- Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues here new histories or exhibits such as those in the ment actions which arrest large groupings today in remembering the Holocaust. Because U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum here in such as the Pakistanis without due process; there are still Holocaust non-believers today it Washington, while new barbarities in other and acquiescence to an administration which is imperative that we never forget and con- parts of the world have reawakened some of launches a massive and expensive war based tinue to learn from this terrible chapter in his- the horror that was felt by Eisenhower and the on lies; these positions demonstrate a deep- tory. other liberators of Europe. seated failure to understand the need to resist Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, today, I join And the sights and sounds of the liberated immoral and dangerous government acts. my friends and colleagues around the world in camps, so fresh in 1945, helped shape the There is a need for our generation to make commemorating the horrors inflicted during the laws and institutions that arose from the ashes greater sacrifices and take greater risks if we Holocaust. of war. truly want to honor the six million souls annihi- Today, we bear witness to the millions of Military tribunals prosecuted captured Nazi lated by the Nazi monsters. Jews and countless other innocent people officials under a variety of charges, many of Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to who were brutally murdered in Nazi concentra- which paralleled what were later defined as commemorate Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Re- tion camps. ‘‘crimes against humanity.’’ The best-known of membrance Day. I join the Jewish people in We bear witness to the horrors of genocide these prosecutions, of course, were those in the State of Israel and across the globe in re- that shocked the world, and ask ourselves if Nuremberg, Germany, between November membering the 6 million Jews that were bru- we have truly upheld the promise of ‘‘never 1945 and August 1946 under the auspices of tally murdered by the Nazis during the Holo- again,’’ when we hear the echoes of the Holo- the International Military Tribunal (IMT). Pros- caust. caust in the rising threat of anti-Semitism ecutors and judges from the 4 occupying pow- Today is a time for all of humanity to reflect today. ers tried some of the leading officials of the upon that most horrid period of history. The We bear witness to the millions of people Nazi regime on four counts, including a newly Holocaust demonstrated the mass atrocities who were persecuted and enslaved for their defined count of ‘‘crimes against humanity,’’ in that a supposedly civilized society could tol- political or religious beliefs, or their mental which significant evidence relating to the Nazi erate. We must keep in mind, that the Nazi handicaps in the name of social cleansing. effort to murder the European Jews was intro- genocide against the Jews was not the action But we also remember amazing acts of duced. Several prominent Nazis were sen- of a lone individual. It was a carefully thought courage and kindness, when those with every- tenced to death, others received prison sen- out plan which sought the support of an entire thing to lose risked their lives and freedom to tences, and a few were acquitted. nation. The Holocaust reflects the worst of help those most in need, and the bravery of The , and others that fol- international relations highlighting a time glob- those who would not go willingly to a certain lowed, have had a major impact on inter- al politics was plagued by inaction and indiffer- death. national law over the last 60 years. The Inter- ence. The complacency of the United States There is a reason why we call this day not national Criminal Tribunals for the former of America to the cries of those being slaugh- an anniversary, but a remembrance. Every Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the Special Court for tered in Nazi death camps will forever tarnish day, but especially today, we must remember Sierra Leone, and the recently created Inter- our nation’s history. The willingness of the not only the horrible acts committed by the national Criminal Court are all part of the leg- Roosevelt administration to turn back 937 Nazis but also the actions, and the lack of ac- acy of Nuremberg and of ongoing efforts of Jewish refugees on the St. Louis to their sub- tion, that led to those horrors. the world community to prevent and punish sequent deaths in Europe will also not be for- In remembering, we honor those who suf- the crime of genocide. gotten. fered—but our memories must also serve as a Today, on this Day of Remembrance, we I am privileged to represent a diverse por- constant reminder of the vigilance required should all look back to the horrors of the Holo- tion of Brooklyn. In my district there is a large from each of us to prevent it from happening caust. But we must also look at the world but dwindling population of Holocaust sur- again, or to take action if we see it happening. around us and ahead to what is to come. vivors. Many of these survivors rebuilt their Never again should the innocent be left to If there had been any doubt, the 2001 terror lives with nothing more than the shirt on their languish. For those who perished, for those attacks on New York and Washington, like the back. Today, based on the strong foundations who survived, for those who fought and for killing fields in Cambodia and so many other of those Holocaust survivors, the beautiful those who liberated, we must not falter and terrible events, made it clear that we have not Jewish communities in Brooklyn of Williams- we must not fail. We must learn from history reached the end of history—or the end of vio- burg, Midwood and Canarsie were built. These so that we are not doomed to repeat it. lence driven by fanaticism. As we struggle to communities represent the best of Jewish life We must bear witness. respond to the challenges of our time, we and have been instrumental in resurrecting re- Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker I rise to join must remember the need for eternal vigilance ligious life in the aftermath of the Holocaust, people around the world who are commemo- against those who are prepared to sacrifice by creating synagogues, yeshivas, and other rating Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom Ha- others in the name of what they perceive as religious institutions. Shoah, and mourning the six million people some transcendent cause. When I see and hear tragic stories from who were murdered simply because they hap- Our fate, and the fate of humanity, depends these heroic individuals it provides living testi- pened to be Jewish. It is important that we on our remembering and our understanding. mony to an event that is hard for many today take time each year to remind ourselves of the Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, that 6 million in- to phantom. Educating people especially the devastating horror of a world in which insanity nocent souls should not die in vain is the young, about the events that transpired in Eu- ruled and it was possible for the Nazis to try noble purpose of Yom Hashoah, the Holo- rope over 50 years ago is critical to halting the to eradicate an entire people from the face of caust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance recent spread of anti-Semitism around the the Earth. Day. This is a day to remember the horror and world. The horror of the Holocaust comes not solemnly swear that we will never let it happen Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this oppor- merely from the fact that massive numbers of again. This is a day to celebrate the resist- tunity to recognize the efforts of organizations people were murdered—in truth the total civil- ance of the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto up- in my district that have taken extraordinary ian body count in World War II was enormous,

VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:15 Mar 11, 2009 Jkt 039102 PO 00000 Frm 00065 Fmt 0688 Sfmt 9920 E:\BR05\H05MY5.001 H05MY5 erowe on PROD1PC63 with BOUND RECORD May 5, 2005 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE, Vol. 151, Pt. 6 8741 including roughly 20 million Russians and 10 Martyr and Heroes Remembrance Day. I join poignantly shared their painful experiences million Chinese. There have been other con- the people of Israel and those around the through stories, poems, songs and photo- flicts in which vast numbers of civilians have world to memorialize the 6 million Jews who graphs. died. The true horror of the Holocaust is that were murdered by the Nazis during World War I would also like to recognize a community- a modern nation used organized, efficient, II. The world is still feeling the Holocaust’s ef- wide ceremony in Pan Pacific Park sponsored systematic, scientific methods to try to wipe fects. by the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, out a minority population. What compounds In 1933, there were over 9 million European The Jewish Federation, Second Generation, the horror is that the Nazis brought their pecu- Jews. By 1945, nearly two of every three had and the Los Angeles Holocaust Monument liar brand of death with them as they swept been killed as part of the Nazis’ Final Solution. Fund. This year, the program’s theme, ‘‘From through Europe and rounded up Jews in occu- European cities have never recovered the di- Liberation to the Pursuit of Justice,’’ marks the pied countries. We must not forget that the versity and way of life they had prior to the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the con- world watched silently and allowed the Holo- war. The Jewish people killed were teachers, centration camps and the Nuremberg Trials to caust to happen. lawyers, doctors, musicians, parents, and chil- prosecute Nazi war criminals. The Nazis could never have been as effec- dren, and were killed only because they were On this day we bear witness to the atrocities tive at targeting Jews if it were not for the col- Jewish and targeted for no other reason. of the Nazi regime so that they are not forgot- laboration of local populations. Tens of thou- We must also remember the others who ten and are never again repeated. We renew sands of people assisted the Nazis in identi- were murdered. Gypsies, the handicapped, our commitment to Holocaust education to en- fying Jews and herding them to the concentra- and Poles were also targeted for destruction sure that the lessons of the Holocaust do not tion camps and gas chambers. The Nazis suc- or decimation for racial, ethnic, or national rea- fade away as the generation that lived through ceeded in large part because hatred of Jews sons. Millions more, including homosexuals, these events passes on. And perhaps most was already well entrenched throughout the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, importantly, we pledge to fight future genocide countries they conquered. and political dissidents, also suffered grievous by taking action against the slaughter of inno- There were always people of good heart oppression and death under Nazi tyranny for cents going on today in places like Darfur, who were willing to risk their lives to save no specific reason except they were different Sudan. Jews. Their bravery and selflessness must than their captors. We cannot forget that the bloodshed could also be remembered on this Holocaust Re- As time moves forward, there are few Holo- have been averted had the leaders of the membrance Day. Jews were hidden in base- caust survivors still with us and it is important world not been silent while Jews were being ments and attics. Jewish children were taken for them to share their stories and educate killed at Auschwitz. When we say ‘‘Never into friendly homes or transported to safety people about their experiences. Nearly 60 Again,’’ let us learn from their mistakes. elsewhere. Diplomats issued visas, sometimes years have passed since the Holocaust but Mr. MICHAUD. Mr. Speaker, I rise to add in violation of their country’s policies. Most fa- anti-Semitism still exists. However, I believe my voice to those marking this most solemn of mous among them is Raoul Wallenberg who passing on the lessons learned from this hor- days—Yom Hashoah. Holocaust Remem- saved 100,000 Hungarian Jews. Few nations rible time from generation to generation will brance Day commemorates one of the darkest protected their Jewish populations as effec- someday destroy the hateful attitudes and ig- periods in our shared human history. We re- tively as Denmark. The Danes saved virtually norance that resulted in the evil of the Holo- member the victims of this unspeakable trag- all of their Jewish population first by refusing caust. edy. At the same time, this day marks the be- to join the Nazis in singling out the Jewish mi- The Holocaust was not an accident. It was ginning of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, and nority and later by uniting to smuggle them to a planned attempted extermination. Individ- we celebrate the indomitable spirit of freedom safety in Sweden. uals, organizations and governments made and hope that resides in all of us. One of the principal reasons we remember choices that not only legalized discrimination This day does not belong to one people or the Holocaust is to ensure that it never hap- commemorate just one moment in time. Yom pens again. Anti-Semitism is an old hatred, but also allowed prejudice, hatred, and ulti- Hashoah reminds us of the darkness and evil and every generation seems to have a new mately, mass murder to occur. The human that still exists in this world and charges each version. Television and the internet provide race must constantly be reminded of the Holo- of us to stand against the atrocities that men new avenues for spreading hatred. Recently, caust and how the world stood idly by for too can bring about. Middle Eastern citizens’ nations such as Egypt long. We must remember these painful events We remember only too well the horrors of have been able to watch ‘‘Horsemen Without in order to prevent another Holocaust from ‘‘ethnic cleansing’’ in the Balkans and the A Horse,’’ a television serialization of the vi- ever occurring again. genocide in Rwanda just a few years ago. Not cious czarist hoax Protocols of the Elders of We will never forget. only do we remind ourselves of the evils of Zion. Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to com- Attacks on Jews and Jewish targets around memorate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Martyrs’ our recent past, but also we take this time to the world are rising. The U.S. Department of and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, which is look at the world we live in today as well. Reli- State recently released a report on anti-Semi- being observed today in the United States, gious, ethnic, racial and cultural strife continue tism around the world that found: ‘‘Beginning Israel, and in Jewish communities around the to divide people around the world. Despite the in 2000, verbal attacks directed against Jews world. lessons of our past, we are shamed by the increased while incidents of vandalism (e.g. Each year this day is one of grief and hope. knowledge that the world community was once graffiti, fire bombings of Jewish schools, dese- We memorialize the 6,000,000 Jews, including again too slow to respond to the tragedy that cration of synagogues and cemeteries) more than 1,000,000 children, who were mur- is taking place in the Darfur region of Sudan. surged. Physical assaults including beatings, dered in the Holocaust. We observe the anni- We Are shamed by the knowledge that we stabbings and other violence against Jews in versary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising and re- have the ability to prevent genocide and suf- Europe increased markedly, in a number of member the heroism of those who fought fering, but we do not act. cases resulting in serious injury and even back. We honor the survivors and the tremen- That is why it is so important that we speak death . . . Holocaust denial and Holocaust dous strength it took for them to rebuild their out today to remember the victims of the Holo- minimization efforts find increasingly overt ac- lives. caust and of all genocides throughout the ceptance as sanctioned historical discourse in I would like to take this opportunity to ac- world. This year marks the 60th Anniversary of a number of Middle Eastern countries.’’ knowledge two special commemorative cere- the end of World War II. Our greatest genera- Mr. Speaker, the Holocaust could not have monies that took place in my district. tion did not stand still against this evil. We occurred without the complicity of govern- First, let me pay tribute to Cafe´ Europa, an must be ready and willing to follow in their ments and individuals who tolerated stark ha- association of Los Angeles area Holocaust footsteps. tred of Jews. I am hopeful that by reminding survivors sponsored by Jewish Family Serv- Merely saying ‘‘never again’’ is not enough. ourselves of the horrors of that time, we will ices. This week, Cafe´ Europa sponsored a Only by raising awareness of these atrocities remain vigilant about preventing a recurrence special Yom HaShoah ceremony at Mount can we begin to stop them from happening to of the widespread anti-Semitism that helped Sinai Memorial Park alongside Holocaust sur- any group or people again. While this day is the Nazis rise to power. vivors from Cafe´ Europa of Tel Aviv and stu- somber and full of self-reflection, it is impor- Mrs. MCCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today dents from area schools. I want to particularly tant to also recall the kindness of so many to commemorate Yom Hashoah, Holocaust thank the survivors who courageously and who risked everything to save and hide their

VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:15 Mar 11, 2009 Jkt 039102 PO 00000 Frm 00066 Fmt 0688 Sfmt 9920 E:\BR05\H05MY5.001 H05MY5 erowe on PROD1PC63 with BOUND RECORD 8742 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE, Vol. 151, Pt. 6 May 5, 2005 neighbors, friends, or even complete strang- camps. I join my distinguished colleagues in of the events that took place during World War ers. remembering the victims of the Holocaust II and to unite all people together against rac- For many people, the bravery of Anne Frank while vowing that such a horror shall never ism, bigotry and hate. sums up the best hopes for the future of hu- again take place. The Days of Remembrance Ceremony was manity. Though she and her family fell victim In remembering the six million victims of the held in the Rotunda of our Nation’s Capitol, a to the horror, and ultimate fate of millions, she Holocaust, we must recommit ourselves to fitting place to spread the message of justice still wrote in her diary: fighting against the evils that led to the Holo- and freedom and to remember the heroes who ‘‘I don’t think of all the misery, but of all the caust; anti-Semitism, racism, bigotry, and intol- gave their lives in the fight for freedom and beauty that still remains. . . . In spite of ev- erance. This commitment requires that we tell democracy only 60 years ago. I am proud to erything, I still believe that people are really the story of the Holocaust to our children and stand here today to honor the memory of the good at heart.’’ grandchildren. We owe nothing less to the sur- victims in hope that the world will never again Through understanding our past and each vivors and to the brave men who fought to lib- witness these atrocities. other, we can create the beautiful, peaceful, erate the Ghettos and the death camps. Mr. Speaker, this is an important day for all and hopeful world Anne Frank once envi- I rise also to condemn the rising tide of anti- mankind to stand together against racism, sioned. Semitism around the globe and to dem- hate and intolerance and I urge all my col- Mr. SHAW. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in rec- onstrate the United States’ lasting commitment leagues to take a moment to reflect and re- ognition of Yom Hoshoah, Holocaust Remem- to the elimination of such bigotry and igno- member. brance Day. We recognize now not only the rance. It is essential that each and everyone Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the 6 more than six million Jews who lost their lives, of us takes action to prevent such atrocities million Jews who lost their lives in the Holo- but the human potential that was also extin- and vigorously pursues justice for the victims caust. I pay tribute to these innocent men, guished during the dark days of World War II. of acts of hatred and inhumanity. The crimes women, and children who died at the hands of We remember not just the mothers and fa- against humanity that were perpetrated by the the brutal Nazi regime. thers, the sons and daughters, the brothers Nazis must never be forgotten, lest we allow While the Nazis were defeated by Allied and sisters, but also their descendents who such evil to spread again. Forces 60 years ago, the specter of bigotry, never got to make their contributions to man- We must also remember the handicapped, prejudice, and intolerance has tragically sur- kind. And we remember the heroes who gave homosexuals, gypsies, political dissidents, and vived. The best way to honor the victims of their lives in the greatest fight for freedom and even Poles who were murdered in the Nazi the Holocaust is to ensure that such an event democracy the modern world has ever known. ‘‘Final Solution,’’ simply for being different. The never happens again. Yet, with every year and By reflecting on this most solemn day, we Nazi hatred for anyone considered different every generation that passes this tragedy be- join in a special bond with the victims of the stands as the antithesis of the values of free- comes less a reality and more a story to read Holocaust to ensure that the world will never dom and liberty that we hold so dear. about in a history book. suffer such a horrific tragedy again. It is It is also important to recognize the sac- Everyone of us shares in the responsibility through our reflection that we acknowledge rifices, service, and dedication of Allied sol- to make sure those who have died in the Hol- the human loss and through our actions that diers and underground fighters that resulted in ocaust have not done so in vain. we build a world free of such hatred and de- the defeat of the Nazi regime and the libera- f spair. Our greatest tribute to the millions who tion of the concentration camps. We are in- suffered at the hands of the Nazi regime will debted to the service of these brave souls RESIGNATION AS MEMBER FROM be to ensure that their memory will never be who fought against evil to stop the death and CERTAIN STANDING COMMIT- extinguished. By recognizing Holocaust Re- destruction of the Holocaust. TEES OF THE HOUSE membrance Day, we carry on the legacy of Mr. Speaker, today we mourn the innocent The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- those who bore the greatest burden of one of lives lost and vibrant communities destroyed fore the House the following resigna- the world’s saddest times. by the Holocaust. We also honor those heroes tion as a member of the Committee on Now 60 years later, the fires of hate, which of the Warsaw Ghetto who faced certain death Agriculture, the Committee on Re- burned so brightly in Europe from 1939 when they fought against the Nazi’s planned sources, and the Committee on Vet- through 1945, never really burned out. They extermination of their community. With our sol- erans Affairs: were smoldering in the hearts of the terrorists emn remembrance of the atrocities of the Hol- U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, on September 11th. Those same fires are ocaust, we empower a new generation to en- Washington, DC, May 5, 2005. ablaze today, in actions of homicide bombers sure that such crimes are never again re- Hon. J. DENNIS HASTERT, in Tel Aviv, the West Bank, and in Gaza; and peated. Speaker of the House of Representatives, The in genocidal practices in the Sudan. Mr. Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to Capitol Building, Washington, DC. Speaker, as we recognize the 60th anniver- commemorate Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Mar- DEAR SPEAKER HASTERT: I have been in- sary of the liberation of the Auschwitz con- tyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day. This formed that in accordance with a decision centration camp, we pray for an end to evils year, the 60th anniversary of the end of World made by the Steering Committee to place me of hate throughout the world. War II, serves as a solemn reminder of the on the Committee on Ways and Means, I must resign my position on the Committees With these examples fresh in our minds, we tragic events that resulted in the murder of six on Agriculture, Resources, and Veterans Af- marvel at the strength and character of the million Jews and millions of other men and fairs. Jewish people. Their steadfast determination women. Today, we honor their memory and Please accept this as a formal letter of res- to rebuild their lives following the Holocaust sacrifice. ignation from the Committees on Agri- has given the world a remarkable model of re- Yom Hashoah is a sad day, but it also has culture, Resources, and Veterans Affairs. solve. Through their example, we can glimpse a message of hope. It evokes memories of the Best Regards, the extraordinary human spirit that rises above lows of humanity and what can happen when DEVIN NUNES, the fruitlessness of anger and resentment. the world turns its back to oppression. It re- Member of Congress. With this day and with our deeds we honor minds us of the suffering of millions who en- The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without that spirit. dured the evils of discrimination and racism. objection, the resignation is accepted. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to recognize Yom The entire world was impacted by the terrible There was no objection. Hoshoah, May 5, 2005, and I urge my col- events of World War II. We remember and f leagues, and all Americans, to do the same. honor the many individuals and their loved Mr. VISCLOSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today ones who suffered simply because of their reli- ELECTION OF MEMBER TO in observance of Holocaust Martyrs, and He- gion or ethnicity. COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS roes Rememorance Day. Known as Yom This occasion is also a time for hope be- Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speak- Hashoah in Hebrew, this solem day com- cause we honor the memory of the past by er, I offer a resolution (H. Res. 264) and memorates the anniversary of the beginning of passing down the lessons we have learned to I ask unanimous consent for its imme- the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. This year is of future generations so that such tragic history diate consideration in the House. particular import, as it marks the 60th anniver- will never repeat itself. Today, many events The Clerk will report the resolution. sary of the liberation of Nazi concentration are taking place around the world to remind us The Clerk read as follows:

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