Commending Countries and Organizations for Marking 60th Anniversary of Liberation of Auschwitz
COMMENDING COUNTRIES AND ORGANIZATIONS FOR MARKING 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF LIBERATION OF AUSCHWITZ -- (House of Representatives - January 25, 2005)
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Mr. CARDIN. Madam Speaker, as we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, I want to acknowledge how fortunate we are in this body to have the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) as one of our Members. His passion on human rights is so welcomed in this body. He has been the champion on these issues for many years. We thank the gentleman for everything he has meant to our sensitivity on human rights issues. The gentleman has seen it firsthand and has helped us understand the need for activism in this body.
I also acknowledge the gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Hyde) for his leadership on human rights issues, and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) who is our leader on the Helsinki Commission, not only on this issue, but on anti-Semitism generally. He has led the effort in the international body to make sure that we pay attention to the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe today.
Last year I had an opportunity to visit Auschwitz and see firsthand where a million people lost their lives in the factory of death. It has an impact on all of us who have seen how inhumane people can be.
Madam Speaker, in 1991 the participating states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe agreed in Krakow, Poland, to ``strive to preserve and protect these monuments and sites of remembrance, including extermination camps, and the related archives, which are themselves testimonials to their tragic experience in their common past. Such steps need to be taken in order that those experiences may be remembered, may help to teach present and future generations of these events, and thus ensure that they are never repeated.''
Auschwitz is just such a site of remembrance. With this resolution, we mourn innocent lives lost and vibrant communities destroyed. We honor those who fought fascism and helped liberate Auschwitz and other Nazi camps.
This resolution also goes further and speaks to the compelling need for Holocaust education throughout the globe. In the words of the Krakow Document, we must ``teach present and future generations of these events, and thus ensure that they are never repeated.'' This chilling rise of anti-Semitism in recent years tells us that more must be done.
Madam Speaker, I can speak a long time on this subject. This resolution calls on all nations and people to strengthen their efforts to fight against racism, intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, discrimination and anti-Semitism. I am proud that this body is bringing forward this resolution. I commend my colleagues and the leadership of the committee for bringing it forward. I urge all of my colleagues to support the resolution.
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Madam Speaker, Yad Vashem exhibits the sketches of Zinovii Tolkatchev, a Soviet soldier who was among those who liberated Majdanek and Auschwitz, under the fitting title, ``Private Tolkatchev at the Gates of Hell.'' For surely that is what he saw and what Auschwitz was. As ranking member of the Helsinki Commission, I visited Auschwitz last year and saw for myself the furnaces that took the lives of more than one million human beings at the camp. These furnaces stoked hatred and intolerance to a degree never before seen in human history.
Today, I rise as a cosponsor and in strong support of this resolution, which seeks to join the voices of this body to all those gathered in Poland and elsewhere in our common remembrance of the liberation of Auschwitz 60 years ago, on January 27, by Soviet Army troops.
I commend Congressman LANTOS, the ranking member of the International Relations Committee, for introducing this resolution and for his steadfast leadership in his work against anti-Semitism and for Holocaust education and awareness. I am also deeply heartened that the United Nations General Assembly, at the request of many governments and with the support of Secretary General Kofi Annan, convened a special session on January 24 to mark the liberation of the Auschwitz and other death camps.
Madam Speaker, in 1991, the participating State of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) agreed in Cracow, Poland, to ``strive to preserve and protect those monuments and sites of remembrance, including most notably extermination camps, and the related archives, which are themselves testimonials to their tragic experiences in their common past. Such steps need to be taken in order that those experiences may be remembered, may help to teach present and future generations of these events, and thus ensure that they are never repeated.''
Auschwitz is just such a site of remembrance. With this resolution, we mourn innocent lives lost and vibrant communities destroyed. We honor those who fought fascism and helped liberate Auschwitz and other Nazi camps.
This resolution also goes further and speaks to the compelling need for Holocaust education throughout the globe. In the words of the Cracow Document, we must ``teach present and future generations of these events, and thus ensure that they are never repeated.'' The chilling rise of anti-Semitism in recent years tells us that more must be
done. This resolution calls on all nations and peoples to strengthen their efforts to fight against racism, intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, discrimination, and anti-Semitism.
In the last Congress I was pleased to join with Mr. LANTOS and Helsinki Commission Chairman CHRIS SMITH in working to enact the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004. Earlier this month the U.S. State Department issued its first-ever global report on anti-Semitism, as mandated by the legislation. We now have a roadmap to build upon in the future, which details both best practices by states as well as areas in which participating States are still falling short of their OSCE commitments.
In April 2004 I attended the Conference on Anti-Semitism of the OSCE in Berlin with Secretary of State Colin Powell. The 55 Participating States of the OSCE adopted a strong action plan, the Berlin Declaration, which lays out specific steps for states to take regarding Holocaust education, data collection and monitoring of hate crimes against Jews, and improved coordination between nongovernmental organizations and European law enforcement agencies.
During our conference, on the evening of April 28, President Johannes Rau of Germany hosted a dinner for the President of the State of Israel Moshe Katsav. President Katsav spoke powerfully about the need to combat the rising tide of anti-Semitism throughout the world. I cannot tell you how powerful it was to listen to the German President and the Israeli President address the issue of anti-Semitism together in Berlin.
Let me just highlight one section of President Katsav's remarks:
``The violence against the Jews in Europe is evidence that anti-Semitism, which we have not known since the Second World War, is on the rise. This trend of the new anti-Semitism is a result of the aggressive propaganda, made possible by modern technologies, globalilzation and abuse of democracy and which creates an infrastructure for developing and increasing anti-Semitism, of a kind we have not known before ..... Many times I have heard voices saying that anti-Semitism is not unique and that it is no different from other kinds of racism. Anti-Semitism should indeed receive special attention. Hatred against the Jews has existed for many generations and it is rooted in many cultures and continents through the world. However, now anti-Semitism has become an instrument for achieving political aims ..... The genocide of the Jews was the result of anti-Semitism and was not caused by a war between countries or a territorial conflict and, therefore, anti-Semitism is a special danger for world Jewry and the whole of Europe.''
I urge others here today to join me in supporting this resolution.
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