Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the millions who lost their lives during the Holocaust as we observe Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day. 

Yom Hashoah commemorates the April and May 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising.  Led by 23 year-old Mordecai Anielewicz, 750 Jewish resistance fighters battled heavily armed German troops and police attempting to deport the surviving ghetto inhabitants to concentration camps.  In an appeal to the world community to end the atrocities of the Holocaust, the fighters wrote, “A battle is being waged for your freedom as well as ours.  For you and our human, civic, and national honor and dignity.”  Unfortunately, their call went largely unanswered.  While the fighters were able to hold out for nearly a month, the German firepower was too much.  In the end, more than 56,000 Jews were captured, 7,000 were shot, and the remainder were deported to concentration camps.   

Between the years of 1941 and 1945, more than 12 million innocent civilians were murdered in the Holocaust, including 6 millions Jews.  These people were singled out not because of any wrongdoing, but rather because of their families’ religion or where they were born. 

Nearly 60 years after the end of this attempt to exterminate an entire religion, anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia continue to plague humanity.  People are discriminated against and even targeted for violence simply because of where they were born or who their ancestors are.  Every day, this occurs not only in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, but also here in America.  Now more than ever, we all must work to understand those of different cultures, races, and religions.  Mutual respect for differences will lead to the end of hostilities, and only then will the opportunity for world peace exist.

As philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  I encourage my constituents to take this opportunity to visit the Rhode Island Holocaust Memorial Museum, speak to a Holocaust survivor, or read a book by Eli Wiesel.  I solemnly remember and honor all of those who lost their lives in the Holocaust, and I will do all in my power to ensure that similar atrocities never occur again. 

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.