Days of Remembrance, April 19 - April 26
Get the Flash Player to see this video.
Mr. President, Madame Speaker, senators, members of the Congress, Ambassadors, distinguished guests and dear, dear Holocaust survivors. Three weeks ago, Yurik (ph), disabled boy from Warsaw, passed away. He was my witness when I went to Poland. In Warsaw, he showed me the place where Jews were transported from to the gas chambers and the sewer systems in which he survived when his entire family was murdered.
At the sites where Jews were fighting to die in dignity, he never mentioned his role in the uprising, or that only three years after he survived he fought again for the survival of Israel. One evening, quietly, he told me that his son Aytan (ph) fell in Israel’s defense in 1973. Between Auschwitz, Maidanek and Treblinka, he shared with me his dream for peace.
Many of us in Israel have personal stories connecting to the Holocaust. My great grandparents were murdered. Their son was beaten to death in front of his young daughters who tried to -- not to look, but could not escape the noise of his cracking bones. However, in Israel, the Holocaust is not just a collection of personal tragedies. The Holocaust is at the heart of our identity. “Never again” is at the core of our raison d’etre. And like Yurik and the late German Tom Lantos, we refuse to lose faith in the human spirit, to give up hope, or to forsake our passion for peace.
As just yesterday, I heard from an Israeli survivor, an eye doctor, who told me, “My revenge, my revenge is the families of my children. It’s curing Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem. It’s volunteering in Africa to save the sights of thousands of people.” When Yurik, Tom Lantos and other survivors cannot anymore tell the story, the work of Holocaust Museum will become even much more vital.
There, young people worldwide will be able to learn how the writing was on the wall much before the disaster started. There, they will feel the human cost of indifference. In the United States Holocaust Museum, they will read on the wall the authentic document explaining why Auschwitz was not bombed because it would divert necessary assets, because of doubtful efficacy, and because it might provoke even more vindictive actions by the Germans.
At the same time, they will learn the stories of the righteous amongst nations, who saved so many human lives and the dignity of humanity. They will see how America and its allies defeated evil. And they will see how, from destruction, hope may rise again.
Honoring the dead should not be the sole purpose of remembrance. It must serve us to shape a better future. It must make us think not only would we have done, but what will we actually do in similar situations. How do we see act when we see racism against others? When genocide occurs far from our borders, how will we try to stop it? When a regime is again endangering world peace, terrorizing its neighbors, threatening to destroy the Jewish people, how will we meet this challenge before it’s too late?
We are honored today in the presence of the righteous amongst nations, and salute the brave Americans who saved the world only 65 years ago. Their spirit is your spirit. It is the spirit of America. It continues to serve so many around the world as a source of hope and as a living example that all are created equal with the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In the name of the Jewish state, I express our deepest gratitude to America for its unwavering friendship towards Israel, and for its standing on behalf of dignity, freedom, security and peace for all humanity.
Museum