The Holocaust

Floor Speech

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, today, there was a Yom HaShoah service held in the United States Capitol as they are being held in State Capitals throughout the Nation, to remember the victims of the Holocaust--the loss of six million lives. It is imperative that we remember the loss of those six million people and, also, the people who survived and those who helped them survive.

In 1984, as a young State Senator, I sponsored legislation to create the Tennessee Holocaust Commission, one of the first such state Commissions. I'm very proud of the work of the Tennessee Holocaust Commission, much of which is educating Tennessee teachers so they can teach children about the Holocaust.

The Commission has been very successful and has benefitted from great leadership. Then Commission Chair Reverend Beverly Asbury, also Chaplain at Vanderbilt University, worked tirelessly to get the Commission off the ground and current Chairwoman Felicia Anchor, born in the Bergen-Belsen camp, uses her passion and personal experience to continue to do great things.

I wear a button to honor Raoul Wallenberg, a great diplomat who helped save 100,000 Jews. This morning HRH Princess Madeleine and Swedish Parliamentary Leaders met with the Congressional Swedish Caucus and talked about the efforts of Swedish Diplomats to engage the United States to help save lives.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Morgenthau and two people in his administration, Mr. Pehle and Mr. DuBois, implored our President to help rescue Jews, and the United States certainly helped. Unfortunately, many lives were lost because we didn't get involved soon enough. We should never meet evil with silence.
Yom HaShoah is about remembering. As we remember the lives lost, we should also remember those who survived and, also, the military that liberated the camps and the hundreds of thousands of righteous gentiles who risked their own lives to save Jews.

I urge all Americans visiting Washington to visit the U.S. Holocaust Museum and

I urge all Tennesseans and those visiting Nashville to go to the Memorial on the State Capitol Grounds, situated alongside six cedar trees representing six million people, to remember and to understand why we must always remember.

Source