Post by bot on Jan 30, 2017 0:01:55 GMT -5
Hoyer Statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today on International Holocaust Remembrance Day:
“Today, people across the world observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day, remembering the 11 million innocent civilians who perished at the hands of the Nazis. Through a program of industrialized murder and using a network of ghettos, transit camps, slave-labor camps, and death camps like Auschwitz, the Nazi regime turned the racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric that characterized Adolf Hitler’s rise to power into a systematic killing of Jews, Roma, Poles, LGBT people, and others deemed undesirable. As those who witnessed it firsthand leave us, their powerful testimony about humanity’s propensity to do great evil and the courage of ordinary individuals to do great good at extraordinary risk must not be lost. It is now up to us to tell their stories, to celebrate the heroism of the resisters and rescuers, and to mourn the victims.
"The evil ideology of fascism must never be allowed to take hold again, in any nation or government, and Americans have a special role to play in ensuring it never does. Our nation must always remain a safe-haven for those fleeing genocide and political oppression around the world, not turn its back on refugees and immigrants seeking freedom. We must remind each other and the world what our nation represents and join in reaffirming our responsibilities as the world's leading democracy.
"It was very unnerving to see a statement issued by the President of the United States today marking this somber day of remembrance that made not a single mention of the Holocaust's 6 million Jewish victims. Neither did it address the scourge of anti-Semitism that continues to exist today. Given the bizarre support shown to this President by neo-Nazi groups and white supremacists, one would have expected him to issue a strong reminder that anti-Semitism, which fueled the Holocaust, ought to have no place in America. It is disturbing that he failed to take this obvious opportunity to reiterate a bipartisan opposition to anti-Semitism."