Commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day

WASHINGTON--Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) commemorated Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, on the House floor.

Below is a video and transcript of the speech.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

I rise in memory of the devastating atrocities that were committed in Nazi-occupied Europe, where more than six million people lost their lives. In every generation we must bear witness to the events of the Holocaust to fully understand what transpired and to ensure that this would never happen again. To fully comprehend the horrors of the Holocaust, we must lay our eyes on the hallowed grounds where the cruelest crimes against humanity were perpetrated.

I recently returned from Ukraine. There, I stopped to pay my respects at the site of the Babi Yar massacre in Kiev. To stand in the place where more than 100,000 people were shot and buried in a mass grave brings reality to the horrible accounts of the massacre.

Every person had a name and a story.

I have twice visited Auschwitz-Birkenau. I walked through the rooms where the prisoners slept, filled now with the possessions they left behind. I saw the fields where prisoners stood, waiting in line for their meager rations. I saw the walls where Jews were lined up before Nazi soldiers shot them. I saw the gas chambers, where you could still see scratches on the walls from prisoners desperate to escape.

Every person had a name and a story.

When I followed the train tracks out of Auschwitz, I reversed the path that led so many to their final resting places. From that moment I have committed to remember what happens when senseless hatred prevails. Unfortunately, the hatred and intolerance that led to these crimes against humanity is still alive today,

At some point no survivors of the Holocaust will be alive to recount their heroic and heartbreaking tales of survival. We must make sure that we never repeat this dark mark on world history by teaching our children tolerance, and never forgetting the innocent victims of the Holocaust.

The Hebrew word Yizkor means "we will remember." Though Holocaust Remembrance Day was observed on April 28th this year, I ask that we dedicate ourselves to remembering the horrors of the Holocaust and commit to prevent genocide in our lifetimes and in the future.