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Ruth
B. Mandel's Days of Remembrance Remarks on the
Warsaw Uprising Entered Into Congressional Record
[Congressional Record:
June 13, 2003 (Extensions)]
[Page E1241]
[DOCID:cr13jn03-27]
MEMORY AND ACTION: RUTH MANDEL'S REMARKS COMMEMORATING THE DAYS OF
REMEMBRANCE
______
HON. TOM LANTOS
of California in
the House of Representatives
Thursday, June 12,
2003
Mr. LANTOS. Mr.
Speaker, last month leaders and citizens from throughout America gathered
in the Capitol Rotunda to commemorate the Days of Remembrance. This annual
ceremony assumed special significance this year, as it took place during
the 60th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, an event that epitomizes
the true meaning of bravery and honor.
In April 1943, the Gestapo set out to liquidate the surviving Jews of
Warsaw. Most ghetto residents--over 300,000--had been deported to Treblinka
the previous year, where they faced immediate death in the gas chambers
of the notorious extermination camp. Those left in Warsaw vowed not to
meet a similar fate.
The Gestapo expected the clearing out of the ghetto to be a simple operation.
How could a small number of Jews, poorly fed and with few arms, even think
about fighting back against thousands of machine gun- toting storm troopers?
When the Nazis entered the ghetto on the early morning of April 19th,
this question met with an emphatic answer. Young Jewish fighters greeted
the Gestapo with a hail of bullets and homemade Molotov cocktails, forcing
the Nazis into a panicked retreat. ``Juden haben waffen,'' they yelled
at the top of their lungs. ``Juden haben waffen.'' Translated literally:
``The Jews have arms.'' The men and women of the ghetto would not die
quietly.
For the next month, the Jews of Warsaw fought with a fierce determination
that stunned the Nazi leaders and inspired the world. Few expected to
survive, and few did. Nevertheless, the courageous men and women of the
Warsaw Ghetto live on through the power of their heroism and the strength
of their sacrifice.
Mr. Speaker, the Days of Remembrance ceremony included moving remarks
on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Ruth B. Mandel, the Vice Chair of the
United States Holocaust Memorial Council (USHMC) since 1993. Professor
Mandel is the Director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics and Board
of Governors Professor of Politics at Rutgers, The State University of
New Jersey. Her contributions to the USHMC have been extraordinary, and
I'm honored to enter her remarks into the Congressional Record.
Days of Remembrance Remarks
Ruth B. Mandel,
vice chair United States Holocaust Memorial Council
april 30, 2003--the Capitol Rotunda
Memory and Action
Honored guests,
one and all: It is April 30, 2003. We gather to Remember and to pay our
respects. To light a candle in memory.
The memory of a past we wish not to repeat is tantamount to a hope. Hope
can be uplifting or comforting, an expectation that something positive
might happen--I hope for good luck; I hope for a cure; I hope for happiness.
Yet in itself, hope is a passive stance, a rather weak force.
For memory to be a strong force, it must be the fuel for action. An active
stance can be inspired by memory, but it cannot linger in memory. It must
move beyond memory. Thus, as we observe this Day of Remembrance, as we
recall our personal nightmares and once again revisit our losses, even
as we honor those we memorialize--the millions in the human family, our
families, annihilated by guns and gas in the unspeakably grotesque collapse
of civilized society, let us each consider how to link memory to action.
In these frightening, worrisome times, the understandable question of
despair--``But what can I do?''--s a perfectly rational individual response
to the magnitude of pain and threat humanity visits on itself regularly.
But it is not an adequate response. Honoring memory as an active stance
requires some effort to use it. Even in the smallest ways, use memory.
Honored guests, one and all: It is April 30, 2003, and we are here to
memorialize children . . . and men . . . and women--millions annihilated
by guns and gas in the grotesque collapse of civilized society.
Today we pay special tribute to some of those who defied evil with heroic
action. Their actions offer lessons, warnings, and even inspiration for
the issues we face in our own times. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 60
years ago is just such an event. At the beginning of a new and, so far,
troubled century, the uprising's power to inform, enlighten, and challenge
our own choices remains strong.
On April 23, 1943, determined to uphold the honor of the Jewish people
in the face of odds they knew they could not overcome, the Warsaw Ghetto
fighters wrote: Let it be known that every threshold in the ghetto has
been and will continue to be a fortress, that we may all persist in this
struggle, but we will not surrender; that, like you, we breathe with desire
for revenge for the crimes of our common foe. A battle is being waged
for your freedom as well as ours. For your and our human, civic, and national
honor and dignity.
That battle was waged not only in Warsaw. Although Warsaw is most well
known, throughout occupied Europe there were many brave individuals who
took up arms against their oppressors in order to affirm their humanity,
and ours.
These brave fighters bequeathed the memory of heroic action to a people.
Reflecting on the future of the Jewish people, they realized that the
memory of their efforts would be as important as the struggle itself.
The Warsaw revolt began in desperation; ultimately, it was an act of inspiration.
They spoke about fighting for their freedom and ours; they taught us a
lesson for their time and for ours. In lighting a candle to remember those
who stood against the Nazis, we honor those who perished and are in turn
reminded that the moral conscience of the individual can be a great weapon
against evil. This was a lesson of the last
century; this is a warning for the present one.
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