Sam Gejdenson: “I want to commend both the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Hamilton], the ranking member, and the gentleman from New York…”

“I want to commend both the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Hamilton], the ranking member, and the gentleman from New York, Chairman Gilman, for the action today. My father was in the Polish army in the late 1930's, 1939, as the war broke out. Poland, like Czechoslovakia first, saw both the Germans and the Russians coming in and divide them. Then the Russians were pushed back. The Germans took all of Poland. My father's entire family was exterminated. The the Russians came in and took over, and the dark days in Poland continued. Czechoslovakia, of course, was Hitler's first grab with the Sudeten. Then again, as the Germans were pushed back, the Russians took it and imposed their terror on the Czech people for many years. I think this legislation comes at the right time. There could have been a debate prior to the election in the Soviet Union. We could have argued at that point that, while the election was going on, we should be a little cautions in doing anything that would impact the outcome. The Soviet election, the Russian election is over. These countries, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, are moving in the right direction. If we needed to learn anything from history, it is that, when we have the opportunity to put peace in place, we ought to take that opportunity. We have seen sufficient turmoil in the post-Soviet era to understand that, just because the Soviet Union has come to an end, does not mean that we are guaranteed peace on the European continent.”