Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I recently introduced House Concurrent Resolution 129 along with my south Florida colleague and friend, Congressman Ted Deutch, urging Germany to honor its commitments and moral obligations to Holocaust survivors by providing for their unmet needs. There are an estimated half-million survivors worldwide, about a quarter of whom live here in the United States. Nearly 15,000 survivors call the great State of Florida home, and I am proud to represent so many of them in my south Florida district. But the sad reality and, really, humanity's great shame is that about half of all Holocaust survivors live at or below the poverty line. Tens of thousands of survivors, if not more, are suffering without basic, life-sustaining services and care that they need in their advanced years. Many live alone or without family support and lack the funds for home care, from medicine to hearing aids, to food, to utilities, to rent. What a tragedy, Mr. Speaker, that so many Holocaust survivors are unable to maintain even a modest and dignified standard of living. These individuals have suffered for nearly three-quarters of a century from the physical and emotional scars that they have endured and carry with them to this very day. They have lived through the torture, the experiments, the labor camps, the loss of loved ones, and even the murder of their entire families. Because of all of this, Holocaust survivors' needs are unique.…”