Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber) for yielding. Mr. Speaker, when we remember the Holocaust, we look backward and forward. We look backward to remember those who perished, 6 million Jewish men, women, and children, every one of whom has a story and loved ones who may have survived the horrors of the Holocaust but were left with the searing wounds of these losses. Many other people--Slavs, LGBTQ people, political dissidents, disabled people, and others--would lose their lives to Nazi terror before the war ended. At the same time, we must look forward. We can't simply pledge ``never again''; we must live ``never again'' day after day. Why is this so important? Kurt Messerschmidt, a Holocaust survivor, recalled encountering a crowd of people in the aftermath of what we now call Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, one of the most horrific anti-Jewish attacks in history. Over 2 days in November 1938, mobs across Germany and parts of Austria and Czechoslovakia destroyed synagogues, Jewish-owned businesses, homes, schools, and cemeteries. Under instructions from the Gestapo, local authorities did nothing to stop the violence and destruction. The crowd Messerschmidt came across was watching an older man who had been ordered by Nazi soldiers to clean up the broken glass outside his own store.…”