Steve Israel: “in January I attended the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. This month and…”

“in January I attended the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. This month and over the next several weeks, the world will pause and reflect on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of so many Holocaust death camps and, in fact, the drawing to a close of the Holocaust. Every day the memory of the Holocaust diminishes as survivors find their eternal rest. And that is why it is so profoundly important that we teach the lessons of the Holocaust to our young people, to generations who become more and more removed and more and more distant from that gruesome experience. I recently received a poem from a very bright young woman who met with a survivor from Auschwitz named Josephina Prins. I want to read this poem on the floor of the House because it shows just how powerful that experience was, bridging the divide of generations and making one of histories most unfathomable tragedies real for a 13-year-old girl named Ophelia Snyder. The poem is entitled ``The Miracle, Josephina Prins.'' They called you a number, A thing. They called you an animal. You were a star. You were a Jew. They treated you like a smudge, Like an object. You are a person just like us. Prick your finger. What comes out? Ask a friend. What comes out? Red blood. We are all the same. Then why, Why did you seem so different? Why are you not treated the same? Are you not flesh? Are you not blood? Does your heart not beat? Are we not the same? 74937.…”