Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise today in support of House Resolution 1743, congratulating Gerda Weissmann Klein on being selected to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Mr. Speaker, last month, on November 17, Gerda Weissmann Klein was informed that she will be receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This award is the highest civilian honor that an American can receive, and Ms. Klein is very deserving. She was born in Poland in 1924, and was taken prisoner when Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939. After being separated from her parents, Ms. Klein spent the next 6 years in concentration camps--6 years. In 1945, Ms. Weissmann was forced to walk 350 miles in a death march where roughly 2,000 women were subjected to starvation, exposure, and arbitrary execution. Ms. Weissmann was one of less than 120 women who miraculously survived the death march and were liberated by the United States forces in Czechoslovakia. One of the U.S. soldiers who was there to liberate the women was Lieutenant Kurt Klein. Klein and Ms. Weissmann soon fell in love and were later married. Since moving to America after the war, Mrs. Weissmann Klein has worked tirelessly to promote Holocaust education and remembrance, teach tolerance, and combat hunger. She has written multiple books about her experience as a Holocaust survivor, and, to this day, she works to promote tolerance and educate people about the horrors of the Holocaust.…”