Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in support of H.R. 537, a bill that will posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal to the forgotten heroes of the Holocaust. Madam Speaker, on September 1, 1939, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis began their invasion of Europe, which started World War II and threw humanity into what would become one of the darkest periods in history. The Nazis sought the mass extermination of the Jewish people and wasted no time carrying out their vile plan. They hunted, rounded up, and sent Jews to concentration camps across Europe to be murdered in state-sponsored genocide that we now refer to as the Holocaust. However, a handful of diplomats from around the world took quick and heroic action to save Jews attempting to flee Europe. They resisted the anti-Semitic Nazi agenda, risking their families, careers, and lives to help innocent Jewish people flee persecution. Despite some receiving direct orders not to help the Jewish population, these diplomats issued passports and travel visas, set up safe houses and getaways to hide adults and children, and communicated with local communities to help fleeing Jews escape by traveling underground to safety. Because of the actions of these diplomats, hundreds of thousands of Jewish families in Europe escaped death at the hands of Hitler's Nazi regime.…”