Steny H. Hoyer

05/06/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/06/2024 16:32

Hoyer Statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day

WASHINGTON, DC - Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) released the following statement today on Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah:

"As we observe Yom HaShoah, we remember all those who perished in the Holocaust. The 6 million Jews and 5 million others killed in the Nazis' campaign of mass genocide forever testify to the terrible cost of persecution, violence, and intolerance. The Holocaust revealed the worst of humanity.

"Today, we see disturbing efforts to deny, erase, distort, and even glorify the Holocaust. We have seen rampant antisemitism in the wake of October 7, when Hamas launched its terror attack on Israel and killed thousands and abducted hundreds of Jews, including several Holocaust survivors. At recent protests across America, individuals brandished signs supporting the Nazis' 'Final Solution.' Many Jewish students have been harassed and intimidated by protestors. Antisemites have vandalized synagogues with swastikas and broken into Jewish-owned businesses throughout the country. Jews continue to show tremendous courage in the face of this hatred, but they shouldn't have to.

"It falls to each of us to excise the cancer of antisemitism from our society and to take to heart the lessons the world learned from the horrors of the Holocaust. I will continue my work to ensure that Congress combats antisemitism and upholds the safety of Jews everywhere. That includes in the State of Israel, which was established as an essential safe refuge for Jews in their ancestral homeland after the Holocaust and millennia of persecution. Their enduring need for that safe haven is more apparent today than it ever has been since the end of the Holocaust."