WASHINGTON – House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-SC) on Thursday participated in the National Commemoration of the Days of Remembrance, the Nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust.

Along with Survivor Samuel Steinberg, the Majority Whip lit one of six candles, each representing one million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Following is Clyburn’s statement on the Days of Remembrance.

“I thank the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for sponsoring the ceremony today and for its dedication to recording and preserving the history of the Holocaust. Those who forget history are bound to repeat it.

“The focus for the 2008 observance, ‘Do Not Stand Silent: Remembering Kristallnacht 1938,’ remembers two days in November when violent mobs tore through German cities staging state-sanctioned riots, terrorizing Jews and destroying their homes, businesses and synagogues. Brave local leaders and clergy spoke out and stood up to the mobs, protecting Jews in some German villages. But in most towns, Jews were fined and held responsible by Nazi officials for the riots and damage.

"In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, ‘We are going to be made to repent in this generation not just for the vitriolic words and deeds of bad people, but for the appalling silence of good people.’ I pray that today and in the future, we will speak out and stand up against injustice, brutality and genocide wherever it exists.

“The Days of Remembrance are not only a time to reflect on the atrocities committed against six million Jews during the Holocaust, honor those survivors who bear living witness to the acute danger of unchecked hate, and honor the differences in culture, religion and race among us, but it is a time to speak out loud and clear in the name of peace and justice at home and around the world.”

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