Recognizing the 70th anniversary of the 1938 occurrence of Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1435) recognizing the 70th anniversary of the 1938 occurrence of Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution, and I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Let me first thank the gentleman from New Hampshire (Mr. Hodes) for offering this important resolution, which marks the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. His leadership on the Holocaust-related issues is greatly appreciated.

On the night of November 9, 1938, the streets of German and Austrian cities were littered with the shattered glass of Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues. Ninety-one people lost their lives and 30,000 were deported to concentration camps during the course of

this pogrom. Buchenwald and Dachau soon filled with Jews who had been deprived of their property, their savings and their livelihoods by the Nazis.

Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, showed the world once and for all the true face of the Nazi regime and served as a prelude to the horrors that would soon befall Europe's Jewish community. As Germany's synagogues burned on this terrible night, the governments of the west, including our own, failed to take meaningful action. Ambassadors were recalled, speeches were made, but the Nazis' orchestrated pogrom resulted in the diplomatic equivalent of just a slap on the wrist.

We condemn not just the destruction wrought against Germany and Austria's Jewish community that terrifying night, but we also condemn the world's inaction, which undoubtedly led the Nazis to believe the international community would offer little resistance to their plans to murder all the Jews in Europe.

Though 70 years have passed since the Nazis began to set in motion the final solution, and 63 years since the liberation of the last of their death camps, we must continue to maintain our vigilance against all forms of ethnic, national and religious hatreds.

Adolf Hitler exploited the world's failure to protect those threatened by the Nazi's vicious ideology of hate. As we reflect upon the anniversary of this infamous night and pay tribute to the over 6 million people killed in the Holocaust, we must recommit ourselves to preventing genocide anywhere and any time.

I strongly support this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, we have no further speakers at this time.

However, let me conclude by simply stating that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis perpetrated the most heinous tragedy of man's inhumanity to man. We will never forget it, and people all across this Nation on this 70th anniversary say never, never again.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

The night of November 9 through November 10 of the year 1938 consisted of hours of darkness that the world cannot afford to forget. Known as Kristallnacht, that horrible night of unleashed terror and violence that we remember in this resolution before us today, was the clear signal for the start of Adolf Hitler's orchestrated campaign of genocide.

On that night, as state-sponsored violence poured out into the streets, the halls of civilized governments were mute. Joseph Goebbels had announced in his speech on the day of November 8, and I quote, ``The Fuhrer has decided that . . . demonstrations should not be prepared or organized by the Party, but insofar as they erupt spontaneously, they are not to be hampered.''

Following that speech, regional leaders of Hitler's National Socialist Party issued instructions to their local offices, and violence erupted across Germany and in some neighboring countries as well, in a matter that was anything but spontaneous. For 48 terrible hours, mobs rampaged through the streets of German, Czechoslovak and Austrian cities.

The riots destroyed 267 synagogues, shattered an estimated 7,500 windows of Jewish-owned businesses and desecrated many Jewish cemeteries. The Night of Broken Glass claimed the lives of at least 91 Jewish citizens.

Unfortunately, the rest of the world remained largely silent when confronted with the news of this organized brutality. We can only wonder how history might have changed, how the war and the genocide of the subsequent years might have been avoided if silence had been replaced by condemnation and strong action.

As we look back at the events of that terrible night, from the perspective of the passage of 70 years, we recall what our president at that time, Franklin Roosevelt, said. ``I, myself, could scarcely believe that such things could occur in a 20th century civilization.''

As we consider this resolution, which notes this terrible event 70 years ago and the subsequent organized murder of more than 6 million Jews across Europe during World War II, we realize how important it is that we remember the lessons of the 20th century today at the start of the 21st century.

I urge strong adoption of this important resolution, and I reserve the balance of our time.

Madam Speaker, I echo the sentiments of my good friend, and I yield back the balance of our time.