For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 18, 2001
Remarks by the President at the United States Holocaust Museum
Washington, D.C.
Listen to the President's
Remarks
8:50 P.M. EDT
THE
PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. (Applause and
cheers.) This is a hallowed place. Please behave yourself.
It's an
honor for us to be here. Laura and I have just come from a
fantastic tour. I want to thank Rabbi Greenberg for his
hospitality, and Ruth Mendel for her hospitality, and the Director,
Sarah Bloomfield, for giving us such a special
evening. Thank you all very much for your
graciousness. I want to thank you all very much for
coming. It's an honor for me to be here with members of my
White House staff, friends of mine from all around the country.
It isn't
like any other museum. It bears witness to the best and to
the worst of the human heart. The images here stay with
you. And only by confronting them can we begin to grasp the
full enormity of the Holocaust. I urge Americans planning a
visit to Washington to come here, themselves, and see what we have just
seen.
History
records many atrocities before and after the 1930s and
1940s. But it was the Holocaust that forced us to find a new
term for horrors on such a scale -- a crime against
humanity. Human evil has never been so ambitious in scope,
so systematic in execution, and so deliberate in its destruction.
In places
like this, the evidence has been kept. Without it, we might
forget the past, and we might neglect the future. And we
must never forget. We must always remember both the cruelty
of the guilty, and the courage and innocence of their victims.
So many
stories from the concentration camps will never be told because many of
the witnesses did not survive. The stories we have must be
preserved forever: Stories of mothers sacrificing themselves
to save their children. Stories of children trying to shield
their parents. Stories of men and women praying and
comforting one another in the last moments on this Earth.
These tell
the greater truth of the Holocaust -- the evil is real, but hope
endures. Above all, this museum is a testament to hope.
Tomorrow I
will have the honor of joining in the Days of Remembrance observances
at the Capitol. I will convey America's commitment to the
memory of 6 million who died in the Holocaust; our commitment to
averting future tragedies; and our commitment to a friend, as a friend,
to the Jewish people -- to their cause and to the nation they built.
I hope to
see many of you at the Capitol tomorrow. Thank you all for
coming, and God bless. (Applause.)
END
8:54 P.M. EDT
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