Hoyer Statement in Observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day

WASHINGTON, DC — Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) released the following statement today in observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day:

“Today, we observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day amid perhaps the most perilous time for Jews since Allied troops liberated the Nazi death camps seventy-nine years ago. Indeed, October 7, 2023, was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Hamas terrorists attacked peaceful Israeli communities, killing, kidnapping, raping, and torturing thousands of innocent Israeli civilians – Holocaust survivors among them. Our Israeli allies now fight to defend their democratic state, which the United Nations established more than seventy five years ago as a refuge for Jews after the devastation of the Holocaust and millennia of persecution.

“October 7 also reminded us that the cancer of antisemitism still plagues our country and world. The Anti-Defamation League reported that the rate of antisemitic incidents in America increased 388% in the weeks following Hamas' brutal attack on Israel. Many of those incidents involved people not only glorifying the Holocaust but calling for another. There is no way to interpret the Nazis' systematic murder of six million Jews and five million others as anything other than a genocide unprecedented in scale and depravity. Those who try to claim otherwise disrespect those who perished and endanger Jewish lives today. Indeed, the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in 2018 was a warning of how antisemitic rhetoric can quickly turn into violence.

“It is crucial that Americans come together in observance of this day now more than ever before. Recent polling indicates that one in five young Americans believe the Holocaust is a myth and that two thirds of young voters believe Jews as a class are oppressors and ought to be treated as such. From improving Holocaust education in American classrooms to advocating for aid to our Israeli allies, I will continue working to ensure we never forget the sobering lessons of the Holocaust. Whether in the United States or the State of Israel, online or on college campuses, in their homes or out in public, Jews deserve to live in peace and safety. For the sake of our democracy, we must see to it that they can.”