ambassador
Ambassador's Speech
AMBASSADOR WAYNE'S REMARKS AT THE PRESENTATION OF "PARA QUE EL MUNDO RECUERDE" BY JOSÉ MOSKOVITS
Asociación Israelita de Sobrevivientes de la Persecusión Nazi
AMIA Auditorium
May 12, 2008
Allied Victory Against the Nazis
Mr. Moskovits and members of the Asociación […]. Thank you for the invitation to join you this evening in commemorating a historic event that still resonates in our lives today.
Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day) brought hope for normalcy, after almost five long years of occupation. It also brought a lasting sense of solidarity to those who fought against Nazi tyranny. One resistance leader put it well: "We are one because, together, we believed in something." We celebrate a great triumph of good over evil. We will never forget the acts of courage that made possible the liberation of a continent or the heroes who fought in the cause of freedom. And we honor the brave troops who humbled tyrants, defended the innocent, and liberated the oppressed.
At the outset of the war, there were those who believed that democracy was too soft to survive, especially against a Nazi Germany that boasted the most professional, well-equipped and highly-trained military forces in the world. Yet, the Nazi military would be brought down by a coalition of armies that included many democratic allies, freedom fighters from occupied lands, and underground resistance leaders. American GIs who, only months before, had been farmers and bank clerks and factory hands, fought side-by-side with our allies. And the world's tyrants were sent a lesson: There is no power like the power of freedom, and no soldier as strong as a soldier who fights for that freedom.
We celebrate the victory they won, and we recommit ourselves to the great truth that they defended, that freedom is the birthright of all mankind. Because of the sacrifice of that great generation, that truth has prevailed in so many times and places since and continues to motive men and women today all around the world. Because of their sacrifice, tyrants fell; fascism and Nazism were vanquished; freedom prevailed and the domains of freedom and liberty secured so their march could continue around the world in the decades to follow.
As one song from my college days put it, we often:
“Find the cost of freedom buried in the ground.”
So it was that across Europe, Americans shared the battle with Britons, Canadians, Poles, free French, and brave citizens from other lands. From the east, brave soldiers of the Soviet union defended their homeland and pushed the Nazi armies back to Germany. In the trials and total sacrifice of the war, we became allies. While the post-war world saw new divisions between the Soviet Union and Western Allies, many of the nations that liberated a conquered Europe continued to work together for the freedom of all of Europe, which came to reality only in recent decades. And, the nations that battled across the continent would become trusted partners in the cause of peace. Our great alliance of freedom has grown larger and remains strong, and it is still needed today.
We in the U.S. and in Europe, have been richly rewarded by our opportunity to live in freedom purchased so dearly, to pursue our own interests, to enjoy the largesse of our nations, and most importantly, to see the children, grandchildren and now the great-grandchildren of those brave men and women, who sacrificed all, thriving and enjoying the blessings of liberty. It is a legacy of which each of us can be proud and to which we can claim, in some small way, that we made a contribution. We can be proud to have carried the torch of freedom and, eventually to pass it to the next generation responsible for continuing that legacy.
The victory over Nazi Germany was much more than a military victory. It was the victory of the human spirit over oppression and tyranny, hatred and racism in their most dangerous and bestial form. And we must pass on to those who will come after us the spirit of historic connection, common aspirations and common hope.
The United States of America and these nations are bound together by history, by the universal rights we have defended together, and by our deepest convictions. All of us understand that the advance of freedom is the concentrated work of generations, from the brave soldiers and common citizens who fought against Nazi Germany over 63 years ago to those who struggle for liberty today. And by working together, we will ensure that the promise of liberty and democracy won on V-E day will one day reach every person in the 21st century. We cannot let the lessons of this struggle and victory be forgotten.
Our peoples have never ceased to share common love of liberty and law, of justice and democracy. These values are rooted in the very depths of our cultures and civilization. They are the spirit of our peoples. They are the heart and soul of our nations.
Causes can be judged by the monuments they leave behind. The Nazi terror is remembered today in places like Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald, Treblinka, and the Warsaw Ghetto. The alliance that won the war is remembered today in carefully tended cemeteries in Normandy, Anzio, St. Petersburg, and other places across Europe, where we recall brief lives of great honor, and we offer this pledge: We will always be grateful and we must always remember. But the real proof that we have learned from these great sacrifices must be embodied in our daily acts, our democracies and the lives of our children.
We must remember and live the lessons from that sacrifice so that we can say, as former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in remarks to the Holocaust Education Task Force, “Never again the totalitarian brutality that consumed Europe’s Jews and millions of others. Never again the genocide that was planned and executed with scientific malice and mechanical efficiency. Never again the sweeping oppression that suborned whole societies on behalf of hatred and on behalf of death. When we say "never again," we are speaking not just of historical forces but directly to the faces and the names of those who perished and to those who survived the Holocaust. And it is to them that we make our pledge.”
Thank you.
