Speech #1000044113

The editorial calls attention to the careful scholarship of Prof. David Wyman of the University of Massachusetts. who in his book "The Abandonment of the Jews." and in other publications. including his earlier "Paper Walls." describes in penetrating detail the reluctance of America to help in what we now recognize was a humanitarian challenge of utterly devastating proportion. Wyman. the descendent of Protestant clergy. sets forth the factsas excerpted by the New York Times: Only 21.000 refugees were allowed to enter the United States during the war with Germanyjust 10 percent of the total permitted. Conferences held at Evian in France in 1938 and in Bermuda in 1943 were marked by their failures to take action to rescue the refugees of Europe. An earlier New York Times column by Flora Lewis on the Klaus Barbie trial entitled "The Guilt of Doing Nothing"-May 15also recalls the reluctance of Western and neutral countries to help during World War II when action might have made a difference. The United States. Britain. Switzerland. and othersall had refugee policies marked by strictness and caution in the efforts to aid and rescue the Jews. The recurrent theme. as phrased by Ms. Lewis: "You must wait until your number comes up on the quota. We can do nothing until it is your turn." As Americans we have a talent for forgetting the past and looking to the future. Our actions to aid refugees in the years since World War II testify to the continuing generosity of the American spirit when the facts are put before us. Nearly a million Indochinese. over 2 million altogether. have found refuge in our States and communities in the past 40 years. But there continue today to be others who need our helprefugees in Southeast Asia on the Cambodian and Lao borders with Thailand. "reeducation camp" prisoners in Vietnam. Jews. and other persecuted minorities in the Soviet Union. Iran. and elsewhere. and refugees throughout Africa. We must stay on guard not to repeat the forgetfulness of the past. I ask that the May 20 New York Times editorial and the May 15 Flora Lewis column also from the New York Times be printed in the RECORD.