Speech #1090052654

Romanians or other European Americans living in America were taken from their homes and placed in internment camps during World War II. We must learn from our history and explore why we turned on our fellow Americans and failed to protect basic freedoms. A second commission created by this bill will review the treatment by the U.S. government of Jewish refugees who were fleeing Nazi persecution and genocide. We must review the facts and determine how our restrictive immigration policies failed to provide adequate safe harbor to Jewish refugees fleeing the persecution of Nazi Germany. The United States turned away thousands of refugees. delivering many refugees to their deaths at the hands of the Nazi regime. As I mentioned earlier. there has been a measure of justice for Japanese Americans who were denied their liberty and property. It is now time for the U.S. government to complete an accounting of this period in our nations history. It is time to create independent. factfinding commissions to conduct a full and through review of the treatment of all European Americans. European Latin Americans. and Jewish refugees during World War II. Up to this point. there has been no justice for the thousands of German Americans. Italian Americans. and other European Americans who were branded "enemy aliens" and then taken from their homes. subjected to curfews. limited in their travel. deprived of their personal property. and. in the worst cases. placed in internment camps. There has been no justice for Latin Americans of European descent who were shipped to the United States and sometimes repatriated or deported to hostile. wartorn European Axis powers. often in exchange for Americans being held in those countries. Finally. there has been no justice for the thousands of Jews. like those aboard the German vessel the St. Louis. who sought refuge from hostile Nazi treatment but were callously turned away at Americas shores. Although the injustices to European Americans. European Latin Americans.. and Jewish refugees occurred fifty years ago. it is never too late for Americans to learn from these tragedies. We should never allow this part of our Nations history to repeat itself. And. while we should be proud of our Nations triumph in World War 11. we should not let that justifiable pride blind us to the treatment of some Americans by their own government.