Fellow Illinoisan,

Seventy-six years ago this week, scouts from the Soviet Red Army pushed their way through Poland. They stumbled on a place that haunts the world to this day—Auschwitz.  It was the largest of Nazi Germany’s death camps, forty sprawling acres of hell on earth.

Between 1940 and 1945, 1.1 million men, women, and children died at Auschwitz.  More than 950,000 of those killed were Jews.  We must never allow ourselves to forget what happened there. 

DURBIN RECOGNIZES HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY ON THE SENATE FLOOR

Three weeks ago this week, an angry mob attacked our nation’s Capitol as Congress gathered to fulfill our Constitutional obligation to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.  

Many scenes from that day haunt us, but for some the most painful image of that day was of a middle-aged white man proudly wearing a sweatshirt that read: “Camp Auschwitz” and the words: “Work makes you free” — a paraphrase of the cruel slogan atop the black iron gates leading into Auschwitz.  It was a sickening reminder that the kind of hatred that led to the Holocaust is not some long-forgotten thing of the past.  It lives in America to this day. 

For far too long, our government has failed to adequately monitor the danger posed by violent white supremacists and other extremist groups.  While we looked the other way, the threat grew.  That’s why I have introduced the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act in each Congress since 2017, and I plan to reintroduce it soon in this Congress.

Congress must address the hate-fueled extremism that was on display at the Capitol on January 6.  We cannot afford to waste another moment. As the incoming Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I plan to hold hearings to examine this threat. And I will work to pass my bill and to get President Biden to sign it into law.

Sincerely,

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)