Hi folks,

My mom was born in Warsaw, Poland in the summer of 1938 — just a year before the Nazis took the city. She and her parents were Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust, and today, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, I hope you’ll take a moment to read their story.

When the Nazis reached Warsaw, my mom and her parents were separated and forced to flee their home. My grandfather hid in a candy-maker’s cellar. My grandmother in a Catholic convent. My mom with a nurse in countryside village.

Through the kindness of strangers, my family survived and was reunited, but their home and lives were upended. They left Warsaw, moving to Stockholm, then Mexico City. Finally, they found refuge in the only place they truly believed they could rebuild their shattered lives: America.

To my mom, America was a beacon of opportunity — a safehaven where she could rebuild her life, enroll in school, find a job, and raise a family. She gave us more chances than she ever had, and she taught us that our job is to extend opportunity so others can rise.

I think of my mom’s story often as I walk the halls of Congress.

It inspires me to work for an America where everyone can work hard and do well. Where an immigrant to our country can become a librarian — and her child a United States Senator.

An America that stands up to bullies, bigots, and demagogues. An America that is what my mom believed it to be: the most hopeful nation on Earth.

Friends, the last few years have been difficult, but I still believe in the America my mother believed in. I know we can create a place where truth, and hard work, and the people’s will always prevails.

We just need to fight for it.

Thank you for reading my family’s story, and thank you for fighting with me.

— Michael