Citing Rise in Anti-Semitism, Buchanan Honors 75th Anniversary of Auschwitz Liberation

Press Release

On the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, Congressman Vern Buchanan today called for renewed efforts to counter growing anti-Semitism in the United States and across Europe.

The U.S. House today is expected to pass legislation co-sponsored by Buchanan, the "Never Again Education Act," which would provide federal grants to give teachers the resources and training to make sure students know the important lessons of the Holocaust.

Shockingly, a 2018 survey found that 22 percent of U.S. millennials have either never heard of or are unsure if they have heard of the Holocaust.

"As we honor the liberation of Auschwitz today, it's vital to recognize that anti-Semitism is not only alive but growing in the U.S. and Europe," said Buchanan, a member of the bipartisan taskforce to combat anti-Semitism in Congress. "This cannot be allowed to continue and must be met with strong action."

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the U.S. Jewish community experienced near-historic levels of anti-Semitism in 2018. The ADL also stated that there were a total of 1,879 recorded attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions across the country in the last year alone - the third-highest year on record since the group began recording such data in the 1970s.

These sobering statistics include a doubling of anti-Semitic assaults and the single deadliest attack against the Jewish community in American history when an alleged white supremacist opened fire at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, killing 11 people and injuring seven others.

Auschwitz was the deadliest of the six extermination camps constructed by the Nazi's during World War II. More than one million people, including 960,000 Jews, were murdered at the camp between 1940 and the camp's liberation by Allied forces in 1945.

Buchanan is also a co-sponsor of the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which requires the Department of Education to update and clarify its definition of anti-Semitism to allow colleges to more easily investigate and combat anti-Semitism. Tragically, college campuses and universities across the country have also seen a dramatic rise in incidents of anti-Semitism and displays targeting Jews.

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