Museum Letter to Sponsors of Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act

July 17, 2018

July 17, 2018 

The Honorable Ann Wagner 
U.S. House of Representatives 
435 Cannon House Office Building 
Washington, DC 20515 

The Honorable Joseph Crowley 
U.S. House of Representatives 
1035 Longworth House Office Building 
Washington, DC 20515 

Dear Representatives Wagner and Crowley: 

On behalf of the Wiesel Family and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, we congratulate you on the House of Representatives’ passage of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act. In taking this step, you are honoring Professor Wiesel’s vision for the Museum as a living memorial that would help save victims of future genocides and in doing so honor the victims of the Holocaust. 
If the bill becomes law this year, its timing will coincide with the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in December. That would be appropriate since, tragically, every generation since the Holocaust has had to grapple with mass civilian atrocities including genocide. Rwanda, Srebrenica, Mount Sinjar—among others—all stand as stark reminders of the cost of unchecked hatred. 

This legislation is an important step toward developing a bipartisan Congressional blueprint for making “never again” real by taking practical steps to mitigate the systematic persecution of vulnerable groups. This was a core recommendation of the 2007 bipartisan Genocide Prevention Task Force convened by the Museum, the United States Institute of Peace and the American Academy of Diplomacy and led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Secretary of Defense William Cohen. The report noted that genocide and related crimes against humanity are not inevitable and “preventing genocide is a goal that can be achieved with the right organizational structures, strategies, and partnerships—in short, with the right blueprint.” 

We hope you will continue to lend your voice to the victims of genocide and related atrocities, and we look forward to working with you in the future.

Sincerely,
Elisha Wiesel 
Sara J. Bloomfield, Director
 

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