The US House of Representatives has unanimously passed Representative Maria Elvira Salazar’s (R-FL) Forgotten Heroes of the Holocaust Congressional Gold Medal Act.
The Act will honor sixty diplomats who saved the lives of Jews fleeing the Nazi regime.
Additionally, the bill recalls the importance of such diplomats for ensuring the safety of Jewish individuals and families being persecuted by Nazis.
According to the bill, the diplomats honored helped the Jewish people at significant personal risk given many had strict orders from their governments to not aid Jewish individuals.
Representative Salazar stated that the timing of the bill is designed to counter rising antisemitism.
“By passing this legislation, we will honor the memory of these heroes. We will preserve the truth of the Holocaust for current and future generations,” said Salazar. “We will continue to fight antisemitism in all its forms today. And we will help ensure the American people never forget what happened.”
The bill will grant the Congressional Gold medal to the sixty diplomats listed. The diplomats are not exclusively American, but rather are all from different countries across the world.
The American diplomats honored are Hiram Bingham IV and Raymond Herman Geist.
Bingham served as Vice Consul in Marseilles, France, and helped over 2,500 Jews flee France during the Nazi invasion.
Geist was the Consul and First Secretary of the US embassy in Berlin and used his position to issue tens of thousands of visas to German Jews fleeing Nazi Germany.
According to the US Holocaust Museum, Geist repeatedly warned American officials the Nazis intended to exterminate the Jewish people.
Geist desperately worked for the Jewish people, famously stating the US must act swiftly before the fate of the Jews “becomes so desperate that salvation will be beyond recall.”
