Reagan, Congress Mark Yom Ha-shoah; President Says Americans Must Be Sensitive to a People Whose Cou

President Reagan declared today that the United States has a “firm commitment to Israel’s security” and that the Holocaust reminds Americans that Israel is “a country that rightfully never takes its security or survival for granted.”

In a White House ceremony marking Yom HoShoah, Holocaust remembrance day, Reagan noted that Israel will complete its return of the Sinai to Egypt on Sunday. “We fervently pray that the return of the Sinai will be accepted for what it is — a magnificent act of faith by Israel for the sake of peace; a noble expression by a people who suffered so much,” the President declared. “The United States is grateful for this step which reinforces our firm commitment to Israel’s security.”

Reagan noted that “today we are reminded that we must be sensitive to a history of a people whose country was reborn from the ashes of the Holocaust; a country that rightfully never takes its security for granted. With this in mind, all peace-loving people should applaud Israel and Egypt for what they have done.”

The White House ceremony followed a Holocaust remembrance program in the Rotunda of the Capital. Both were part of the week-long Days of Remembrance ceremonies which are being conducted throughout the country under the sponsorship of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.

CEREMONIES AT WHITE HOUSE AND CONGRESS

At both ceremonies today, El Moleh Rachamin was sung and Kaddish was recited. Cantor Isaac Good-friend of Atlanta, Ga., sang El Moleh Rachamin at the White House and Rabbi Joseph Asher of San Francisco, recited Kaddish. At the Capital, Robert Agus, acting director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, recited Kaddish and Cantor Joseph Malovany of New York City sang the El Moleh Rachamin. Also singing at the Capital was the Atlanta Boys Choir conducted by Goodfriend.

At both ceremonies, six candles were lit in memory of the six million Jews who died during the Holocaust. At the Capital the candles were lit by Holocaust survivors and at the White House by children of survivors. Several hundred persons attended each ceremony. Many of them were at both and were taken by bus from the Capital to the White House.

THE NATURE OF THE TRAGEDY

Reagan noted that the “magnitude of what has brought us together” at the Capital and the White House is a “tragedy of such proportion” that even now many cannot grasp the full horror of it.

Elie Wiesel, chairman of the Holocaust Memorial Council, noted that last year at a similar ceremony at the White House, Reagan strongly attacked those who want to deny that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. But he said the effort continues, by rightwing fascists in the United States and leftwing intellectuals in France. “They all join in this insane need they have to deny that what we went through didn’t happen.”

Reagan noted that the number of persons killed was so large there is a need to look at the “humanity behind the numbers.” He listed the names of several persons who died in the Holocaust and wondered what they would have contributed to the world if they had survived.

In noting Israel’s impending return of the Sinai, Reagan mentioned Moses Flecher who, he said, was a 16-year-old Dutch Jew who died in the Holocaust. He said that Elecher had written that he wanted to go to Israel and into politics and would study Arabic because he knew Israel had to live in peace with its neighbors. Reagan said that one could only wonder what kind of contribution Flecher could have made to the peace process if he were still alive.

STRESSES THE COMMITMENT OF CONGRESS

At the Capitol ceremony, House speaker Thomas O’Neill (D. Mass.) also urged Americans not to think of Holocaust victims as numbers but as individuals. O’Neill also stressed the commitment of Congress to the creation of a national Holocaust museum and living memorial to the Holocaust, one of the tasks of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. Sen. Ted Stevens (R. Alaska), the Senate Majority Whip, said this nation will not remain indifferent to human suffering and human misery.

Wiesel, who spoke at both the White House and the Capitol, warned the legislators that the Nazis had used the law to carry out their crimes against Jews and others. “The Nazis had corrupted the law themselves,” he said. “They made it into a weapon against humanity.”

NOTES U.S. FOILED TO SAVE JEWS

Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and novelist, also pointed out that during the Nazi period the U.S., which has a record of taking in people from other countries, failed to take in Jews. He also stressed that the crimes of the Nazis were known before the war ended and that Auschwitz was known to American Jews before it was known to him and other Jews in Hungary.

Sigmund Strochlitz, chairman of the Holocaust Council’s Days of Remembrance Committee, said the knowledge of the Holocaust is increasing in the United States partially through the effort of Congress in establishing the Holocaust Council and setting the Days of Remembrance Week. He said the need now is to know how the Holocaust happened and why. Mark Talisman, vice chairman of the Holocaust Council, praised the Reagan Administration for continuing the effort to find and prosecute Nazi war criminals in the United States.

In addition to programs in more than 40 states this week, public television stations throughout the country are running programs on the Holocaust this week. Exhibits of 21 photographic posters depicting life before, during and after the Holocaust are on display in the lobbies of several government buildings in Washington.