-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Koffler [mailto:******@rollcall.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 1:15 PM
To: Singh, Priya
Subject: Pool report #1
Pool Report #1
Limited time before the next gather and the event was open to
credentialed media so I'll keep this brief.
President appeared at the National Commemoration of the Days of
Remembrance, a somber ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda in memory of the
Holocaust. President's remarks were preceded by those of a few others,
including Elie Wiesel, as well as a presentation of the flags of the
U.S. Army divisions that had liberated concentration camps - along with
a mention of the camps each had freed.
Wiesel spoke movingly - perhaps a redundancy - about some of his own
experiences and the failure of those in the free world - singling out
Washington as well as the Washington Post and the New York Times - to
warn the remaining European Jews in the early 1940s about what was in
store for them. He said it might have saved his own family, which had an
option to try to avoid the trip that turned out to be a journey to the
death camps. And Wiesel waded into present day politics as well,
condemning Iranian President Ahmadinejad as a Holocaust denier and
thanking President Obama for boycotting the recent Durban II U.N.
conference, where the Iranian leader called Israel racist.
Obama's remarks, which you will soon have, focused more on lessons going
forward and were laced with a greater sense of optimism about learning
from the past.
Keith Koffler
Roll Call
202-***-****
--
Keith Koffler
Roll Call White House Reporter
Mobile: 202-***-****
Direct: 202-***-****
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