Clinton, Survivors Attend Holocaust Museum Event

President Clinton welcomed world leaders and Holocaust survivors Wednesday on the eve of the opening of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which he said will stand as “a sharp thorn in every national memory.”

Clinton and his wife, Hillary, joined 900 guests at a reception under a tent on the South Lawn in a steady rain.

The President, who spent more than two hours at the museum Monday night on a private tour, said: “I can personally now attest to how darkly it teaches and how deeply it moves all who step inside with their ears, their eyes and their hearts open.

“It is a testament not only to the worst and most depraved examples of human conduct, but also to the best, the bravest and the most loving in the human soul,” he said.

Clinton said he spoke to the 12 European leaders visiting him in the White House about “things of profound concern to the Jewish community in America.”

“How can we keep democracy alive in Russia and the other republics of the former Soviet Union and throughout Eastern Europe? How can we stand against the awful principle of ethnic cleansing, which has too much currency in the world today, given the experiences of so many people in a world so recently gone by?”

Clinton will take part today in the dedication of the museum, built with $168 million in donated funds and to be operated by the government. The museum tells the story of the murder of 6 million Jews in concentration camps.

“We are gathered here to mark the opening of this Holocaust Museum,” the President said. “We do so to help ensure that the Holocaust will remain ever a sharp thorn in every national memory but especially the memory of the United States, which has such unique responsibilities at this moment in history.

“We do so to redeem in some small measure the deaths of millions whom our nations did not or will not or could not save,” Clinton said. “We do so to help teach new generations the dangers of anti-democratic despots, racist ideologies and ethnic hatreds.

“We know this is the beginning not the end of the process, but what a fine day it is to begin,” Clinton told the gathering.