CHICAGO— On Sunday, July 4, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL) visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland, where he laid a wreath in front of the execution wall.

“It was a truly humbling experience to see in person a place that witnessed such human suffering and loss of life,” Quigley said.  “It was in my parents’ lifetime that hundreds of thousands of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and the mentally and physically handicapped met their end here.  The sadness has not dissipated and the overwhelming sense of sorrow is still palpable.  I left with a renewed commitment to the future of the state of Israel and a far more complete understanding of what it means to never forget what happened inside those walls.”

Congressman Quigley (front, right) lays a wreath in front of the execution wall at Auschwitz with Reps. (left) Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and (right) Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL).

Congressman Quigley in the watchtower at Auschwitz II, Birkenau, looking out at railroad tracks that brought Europeans to the concentration camp from across the continent.

A day earlier, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged $15 million to preserve the Auschwitz concentration camps. Congressman Quigley supports the measure.

Quigley has been a stalwart supporter of Israel in his first term in Congress, voting to condemn the Goldstone report and calling on the United Nations Security Council to keep Iran nuclear-free.

High-resolution versions of the above photos are available upon request.