 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States and Mrs. Reagan. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, now for our award ceremony, I introduce Rabbi Marvin Hire of the Simon Wiesenthal Center who will preside over this evening's awards. Mr. President and Mrs. Reagan, the Simon Wiesenthal Center is deeply honored and delighted to welcome you both here this evening for two special purposes to help us mark the significant occasion of the 80th birthday of Simon Wiesenthal and to allow us to recognize publicly your singular accomplishments as the President and First Lady of the United States and as leaders of the free world. To you, Mrs. Reagan, the Simon Wiesenthal Center is proud to present its first Beta Shoah Museum of Tolerance Award for Public Service. To make the salutary remarks prior to the formal presentation, I would like to call upon a co-chairman of tonight's dinner, a good friend of yours and the center, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Thank you very much. President Reagan, Mrs. Reagan, Senator Pete Wilson, Simon Wiesenthal, I've always believed that individuals can make a difference and I am deeply honored to be here on this day as this evening with so many who have. If you're Simon Wiesenthal who is 80 years old and still going strong, I salute you Simon, I salute you Simon for dedicating your life to the truth, for making sure that the world never forgets. President Reagan, you are one of my idols and I could talk about you for hours but tonight I would like to talk about a woman who I know you greatly admire and for whom I have the utmost respect. It's a woman that deserves to be honored here this evening. To truly make a difference in the world, a person has to have courage, determination and guts and Nancy Reagan is that kind of a person. As first lady, as first lady she had the courage to take on one of society's toughest problems, drugs. Mrs. Reagan was determined to offer young people an alternative to drugs, to make them feel comfortable by saying three words, just say no. In the day because of her tireless work, young people who had no alternatives, who had no hope, no options and no future can look at their lives and be proud, be proud to say no to drugs and yes to life. Mrs. Reagan, your work has made a difference in the fields of drug abuse and so many other areas as well. For instance, when two Korean orphans needed to come to the United States for special surgery, you and the president, through the Gift of Life program, sponsored them and so to it that their special needs were met. You've also reached out to the senior citizens through your long-time involvement in the foster grandparents program. Your support of that program has helped bring the wisdom and love of grandparents to lonely children throughout the country. And on a personal note, you even helped my mother-in-law. And for that I'm always very grateful, let me tell you. When Eunice Shriver called you and asked you for your help with the Special Olympics program, you not only said yes and invited hundreds of retarded children with the family and friends to the White House for lunch, but you took the time out to meet them, to talk to them and to encourage them so they can achieve their goals. And you've done this time and time again. Those who know you and have worked with you over the years say that's typical of Nancy Reagan. Time and again you have lent your name, your presence and your support to people and organizations in need. That kind of involvement has prompted millions of other Americans to get involved, to volunteer their time and efforts. Your contribution has made others believe that yes, indeed, each and every one of us can make a difference. All Americans, Mrs. Reagan, are grateful to you for your work on behalf of those who needed a voice. You are a gallant symbol of the tenderness which should be an essential part of every person in every nation's life. It is because you are this gallant symbol that the Simon Wiesendahl Foundation, which is one of the largest human rights organizations in the world, is pleased to bestow on you the first Museum of Tolerance Award. And here to present the award is Mr. Samuel Belzberg, Chairman of its Board of Trustees, assisted by my main man, Simon Wiesendahl, and the Foundation's Dean, Rabbi Marvin Heier. Thank you. The Tolerance Center proudly presents its first Bette HaShoah Museum of Tolerance Award to Nancy Reagan, the first lady of the United States. In gratitude for her service in representing America with dignity and grace at home and abroad. In recognition of her efforts to encourage Americans from all walks of life to volunteer their time and skills to help ease the pain and burden of those less fortunate. In commemoration of her relentless opposition to the scourge of drugs through meetings with American youth across the country, presented this October 30th, 1988, 20th, Cheswan 5749. Ladies and gentlemen, the first lady of the United States, Mrs. Nancy Reagan. Thank you very much. I'm I'm greatly honored and this means a very great deal to me personally. Arnold your remarks were really so kind and I appreciate them so much. You were kind enough to mention the thousands of people, young and old, who have a special place in my heart. You know, for the last eight years, I've had a unique opportunity to witness the extraordinary compassion of the American people. A people like each of you, like each of you have for those who are less fortunate. So let me just say that really this award belongs to the millions of American volunteers, to the parents and children involved in the 15,000 just say no programs around the country and the 24,000 men and women participating in the foster grandparent program to the doctors and others working with the gift of life program and to all of those who have worked so long for the special Olympics and to so many, many giving and generous people. So on their behalf, I very gratefully accept this award. Thank you very much. Mr. President, the Simon Wiesenthal Center is about to bestow upon you its highest honor. May I in a brief moment tell you something about the origin of this award. Its inspiration comes to us from another world. A world where night and day the whistle of trains and the clatter of wheels could be heard against the cold winter gusts. Where in every townlet a sea of faces stood each painting their own expression on this master canvas of man's in humanity the man. A world where children clutch dolls as if there could still be time to play. Doctors with their bags as if they would still be able to heal. Rabbis bent over their heavy Talmudic tomes as if there would still be two students to teach. Yes, by the trains, student novelists from Warsaw, philosophers from Prague, poets from Pest, even Hasidim hummed their catchy tunes lest they be forgotten somewhere on the way to Auschwitz. No one ventured out to these terribly lonely sites, to these places where Eichmann decided who shall live and who shall die. Not one of the famous went out of their way to show solidarity then. Not popes in their majestic robes nor kings in their crowns or prime ministers, not even humanists or noble laureates. From thence was born the notion to say thank you to friends, to acknowledge the efforts of leaders who care, of statesmen who are there and of a president who has walked the extra mile so many times in the noble cause of an ancient people. To present the salutary remarks for the Simon Wiesenthal Humanitarian Award, I am pleased to call on William Belsberg, an executive member of the Board of Trustees of the Center. Thank you, Rabbi. Mr. President, nearly eight years ago on a cold January day, you stood on the steps of our nation's capital to take the oath of office as the 40th President of the United States. You came to lead not only our great country, but to assume the mantle of leadership of the entire free world. At that time, democracy was an endangered species, free enterprise, almost a dirty word. The United States and their allies were held up to constant ridicule at the United Nations. Iran's Ayatollah, Libya's Qaddafi, preached their hatred of America and boasted of their determination to export terrorism. Relations with an aggressive Soviet Union were very tense, and in Europe, some of our closest friends wondered aloud if the NATO alliance would survive the decade. On the human rights front, the emigration of Soviet Jews had come to a virtual halt, while an oppressive system of cultural genocide subjected the Jews to unjust punishment for the crimes of studying Hebrew or participating in communal prayer services. Our closest ally in the Middle East, the State of Israel, was worried that a settlement would be imposed, which would leave her vulnerable to further attack from neighbors who still dream of a Middle East without a Jewish state. This was the world as you found it, Mr. President, on January 20th, 1981. With great faith and optimism, and in the name of peace and prosperity, you and your colleagues went to work to address the great issues of the day, to impact on history, as others who have held that awesome responsibility have done before you. Through strengthened diplomacy, you established the guidelines which led to the dawning of a new era between the superpowers, and by forging personal relationships with leaders of the Western world, you sent a message that America intended to stand proudly with her friends. In the case of Israel, whether at the UN or in the capitals of the Middle East, you signaled that America would stand with her sister democracy on the long road to peace. Your longstanding commitment to Israel is also predicated on geopolitical realities. As Commander-in-Chief, you know better than anyone else the cost to America in safeguarding freedom. You know that 40,000 American military men have been stationed annually in Korea since 1950. That 50,000 American military men have been stationed in Japan since the end of World War II. That the United States spends 38 million in defending Southeast Asia, and that we have 330,000 American soldiers in Western Europe. Thankfully, the United States has no permanent military presence in the Middle East, because the State of Israel is more than willing to help shoulder that responsibility in this strategically crucial international arena. You have said, Mr. President, many times that Israel does as much for the United States as the United States does for Israel. You have underscored that the U.S.-Israel relationship is an equal partnership, a partnership at keeping democracy and our common Judeo-Christian heritage alive and free. Not only is a friend of Israel, but also the leadership your administration took, particularly the efforts of Vice President Bush in helping save the lives of thousands of Ethiopian Jews through Operation Moses. Mr. President, you and Mr. Gorbachev have achieved the historic INF Treaty, which has taken us on the road toward banishing nuclear weapons and averting a nuclear holocaust. This would not have been possible without your determination to show the Soviets that America is prepared to stand firm to protect her interests and the interests of the free world. Mr. President, through all those negotiations with the Soviets, you and your administration never failed to place high on the agenda the issue of human rights, and particularly the issue of Soviet Jews. Only a year ago, the entire world witnessed inspiring sight of Secretary of State of the United States of America conducting a Passover Seder for Soviet Refuseniks in the American Embassy in Moscow on Passover night. It was through your efforts, and those of Vice President Bush and Secretary of State Schultz and other members of your administration, that many of the leading Refuseniks received their first taste of freedom. Anatoly Shuransky, Aida Nudal, Joseph Begon, their lives and ours have been changed forever through your commitment. Without your unswerving commitment and determination to pay no heed to the Soviet contention that Soviet jury was an internal matter, the fate of our brothers and sisters in the Soviet Union would have been a much different one. Today the immigration doors have opened. Just last month, over 2,000 Jews have been able to leave, and for the first time, religious and cultural opportunities for those still there have begun to blossom. While the battle is far from won, you can be proud of your unique accomplishments in these important areas of human rights. For these reasons, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading human rights agency, and one of the largest Jewish membership organizations in the world, with a constituency of 370,000 families across this great land, is proud to present to you its highest honor, the Simon Wiesenthal Center Humanitarian Award. To make the formal presentation, I call on Samuel Belzberg, the chairman of the board of the Wiesenthal Center, assisted by Simon Wiesenthal and the dean of the center, Rabbi Marvin Hire. Thank you. The Simon Wiesenthal Center Humanitarian Award presented to Ronald W. Reagan, president of the United States, in recognition of the president's steadfast efforts and historic contribution to the cause of world peace by reducing the threat of a nuclear holocaust through negotiation and signing of the INF Treaty, in recognition and in gratitude for his longstanding and abiding friendship with the state of Israel, which he has demonstrated throughout the years of his presidency. In appreciation for his staunch commitment to the preservation of human dignity, and particularly for his countless interventions on behalf of Soviet Jewish Refuseniks, many of whom were able to gain their freedom through his efforts. And in special recognition of a president who has served his country with courage and devotion, and whose leadership of the western world has helped rekindle the light of freedom and peace for people the world over, presented this 30th day of October 1988, Resvan, 20th, 5749. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States. Thank you very much. I'm honored more than you can know to receive this year's Humanitarian Award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center. To receive an award given in honor of one of the true heroes of the 20th century, a man whose name will ever be inscribed in the Book of Life is indeed a humbling experience. But what Simon Wiesenthal represents are the animating principles of western civilization. Since the day Moses came down from Sinai, the idea of justice, the idea of laws, the idea of the free will. God gave us this instruction in Deuteronomy. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death. Therefore choose life so that you may live, you and your descendants. Those monsters who made the Holocaust, they chose death with results almost too awful to grasp. The mind reels from the enormity of the crime. It begs to be set free from so terrible a fact, to wipe it from the memory. But people like Simon Wiesenthal have made us understand that we must not, we cannot, and we will not. His life is testimony to his unwavering commitment to do honor to those who burned in the flames of the Holocaust by bringing their murderers and the accomplices of their murderers to the justice of a civilized world that to score after still reels in astonishment and disgust. And I salute him on his 80th birthday as do we all. But out of the ashes of the Holocaust there came a good thing, a great thing called the State of Israel. And like Simon Wiesenthal, the animating principles of the State of Israel are justice and law tempered with compassion. Yes, the very principles of Judaism itself and we Americans with our Judeo-Christian heritage have no better friends than the people of Israel. We acknowledge this truth and our administration has made the ties that bind us warmer than they have ever been. In the last five years we initiated an unprecedented strategic understanding with the State of Israel. We negotiated a free trade area between our two countries. Most important perhaps we promised that we would not permit Israel to lose its qualitative edge in the Middle East and we delivered on that promise. This record of friendship and fealty moved the Democratic Mayor of New York City to say the other week that our administration was the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House. But America and Israel share an understanding forged in the blood and horror of the Second World War. It is not enough for us to invoke our common traditions, to praise ourselves for our Judeo-Christian morality and our decency. We also must defend our traditions, our morality and our decency. The West knows all too well what happens when the barbarians believe they can act unchecked. All we need to do is look at Simon Wiesenthal's life, a stepfather dead in one of Stalin's prisons, a mother killed by Hitler's gas chambers, himself a survivor of the camps. We must defend ourselves against the evil of totalitarianism. We must follow his example and never waver in our pursuit of justice, never waver in our pursuit of resolve. We must remain strong and we must be willing to use force when we're under threat. This is a lesson that binds us still closer to the state of Israel, for the fact is a strong Israel depends upon a strong America. An America that loses faith in the idea of a strong defense is an America that will lose faith in a nation at arms like Israel. That same strength and resolve, coupled with diplomatic vision and a commitment to political reconciliation, are essential if Israel is to help achieve a negotiated settlement among the war-weary peoples of the Middle East. Strength and resolve will likewise be the means of resolving our quest for the freedom of those Soviet Jews who seek to make their lives in the West. And when these become realities, and ladies and gentlemen, I believe with all my heart they will, then and only then will the struggle of Simon Wiesenthal achieve its ultimate aim, peace for the Jewish people. And as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Crystal Knot, that dreadful night in 1938, when Hitler's plan for the Jews began to take its final shape, we vowed to be vigilant in our battle against those who would follow Hitler's example. This is our cause. To further it, I will presently sign the convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide, and so will affirm America's commitment to the profound biblical admonition, therefore choose life. Thank you again, and God bless you all. Mr. President, I think you just noticed by our reaction here tonight how much we appreciate your words here this evening. On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, may we express our deep gratitude to both you and Nancy for helping to make this such a meaningful, memorable, and historic occasion for all of us. Thank you. Mr. President, first lady, ladies and gentlemen, I first had the great pleasure, although I must admit I was pretty terrified, of meeting Simon Wiesenthal in 1987 in Vienna, knowing that I was to portray him in the HBO movie Murderous Amongst Us. We embraced, like father and son, nephew and uncle, brother and brother, and within 10 minutes of my meeting Simon, I have to tell you that he had me in tears. He told me a story of the liberation of Mauthausen, which I found so shattering and so moving. As an actor I recognize a fellow balladeer, a fellow storyteller, and Simon is one of the great balladeers and storytellers of our conscience. I'll introduce him by telling you a story. In the 50s, alone against indifference and silence, he was asked by two friends why he just didn't forget the whole thing, stop staring the pot, go back to being an architect again, and he looked at them squarely in the eye and he said, you're both religious men, of course you are. You believe in God and the afterlife, of course you do. So when you get to the other world and meet the six million who died in the camps and they ask you, what have you done? What will you say to them? Will you say, I sold cars in New Jersey or I made a fortune out of bathing suits? Or will you say, I did not forget you? Ladies and gentlemen, the man who did not forget you, Simon Wiesenthal. Mr. President, Mrs. Reagan, Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests, and my dear Ben, to me the President of United States is also the President of the free world. Now I regard myself as a member of the free world, so it's a great honor for me if my President chooses to attend my birthday celebration and accept the award that carries my name. On the day of my liberation, suddenly, instinctively, I knew that I would live the rest of my life under two flags, the flag in white and blue representing the Jewish people and today the Jewish state, the flag of Jewish national dignity, and the flag of the army that liberated me, the American flag, that signaled freedom and continuation of the desperate fight against slavery and tyranny. Until this very day, I am devoted to this two flags and the people they stand for and will remain to feel this way until my very last day. I just finished writing my memoirs. This will be my 10th and probably the last book. I describe how my life before the Nazis is not so much interest to the public, my studies or my work as an architect. It was the Nazi era that threw me off my tracks that made me into what I am today a man who had seen March, lived through March, suffered and cannot forget. A man who digested his experiences, invented some kind of a mission in order to justify his survival. Now after I spent half of my life on this work, I don't believe I have something to tell my fellow listeners, something that might sound like I'd well on the past but really provide us guidelines for the future. We all know the Nazis lost the last war. I firmly believe now that it is we lost the post war period. Everything we dreamed about before we were liberated did not come true. The enemies of yesterday have not vanished out of sight and humanity did not withdraw its lesson from the tragedy. Know that so many years have passed, we must worry again that those events might recur. We, and when I say we, I don't just mean we Jews, but all those who bore witnesses to the last world war, we have not done enough. We did not ostracize dictatorship like we should have. Every morning we read about the crimes happening in all parts of the world over breakfast, but we were too comfortable. We accepted like cold that you cannot fight until you caught it. I saw people shrug and say with resignation all of what I can do. Then I told them how shocked I had been. I read about the chemical warfare conducted against the Kurds. I asked them to write letters to their newspapers. I expected voices to raise thousandfold in defense of the poor Kurds, but the response did not reach even one percent of what can be heard about the tear gas the Israelis use against demonstrators. I could see how Israel and the Jews are measured by a different standards. In the 60s I came to United States for the first time. There was only a small percentage of survivors who did not want to forget. The rest of the Jewish population regarded the Shoah as history. I spoke to Jewish communities, the college audiences, tried to wake their conscience and help found organizations and groups whose aim was to keep the Shoah from being forgotten. They saw that in forgetfulness lies the possibility for a repetition of the great tragedy. In Austria people wish not to be reminded. In Germany I experienced it more sympathy for my work and cooperation with officials usually went smoothly. In Holland I found supporters. It took many years until the public got used to this man in Vienna who cannot forget and fight for justice. Envelopes addressed Wiesenthal Austria arrived in their destination and we received a lot of information which we only seldom were able to use because of lack of funds. And every person's life is a chapter of missed opportunities. People can write the chapter two not only individuals miss out chances and we the Jewish people did just that in the last 40 years. And today is too late for much of what neglected to do. Murders die before we made an effort to punish them. Witnesses die before we made an effort to listen to their stories. The only meaningful thing that might have reminded is a warning to the world. A warning to the murderers of tomorrow. Never in history have murderers been so relencently persecuted 40 years after the crime even though those who played a vital part in the genocide sought refuge in all countries of the world. But from time to time we find one of them and that is in itself a warning for all those who might be tempted to participate in a other genocide. The proof there is no escape not even 40 or 50 years later and there is no place on the face of this hell where they can feel safe and secure. And that is what my work amounts the bottom line a warning and we all should repeat that warning over and over load and clear and then the millions of innocent people did not die in vain. Ten years ago I was asked to give my name to an institution which I hope will continue to follow my guidelines. I set for myself in the last 40 years the importance though is not lie only in the persecution of the criminals who caused this biggest massacre in the history of mankind. No we have to secure the future of our children and our children's children. The guidelines I mentioned before first the truth and then justice and education and information provide defense. Justice is indivisible. If you demand justice for what happened under the Nazi rule then not just for what was done to the Jews. I never divided the mass graves and asked for justice only for the Jews. I did it for all this who died. The four years I spent in various concentration camps together with people from 15 nations stretched my sense of family to all those who suffered with me be it Frenchmen, Italians, Dutchmen, Belgians and others. Meeting someone who suffered with me after so many years it makes me happy if then man regards me as his brother. In the last 40 years I spoke to hundreds of thousands of young people. I held lectures or wrote books and letters. I always tell them that the day I use it to live in freedom. But freedom is like health. You recognize its value only once you lose it. Freedom is not a gift from the heavens. You have to fight for it every day of your life. Mr. President, Mrs. Reagan, your presence here tonight is the most wonderful present you could have given me on my 80th birthday. I, my family and millions of my friends are on the world. We shall never forget it and just like me they will always respect and admire this great country that freed the world from the Nazi tyranny. I would like to thank you all for coming here tonight and honoring me. I'm sure that your presence is also an expression of honor to the memory of those who did not survive that merciless time. So let me ask one thing of you. Please help this center which carries my name survive and continue his work. God bless you and God bless America.