IV 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 504 
Raising a question of the privileges of the House. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 20, 2011 
Ms. EDWARDS submitted the following resolution; which was laid on the table 
RESOLUTION 
Raising a question of the privileges of the House. 
Whereas an article on December 15, 2011, on the ‘‘Politico 
Pro’’ newspaper website quoted the Representative from 
Florida, Mr. West, as saying, ‘‘If Joseph Goebbels was 
around, he’d be very proud of the Democrat Party be-
cause they have an incredible propaganda machine. I 
think that you have, and let’s be honest, you know, some 
of the people in the media are complicit in this, in ena-
bling them to get that type of message out.’’; 
Whereas Joseph Goebbels served as the Third Reich’s Min-
ister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in Nazi 
Germany from 1933–1945; 
Whereas Joseph Goebbels openly used xenophobia and racism 
in his quest to dehumanize European Jewry; 
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•HRES 504 LTH 
Whereas Joseph Goebbels made Jews the scapegoat of Ger-
man economic insecurity, fostering flagrant anti-Semi-
tism; 
Whereas the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum re-
ports ‘‘that Joseph Goebbels delivered a passionate anti- 
Semitic speech to the Nazi party faithful in Munich on 
November 9, 1938 . . . After the speech, Nazi officials 
order the Storm Troopers (SA) and other party forma-
tions to attack Jews and to destroy their homes, busi-
nesses, and houses of worship. The violence against Jews 
lasts into the morning hours of November 10th, and be-
comes known as Kristallnacht—the ‘Night of Broken 
Glass’. Several dozen Jews lose their lives and tens of 
thousands are arrested and sent to concentration 
camps.’’; 
Whereas Nazi Germany and their collaborators killed six mil-
lion European Jews and millions of others as part of 
their ‘‘Final Solution’’; 
Whereas by invoking the specter of Joseph Goebbels, the 
Representative from Florida, Mr. West, thoroughly belit-
tles the horrors and suffering experienced by the victims 
and survivors of the Holocaust; 
Whereas the American Jewish Committee issued a December 
15, 2011, statement saying ‘‘To make a linkage between 
any mainstream political party in the United States and 
the heinous atrocities committed by the Third Reich 
should be simply beyond the pale, whatever political dif-
ferences may arise in a heated electoral season . . . By 
invoking the image of Joseph Goebbels and the Gestapo, 
Representative West has displayed a complete lack of un-
derstanding of the worst genocidal era in human history. 
Moreover, he has diminished and trivialized the unique 
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•HRES 504 LTH 
evil perpetrated by the Third Reich through his unfortu-
nate use of language’’; 
Whereas the Anti-Defamation League said in a December 16, 
2011, letter to the Representative from Florida, Mr. 
West, ‘‘We were deeply dismayed by Rep. West’s remark 
comparing the Democratic Party’s attempts to articulate 
views to the American people through the media to the 
efforts of the Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels 
. . . Such outrageous Holocaust analogies have no place 
in our political dialogue. They are offensive, they 
trivialize real historical events, and they diminish the 
memory of the six million Jews and millions of others 
who perished in the Holocaust’’; 
Whereas the Representative from Michigan, Mr. Conyers, 
wrote in a letter to the Representative from Florida, Mr. 
West, that the Representative from Florida should ‘‘help 
raise the level of congressional discourse in a vigorous de-
bate’’; 
Whereas the Representative from Florida, Mr. West, re-
sponded back in a letter to the Representative from 
Michigan, Mr. Conyers, that ‘‘The Democrat Party does 
indeed have a vicious propaganda machine, it espouses 
lies and deceit and the Master of deceptive information 
would be truly proud’’; 
Whereas in the repetition of this abhorrent and outrageous 
sentiment to the Representative from Michigan, Mr. Con-
yers, the Representative from Florida, Mr. West, dem-
onstrates 
not 
only 
the 
willful 
and 
malicious 
misapplication of history, but also his disdain for the de-
corum of the Congress; and 
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•HRES 504 LTH 
Whereas the conduct of the Representative from Florida was 
repugnant: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives dis-
approves of the behavior of the Representative from Flor-
ida, Mr. West, for bringing discredit to the House by of-
fending the memory of those who died during the Holo-
caust. 
Æ 
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