Merkel honors Holocaust victims in speech to Congress

German Chancellor Angela Merkel honored the memory of Holocaust victims in a speech to Congress.

“I cannot stand before you today without remembering the victims of this day and of the Shoah,” said Merkel, who described the Holocaust as a “break with civilization.”

Her address Tuesday to a joint session of the U.S. Congress thanked the United States for its efforts in Germany since the end of World War II. Merkel expressed her own admiration for the American dream, which she described as “the opportunity for everyone to be successful, to make it in life through their own personal effort.”

The chancellor also stressed the Iranian threat. “Not just Israel is threatened, but the whole of the free world is threatened. Whoever threatens Israel, threatens us,” she said.

Merkel is the second German chancellor to address Congress and the first to address a joint session.