[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 481 Agreed to Senate (ATS)]
<DOC>
116th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 481
Commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz
extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
January 21, 2020
Ms. Rosen (for herself, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Cramer, Mr.
Cardin, Mr. Jones, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Scott of South Carolina, Mrs. Hyde-
Smith, Ms. Collins, Mr. Hawley, Ms. Cortez Masto, Mr. Romney, Mr. Van
Hollen, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Kaine, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Booker, Mr.
Schumer, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Carper, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Reed, Mrs.
Shaheen, Mr. Markey, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Coons, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Braun,
Mr. Casey, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Bennet, Ms. McSally, Ms.
Klobuchar, Mr. Blunt, Mrs. Murray, Ms. Baldwin, Mrs. Feinstein, Ms.
Hassan, Ms. Sinema, Mr. Brown, Mr. Toomey, Mr. Scott of Florida, Mr.
Rounds, Mr. Warner, Mr. Gardner, Ms. Smith, Mr. Young, Mr. Cotton, Mr.
King, Mr. Peters, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Cruz, and Mrs.
Blackburn) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Foreign Relations
February 24, 2020
Committee discharged; considered and agreed to
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz
extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Whereas, during World War II, the Nazi regime and its collaborators
systematically murdered 6,000,000 Jews and millions of other
individuals;
Whereas the Auschwitz concentration camp complex in Nazi-occupied Poland, which
included a killing center at Birkenau, was the largest death camp
complex established by the Nazi regime;
Whereas, on January 27, 1945, the Auschwitz extermination camp was liberated by
Allied Forces during World War II, after almost 5 years of murder, rape,
and torture at the camp;
Whereas nearly 1,300,000 innocent civilians were deported to Auschwitz from
their homes across Eastern and Western Europe, particularly from
Hungary, Poland, and France;
Whereas nearly 1,100,000 innocent civilians were murdered at the Auschwitz
extermination camp between 1940 and 1945;
Whereas at least 960,000 of the nearly 1,100,000 murdered people were Jewish;
Whereas the more than 100,000 other victims who perished at Auschwitz included
non-Jewish Poles, Romani people, Soviet civilians and prisoners of war,
Afro-Germans, Jehovah's Witnesses, people with disabilities, gay men and
women, and other ethnic minorities;
Whereas these innocent civilians were subjected to torture, forced labor,
starvation, rape, medical experiments, and being separated from loved
ones;
Whereas the names of many of these innocent civilians who perished have been
lost forever;
Whereas the Auschwitz extermination camp symbolizes the extraordinary brutality
of the Holocaust;
Whereas the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum teaches about and promotes
remembrance of the Holocaust;
Whereas the people of the United States must never forget the terrible crimes
against humanity committed at the Auschwitz extermination camp;
Whereas the people of the United States must educate future generations to
promote understanding of the dangers of intolerance in order to prevent
similar injustices, including acts of violent anti-Semitism, from
happening again;
Whereas, in recent years, there has been an increase in the number and intensity
of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States and around the world;
Whereas hate crime statistics collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
demonstrate a marked rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the United States
over the past several years, and the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat
Anti-Semitism of the Department of State recently stated that the Jewish
people worldwide are facing the worst wave of anti-Semitism since the
Holocaust;
Whereas, in 2018, the United States experienced the single deadliest attack
against the Jewish community in the history of the United States with
the murder of 11 individuals at the Tree of Life synagogue in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;
Whereas the attack in Pittsburgh was followed in 2019 by a vicious anti-Semitic
attack in Poway, California, and later, by a series of violent attacks
against the Orthodox Jewish community in the State of New York; and
Whereas, especially in a period of rising anti-Semitism, commemoration of the
liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp will instill in all
people of the United States a greater awareness of the Holocaust and
knowledge of the horrors brought upon by the Nazi regime's systematic
murder of 6,000,000 Jews and millions of other innocent individuals:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) commemorates January 27, 2020, as the 75th anniversary
of the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp by Allied
Forces during World War II;
(2) calls on all people of the United States to remember
the 1,100,000 innocent victims murdered at the Auschwitz
extermination camp as part of the Holocaust, the 6,000,000 Jews
killed throughout the Holocaust, and all of the victims of the
Nazi reign of terror;
(3) honors the legacy of the survivors of the Holocaust and
of the Auschwitz extermination camp;
(4) calls on the people of the United States to continue to
work toward tolerance, peace, and justice and to continue to
work to end all genocide and persecution; and
(5) recommits to combatting all forms of anti-Semitism.
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