January 21, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 12 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Pages S437-S438]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   SENATE RESOLUTION 481--COMMEMORATING THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 LIBERATION OF THE AUSCHWITZ EXTERMINATION CAMP IN NAZI-OCCUPIED POLAND

  Ms. ROSEN (for herself, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Cramer, and 
Mr. Cardin) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 481

       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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