[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1743 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1743

 Congratulating Gerda Weissmann Klein on being selected to receive the 
                     Presidential Medal of Freedom.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            December 1, 2010

  Mr. Mitchell (for himself and Mrs. Schmidt) submitted the following 
   resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and 
                           Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Congratulating Gerda Weissmann Klein on being selected to receive the 
                     Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Whereas Gerda Weissmann was born in Bielsko, Poland in 1924;
Whereas within months of the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Ms. Weissmann's 
        brother Arthur was taken away by the Germans and the remainder of her 
        family was forced to live in a ghetto;
Whereas Ms. Weissmann was soon separated from her parents, who were sent to 
        Auschwitz;
Whereas Ms. Weissmann was forced to spend the next 3 years in a succession of 
        slave-labor and concentration camps;
Whereas in 1945, Ms. Weissmann was forced to walk in a 350-mile death march 
        during which 2,000 women, including Ms. Weissmann, were subjected to 
        starvation, exposure, and arbitrary execution;
Whereas the death march ended in Volary, Czechoslovakia, when the survivors were 
        liberated by the United States Army;
Whereas Ms. Weissmann was one of less than 120 women to survive the death march;
Whereas one of the American Army officers who helped liberate the survivors was 
        German-born Lieutenant Kurt Klein, whose parents had been murdered in 
        Auschwitz;
Whereas Ms. Weissmann and Lieutenant Klein fell in love, got married, and moved 
        to the United States to start a family;
Whereas upon moving to the United States, Mrs. Weissmann Klein worked vigilantly 
        to promote Holocaust education and remembrance, teach tolerance, and 
        combat hunger;
Whereas Mrs. Weissmann Klein's first book, All But My Life, was published in 
        1957, and chronicles her courageous struggle for survival during the 
        Holocaust;
Whereas One Survivor Remembers, a documentary about Mrs. Weissmann Klein's 
        experiences during the Holocaust, won an Academy Award in 1996;
Whereas the Gerda and Kurt Klein Foundation, a public non-profit foundation, 
        promotes education which teaches tolerance, respect for others, and the 
        value of community service;
Whereas Mrs. Weissmann Klein's life and work have inspired generations of 
        Americans and countless individuals from around the world; and
Whereas, on November 17, 2010, President Barack Obama announced that Gerda 
        Weissmann Klein would be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives congratulates Gerda 
Weissmann Klein on being selected to receive the Presidential Medal of 
Freedom.
                                 <all>