[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 481 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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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, and Mr. 
 Cardin) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               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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