[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 48 (Thursday, March 12, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S1744]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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   SENATE RESOLUTION 542--COMMEMORATING THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
    LIBERATION OF THE DACHAU CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING WORLD WAR II

  Mr. GARDNER (for himself, Ms. Sinema, Ms. McSally, Mr. Bennet, and 
Mr. Inhofe) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 542

       Whereas the Dachau concentration camp, established in March 
     1933--
       (1) was the first concentration camp established by the 
     German National Socialist, or ``Nazi'', government; and
       (2) operated continuously until the end of World War II in 
     1945;
       Whereas the Dachau concentration camp housed Germans who 
     were deemed political, racial, or social threats by the Nazi 
     regime, including Communists, Social Democrats, Jews, Roma, 
     members of the clergy, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other 
     religious and cultural minorities;
       Whereas, in addition to Germans, prisoners at the Dachau 
     concentration camp included Poles, Hungarians, Austrians, 
     Italians, Lithuanians, Czechs, Slovenes, Belgians, and other 
     foreign nationals from countries occupied or invaded by 
     Germany;
       Whereas the Nazis imprisoned more than 200,000 civilians in 
     the Dachau concentration camp and the more than 100 subcamps 
     of the Dachau concentration camp;
       Whereas the Nazis murdered tens of thousands of innocent 
     civilians at the Dachau concentration camp, one of many camps 
     where the Nazis brutally killed millions of people, including 
     6,000,000 Jews, during the Holocaust;
       Whereas the Nazis tortured and conducted medical 
     experiments on civilian prisoners at the Dachau concentration 
     camp, including by--
       (1) subjecting the prisoners to pressure extremes;
       (2) submersing the prisoners in freezing water;
       (3) forcing the prisoners to drink salt water; and
       (4) infecting the prisoners with malaria;
       Whereas the Nazis subjected civilian prisoners at the 
     Dachau concentration camp to forced labor--
       (1) first for the initial construction and expansion of the 
     camp; and
       (2) later primarily for armaments production to supply the 
     German military;
       Whereas, following the advance of Allied Forces, the Nazi 
     regime began the systematic transfer of prisoners from 
     evacuated concentration camps to the Dachau concentration 
     camp for continued imprisonment;
       Whereas, in December 1943, Dwight D. Eisenhower was 
     appointed as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary 
     Forces and led the formal coordination of the Allied Forces, 
     with the mission to liberate Europe;
       Whereas, on April 29, 1945, the 45th Infantry 
     ``Thunderbird'' Division of the Seventh Army of the United 
     States (referred to in this preamble as the ``45th Infantry 
     Division''), under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Felix 
     Sparks, member of the Colorado Army National Guard and 
     Commander of the Third Battalion of the 157th Infantry 
     Regiment of the 45th Infantry Division, along with units of 
     the 42nd Infantry Division and the 20th Armored Division, led 
     the liberation of the main Dachau concentration camp;
       Whereas the 45th Infantry Division--
       (1) was composed of National Guard units from Colorado, 
     Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico; and
       (2) deployed in June 1943 in support of the Allied Forces 
     during World War II;
       Whereas, in the European theater of operation, the 45th 
     Infantry Division suffered--
       (1) 1,831 deaths in battle; and
       (2) 7,791 casualties;
       Whereas, in 1985, the United States Army Center of Military 
     History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 
     honored the 45th Infantry Division with recognition as a 
     ``liberating unit''; and
       Whereas commemoration of the liberation of the Dachau 
     concentration camp will instill in all people of the United 
     States a greater awareness of the unspeakable tragedies of 
     the Holocaust: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) commemorates April 29, 2020, as the 75th anniversary of 
     the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp during World 
     War II;
       (2) condemns the crimes against humanity committed by the 
     Nazi regime; and
       (3) recognizes the valorous efforts of the 45th Infantry 
     Division, the 42nd Infantry Division, and the 20th Armored 
     Division of the Seventh Army of the United States in the 
     liberation of the thousands of individuals imprisoned at the 
     Dachau concentration camp.

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