House Resolution 13

(As Adopted by House)

A RESOLUTION DECLARING JANUARY 27, 2005, AS A DAY OF SOLEMN REMEMBRANCE, HONORING THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LIBERATION OF THE AUSCHWITZ CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN POLAND.

WHEREAS, the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp will be commemorated on January 27, 2005; and

WHEREAS, from 1940 to 1945, the Nazis deported over a million Jews, almost 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet POWs, and over 10,000 prisoners of other nationalities to Auschwitz. The overwhelming majority of them died in the camp; and

WHEREAS, as the Allied Forces approached, the SS evacuated the camp on January 17 and 18, 1945, marching tens of thousands of prisoners through the freezing cold to other concentration camps in Germany; and

WHEREAS, the uncounted numbers of prisoners who lost their lives while imprisoned at Auschwitz and during this march, illustrates unexceeded inhumanity to man and cruelty due to ethnic and religious persecution; and

WHEREAS, on January 27, 1945, soldiers of the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front reached Oswiecim, where more than 230 soldiers fell during the liberation fighting in the city and nearby areas and freeing about seven thousand prisoners awaiting liberation in the Auschwitz camps; and

WHEREAS, the inhumanity and vast disregard for the value of human life displayed by the acts of genocide, invokes our call to remember the millions that perished there and the great work of the Allies in World War II in destroying the Nazi death machine; and

WHEREAS, it is the policy of the House of Representatives of the State of Mississippi to recognize such profound dates of historical significance, and express a resounding commitment to guard against ethnic, racial or religious persecution of any group:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, That we do hereby declare January 27, 2005, as a solemn day of remembrance in recognition of the sixtieth anniversary commemorating the liberation of the Auschwitz Concentration Camps in Poland.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be furnished to the Mississippi Holocaust Commission and to the members of the Capitol Press Corps.