III 

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 Nazioccupied 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; 


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•SRES 481 IS 

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; 


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•SRES 481 IS 

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 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) commemorates January 27, 2020, as the 

3 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz 


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•SRES 481 IS 

1 extermination camp by Allied Forces during World 

2 War II; 

3 (2) calls on all people of the United States to 

4 remember the 1,100,000 innocent victims murdered 

5 at the Auschwitz extermination camp as part of the 

6 Holocaust, the 6,000,000 Jews killed throughout the 

7 Holocaust, and all of the victims of the Nazi reign 

8 of terror; 

9 (3) honors the legacy of the survivors of the 

10 Holocaust and of the Auschwitz extermination camp; 

11 (4) calls on the people of the United States to 

12 continue to work toward tolerance, peace, and jus13 tice and to continue to work to end all genocide and 

14 persecution; and 

15 (5) recommits to combatting all forms of anti16 Semitism. 

Æ 


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