IV
104TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. RES. 398
Condemning the construction of a shopping center within the internationally
protected zone around the Auschwitz death camp in Poland.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 29, 1996
Mr. ENGEL (for himself, Mr. GILMAN, Mr. NADLER, Mr. SAXTON, Mr.
DEUTSCH, and Mr. MCNULTY) submitted the following resolution; which
was referred to the Committee on International Relations
RESOLUTION
Condemning the construction of a shopping center within
the internationally protected zone around the Auschwitz
death camp in Poland.
Whereas approximately 1,500,000 innocent civilians, pri-
marily Jews, but also including Gypsies, political oppo-
nents of Nazism, Poles, homosexuals, and others, were
murdered at the Auschwitz death camp during World
War II;
Whereas the Auschwitz death camp memorializes the brutal-
ity of the Holocaust;
Whereas the Polish Government is a signatory to the 1972
United Nations Convention on the Protection of World
Cultural and National Heritage pursuant to which the
Auschwitz death camp was designated as an ‘‘historical
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site and a place of human testimony’’ and an internation-
ally protected zone was established around the camp;
Whereas the Polish Government has a duty under inter-
national law to enforce a 1,600 foot protected zone
around the perimeter of the Auschwitz death camp in
which commercial development is prohibited;
Whereas authorities in the southern Polish town of Oswiecim
have granted a building permit for the construction of a
shopping center immediately opposite the gate of the
Auschwitz death camp;
Whereas Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and the
coalition government of Prime Minister Wlodziemierz
Cimoszewicz have condemned the proposed plan;
Whereas survivors of Auschwitz, Jewish leaders and organiza-
tions, and the State of Israel strongly object to this en-
terprise;
Whereas construction of the shopping center has been sus-
pended by Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski
pending the report of a special fact-finding mission;
Whereas pressure from the international community and the
Polish Government has persuaded the largest employer in
Oswiecim, Krak Chemia SA, to abandon its plans to run
the shopping center near the Auschwitz death camp; and
Whereas the service and trade enterprise that developed the
plans for the proposed shopping center, the Maja Foun-
dation, has not decided whether it will continue the devel-
opment of this project: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
(1) condemns in the strongest possible terms
the construction of the shopping center within the
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internationally protected zone around the Auschwitz
death camp as a violation of international legal con-
ventions signed by Poland and as a trivialization and
desecration of the site where more than 1,000,000
innocent people were murdered;
(2) calls upon the Government of Poland to
overrule local authorities, comply with its inter-
national legal obligations, and permanently halt
commercial construction at the Auschwitz death
camp;
(3) calls upon the Government of Poland to
permanently close the grounds within the inter-
nationally protected zone around the Auschwitz
death camp to any development;
(4) recognizes the special nature of the Ausch-
witz death camp and the sanctity of the ground
upon which it rests; and
(5) directs the Clerk of the House of Represent-
atives to convey a copy of this resolution to the
President of Poland.
Æ