IV 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 300 
Expressing support for the designation of August 23, 2019, as Black Ribbon 
Day to recognize the victims of Soviet and Nazi regimes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 9, 2019 
Mr. SHIMKUS (for himself and Mr. SCHIFF) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Reform 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing support for the designation of August 23, 2019, 
as Black Ribbon Day to recognize the victims of Soviet 
and Nazi regimes. 
Whereas, on August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi 
Germany pledged mutual nonaggression through the 
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which divided Eastern Europe 
into two spheres of interest in their illicit bilateral nego-
tiations; 
Whereas this notorious agreement and the Friendship and 
the Border Treaty on September 28, 1939, allowed both 
the Soviets and the Nazis to divide and occupy Poland 
in September 1939 and to occupy the three Baltic States 
of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia in June 1940; 
Whereas the United States refused to recognize the Soviet 
Union’s forcible occupation of the Baltic States, and con-
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sistently recognized the independence of Estonia, Lith-
uania, and Latvia through the Welles Declaration on 
July 23, 1940; 
Whereas, on August 13, 1941, the United States Government 
signed the Atlantic Charter to make certain common 
principles in the national policies of their respective coun-
tries for a better future of the world, including ‘‘the right 
of all peoples to choose the form of government under 
which they will live and self government restored to those 
who have been forcibly deprived of them’’ and that the 
people of countries may live in freedom; 
Whereas the United States Government has actively advo-
cated for and continues to support the principles by the 
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights 
and the United Nations General Assembly resolution 260 
(III) of December 9, 1948; 
Whereas Captive Nations Week, signed into law (Public Law 
86–90) by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1959, 
raised public awareness of the oppression of nations 
under the control of Communist and other nondemocratic 
governments; 
Whereas the European Parliament resolution on European 
conscience and totalitarianism of April 2, 2009, estab-
lished a day of remembrance for victims of Soviet and 
Nazi regimes to remember and commemorate their vic-
tims; 
Whereas the extreme forms of totalitarian rule practiced by 
the Nazi and Soviet dictatorships led to premeditated and 
vast crimes committed against millions of human beings 
and their basic and inalienable rights on a scale unseen 
before in history; 
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Whereas hundreds of thousands of human beings, fleeing the 
crimes perpetrated by the Nazi and Soviet regimes 
sought and found refuge in the United States; 
Whereas millions of Americans of Baltic and Eastern and 
Central European descent who personally fled or whose 
families fled those regimes have made unique and signifi-
cant cultural, economic, social, and other contributions to 
help build the United States; 
Whereas the members of Baltic Way, a peaceful political 
demonstration uniting two million people in their quest 
for independence of the Baltic States on August 23, 
1989, joined hands and formed a human chain from 
Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius, launching a new chapter 
in the history of the Baltic States and leaving behind the 
bitter legacy of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact; 
Whereas August 23 would be an appropriate date to des-
ignate as Black Ribbon Day to remember and never for-
get the terror millions of citizens of the Baltic countries, 
Central Europe, and Eastern Europe countries experi-
enced for over half a century by ruthless military, eco-
nomic, and political repression, including arbitrary execu-
tions, mass arrests, deportations, the suppression of free 
speech, confiscation of private property, and the destruc-
tion of cultural and moral identity and civil society, all 
of which deprived individuals of their basic human rights 
and dignity; and 
Whereas the memories of Europe’s tragic past cannot be for-
gotten and it is right to honor the victims, condemn the 
perpetrators, and lay the foundation for reconciliation 
based on truth and remembrance: Now, therefore, be it 
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