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R E S O L U T I O N
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WHEREAS, The El Paso Holocaust Museum and Study Center |
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honored the memory of Holocaust victims and celebrated the |
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community's Holocaust survivors on May 1, 2011, in conjunction with |
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National Holocaust Remembrance Week, which began that day; and |
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WHEREAS, Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany carried out the |
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systematic persecution and annihilation of six million European |
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Jews, as well as millions of other people, including Roma, Poles, |
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disabled individuals, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Soviet |
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prisoners of war, and political dissidents; and |
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WHEREAS, Since 1980, when the United States Congress |
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established the Days of Remembrance, Americans have joined together |
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for Yom HaShoah to reflect on the horrific events that occurred |
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during those dark years and to educate others and work to create a |
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more peaceful world; and |
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WHEREAS, At one time, El Paso was home to more than 80 people |
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who had survived the suffering of the Holocaust; although many have |
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since died, the residents who remain are among the city's most |
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treasured citizens; and |
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WHEREAS, These include: Tom Dula, a native of Czechoslovakia |
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who was helped by non-Jewish farmers; Guy Hauptman, a native of |
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Belgium who was sheltered by friends, family, and a Christian |
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orphanage before being reunited with his parents after the war; Mr. |
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Hauptman's mother, Sara Rozen Hauptman, a native of Poland and a |
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survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau; David Kaplan, a native |
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of Lithuania who worked in Nazi factories and survived two |
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concentration camps and two death marches; and El Paso Holocaust |
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Museum and Study Center founder Henry Kellen, a native of Poland who |
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escaped the Kovno Ghetto in Lithuania, along with his wife and |
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nephew, and was hidden by a Christian farmer; and |
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WHEREAS, Additional local survivors are: Samuel Kessel, a |
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native of Lithuania and a survivor of the Stutthof and Dachau |
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concentration camps; Irene Osborne, a native of Germany who |
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survived two concentration camps and later lived with family in |
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France under a false identity; Albert Rosenberg, a native of |
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Germany who survived a severe beating before immigrating to the |
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United States and serving in the military's psychological warfare |
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division; Erik Saks, a native of Austria who escaped with his family |
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to Italy and eventually to the United States, where he enlisted in |
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the army; Charlie Saul, who traveled with his family from Burma, |
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where his father worked, to Calcutta, India, after Japan invaded |
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Burma; Tibor Schaechner, a native of Hungary who hid with his mother |
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and sister in safe houses before being forced into the Budapest |
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Ghetto; Peter Shugart, also a native of Hungary who survived the |
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Budapest Ghetto; and Lee Schweitzer, a native of Austria who moved |
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to Palestine to live with relatives and then immigrated to the |
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United States, where he was drafted into the army; and |
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WHEREAS, Through their courage to come forward and share |
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their painful past, these remarkable men and women make El Paso a |
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better place in which to live, and their stories serve as powerful |
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reminders to stand firm against all forms of injustice; now, |
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therefore, be it |
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RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 82nd Texas |
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Legislature hereby commemorate the 2011 El Paso Holocaust Museum |
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and Study Center Yom HaShoah and extend sincere gratitude to all |
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those associated with the event for their efforts to educate others |
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about the Holocaust. |