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R E S O L U T I O N
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WHEREAS, January 27, 2019, marks the 74th anniversary of the |
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liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camp, |
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a place that has come to symbolize for people around the world the |
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evils of the German Nazi regime and its reign of violence and terror |
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across Europe; and |
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WHEREAS, After the onset of World War II, German chancellor |
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Adolf Hitler put into action the "Final Solution," a plan that |
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escalated his state-enforced policy of oppression of Jewish |
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citizens and other targeted groups into a campaign of mass murder; |
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Auschwitz-Birkenau, which opened in the spring of 1940, was the |
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largest of the Nazi concentration and death camps, consisting of |
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several facilities and subcamps where a total of at least 1.1 |
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million people ultimately lost their lives; and |
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WHEREAS, By mid-1942, the majority of those being imprisoned |
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at Auschwitz-Birkenau were Jews; detainees who were considered |
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unfit for work, including pregnant women, young children, the |
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elderly, and the infirm, were executed upon arrival, while others |
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went on to die from overwork, disease, poor nutrition, or arbitrary |
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acts of violence carried out by the guards; some prisoners were |
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subjected to inhumane and often fatal experiments conducted by |
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Josef Mengele and other Nazi researchers; and |
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WHEREAS, In 1944, with Allied forces closing in, |
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Auschwitz-Birkenau commandants began destroying evidence of the |
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atrocities that had taken place at the camp; the Germans ordered an |
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evacuation of the compound in January 1945, forcing tens of |
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thousands of prisoners to embark on death marches that would claim |
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many lives through exposure, starvation, or exhaustion; the Soviet |
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Army arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau as liberators on January 27 and |
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found more than 7,500 sick or emaciated detainees who had been left |
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behind, along with the remains and belongings of other victims of |
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the camp's brutality; the vast majority of the deceased were Jews, |
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and an additional 70,000 to 80,000 Poles and 19,000 to 20,000 Roma |
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were also counted in estimates of the dead; and |
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WHEREAS, Today, the anniversary of the liberation of |
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Auschwitz-Birkenau is observed as International Holocaust |
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Remembrance Day, an annual day for the world to memorialize the six |
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million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and the millions of other |
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victims of Nazism and to develop educational programs aimed at |
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preventing genocide; only through a true understanding of this |
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horrific chapter of history can we recognize and confront the |
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forces of hatred and intolerance, wherever they may manifest, and |
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work together toward a more hopeful future; now, therefore, be it |
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RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 86th Texas |
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Legislature hereby commemorate the 74th anniversary of the |
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liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camp |
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and the observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on |
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January 27, 2019. |