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1 HOUSE RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored
3 persecution and murder of six million European Jews by the
4 Nazi German regime and its allies and collaborators between
5 1933 and 1945; and
6 WHEREAS, In addition to perpetrating the Holocaust, Nazi
7 Germany also persecuted and murdered millions of other victims
8 using similar forms of state-sponsored terror; and
9 WHEREAS, Antisemitism, the hatred of or prejudice against
10 Jews, was at the foundation of the Holocaust and was a core
11 tenet of Nazi ideology; and
12 WHEREAS, The persecution of Jews in Germany and
13 German-controlled areas evolved between 1933 and 1945,
14 becoming increasingly radical and culminating in the mass
15 murder of six million Jewish people; and
16 WHEREAS, During World War II, Nazi Germany and its allies
17 and collaborators killed nearly two out of every three
18 European Jews using deadly living conditions, brutal
19 mistreatment, mass shootings and gassings, and specially
20 designed killing centers; and
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1 WHEREAS, Prior to the formal development of a campaign of
2 mass murder, Jews in Germany and German-controlled and aligned
3 territories faced persecution in various forms, including
4 public identification and exclusion, legal discrimination
5 through antisemitic laws, organized violence, physical
6 displacement, internment, theft, and forced labor; and
7 WHEREAS, Beginning in 1939, Nazi officials created ghettos
8 in cities and towns where Jewish people were isolated, forced
9 to live, and coerced to perform forced labor; thousands of
10 Jewish people living in ghettos died as a result of
11 starvation, rampant disease due to unsanitary conditions,
12 extreme temperatures, and exhaustion from forced labor; and
13 WHEREAS, In 1941, Nazi leaders began the last stage of the
14 Holocaust, a mass murder campaign involving mass shootings as
15 well as gassings at specially designed killing centers that
16 became known as extermination camps or death camps; the
17 majority of Jews who had been forced to live in ghettos were
18 murdered in mass shootings or after being forcibly relocated
19 to extermination centers; and
20 WHEREAS, The Holocaust ended in 1945 when the major Allied
21 Powers, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United
22 States, defeated Nazi Germany and its allies, moving across
23 Europe and liberating survivors from concentration camps; and
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1 WHEREAS, In 2005, the United Nations adopted Resolution
2 60/7, designating January 27 as International Holocaust
3 Remembrance Day to mark the anniversary of the liberation of
4 the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and extermination
5 center and to honor the six million Jewish victims of the
6 Holocaust and the millions of other victims of Nazism; and
7 WHEREAS, The year 2025 marks 80 years since the end of
8 World War II and the Holocaust, and the United Nations
9 Outreach Programme chose "Holocaust remembrance and education
10 for dignity and human rights" as its guiding theme for this
11 year; and
12 WHEREAS, The Holocaust shows what happens when hatred,
13 dehumanization, and apathy are allowed to destroy individual
14 dignity and human rights; and
15 WHEREAS, Holocaust remembrance safeguards the memories of
16 survivors and their testament of life before the Holocaust of
17 vibrant communities, traditions, hopes, dreams, and loved ones
18 who did not survive while recognizing the humanity and dignity
19 of the Jewish people and others who the Nazis and their
20 collaborators sought to destroy; and
21 WHEREAS, Holocaust remembrance is a bulwark against the
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1 denigration of humanity and a clarion call for action to
2 ensure respect for dignity and human rights; and
3 WHEREAS, Holocaust remembrance is a victory against the
4 Nazis and their collaborators and against all who would try to
5 continue their legacy through spreading hatred and Holocaust
6 distortion and denial into the 21st century; and
7 WHEREAS, In the spirit of remembrance and education,
8 Illinois became the first state in the United States to
9 require that public elementary schools and high schools
10 include Holocaust history and other cases of genocide in
11 school curriculum; therefore, be it
12 RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
13 HUNDRED FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
14 we honor the memory of the Jewish people who were victims of
15 the Holocaust and recognize the bravery of survivors who have
16 shared their stories with the world; and be it further
17 RESOLVED, That we honor the memory of the millions of
18 additional people, including prisoners of war, ethnic Poles,
19 Romani people, Serbian civilians, people with disabilities,
20 political opponents and dissenters, people labeled as asocial,
21 Jehovah's Witnesses, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,
22 and Black Germans, who were persecuted and murdered by the
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1 Nazi state and their collaborators; and be it further
2 RESOLVED, That we express gratitude for the soldiers,
3 resistance fighters, and all those who helped defeat the Nazi
4 regime and end the Holocaust; and be it further
5 RESOLVED, That we express gratitude for the American
6 soldiers who fought around the world during World War II,
7 including the over 980,000 men and women from Illinois who
8 served in the U.S. Armed Forces and the approximately 22,000
9 who gave their lives in pursuit of liberty; and be it further
10 RESOLVED, That we express gratitude for the American
11 forces that liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp on
12 April 11, 1945, and who would go on that month to liberate
13 concentration camps at Dachau, Dora-Mittelbau, and Flossenburg
14 before liberating Mauthausen in early May 1945; and be it
15 further
16 RESOLVED, That we urge all Illinoisans to commit to
17 learning about the Holocaust in order to ensure that such
18 atrocities are never perpetrated again; and be it further
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