82R25102 CBE-D
By: Gonzalez H.R. No. 1764
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, The El Paso Holocaust Museum and Study Center
honored the memory of Holocaust victims and celebrated the
community's Holocaust survivors on May 1, 2011, in conjunction with
National Holocaust Remembrance Week, which began that day; and
WHEREAS, Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany carried out the
systematic persecution and annihilation of six million European
Jews, as well as millions of other people, including Roma, Poles,
disabled individuals, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Soviet
prisoners of war, and political dissidents; and
WHEREAS, Since 1980, when the United States Congress
established the Days of Remembrance, Americans have joined together
for Yom HaShoah to reflect on the horrific events that occurred
during those dark years and to educate others and work to create a
more peaceful world; and
WHEREAS, At one time, El Paso was home to more than 80 people
who had survived the suffering of the Holocaust; although many have
since died, the residents who remain are among the city's most
treasured citizens; and
WHEREAS, These include: Tom Dula, a native of Czechoslovakia
who was helped by non-Jewish farmers; Guy Hauptman, a native of
Belgium who was sheltered by friends, family, and a Christian
orphanage before being reunited with his parents after the war; Mr.
Hauptman's mother, Sara Rozen Hauptman, a native of Poland and a
survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau; David Kaplan, a native
of Lithuania who worked in Nazi factories and survived two
concentration camps and two death marches; and El Paso Holocaust
Museum and Study Center founder Henry Kellen, a native of Poland who
escaped the Kovno Ghetto in Lithuania, along with his wife and
nephew, and was hidden by a Christian farmer; and
WHEREAS, Additional local survivors are: Samuel Kessel, a
native of Lithuania and a survivor of the Stutthof and Dachau
concentration camps; Irene Osborne, a native of Germany who
survived two concentration camps and later lived with family in
France under a false identity; Albert Rosenberg, a native of
Germany who survived a severe beating before immigrating to the
United States and serving in the military's psychological warfare
division; Erik Saks, a native of Austria who escaped with his family
to Italy and eventually to the United States, where he enlisted in
the army; Charlie Saul, who traveled with his family from Burma,
where his father worked, to Calcutta, India, after Japan invaded
Burma; Tibor Schaechner, a native of Hungary who hid with his mother
and sister in safe houses before being forced into the Budapest
Ghetto; Peter Shugart, also a native of Hungary who survived the
Budapest Ghetto; and Lee Schweitzer, a native of Austria who moved
to Palestine to live with relatives and then immigrated to the
United States, where he was drafted into the army; and
WHEREAS, Through their courage to come forward and share
their painful past, these remarkable men and women make El Paso a
better place in which to live, and their stories serve as powerful
reminders to stand firm against all forms of injustice; now,
therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 82nd Texas
Legislature hereby commemorate the 2011 El Paso Holocaust Museum
and Study Center Yom HaShoah and extend sincere gratitude to all
those associated with the event for their efforts to educate others
about the Holocaust.