SR1407 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR1407 LRB100 20455 MST 36059 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Polish President Andrzej Duda recently signed a law that would impose jail terms for suggesting that the country of Poland was complicit in crimes against humanity committed on Polish soil during the Holocaust; and

WHEREAS, Over three million of Poland's 3.4 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, accounting for about half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust across the continent of Europe; and

WHEREAS, Jews were killed in death camps operated by Germany in Poland, including Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibor; and

WHEREAS, Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, has stated that "One cannot change history, and the Holocaust cannot be denied"; and

WHEREAS, About 6,700 Poles were in fact commemorated by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial for rescuing Jews, the largest number in any country; and

WHEREAS, This legislation is an attempt to whitewash history; and

WHEREAS, The concept of "Never Forget" should be instilled upon all people; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we strongly condemn this legislation signed by the President of Poland, as freedom of speech must never be a crime; by speaking freely about the history of the Holocaust, we help assure that such atrocities will never happen again.