SR0221 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0221 LRB095 12273 GRL 36794 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to learn of the death of Sandor Kirsche of Chicago, who passed away on April 27, 2007; and

WHEREAS, Sandor Kirsche was born with the surname Kirschenbaum on January 24, 1926 in Hluboka, in the former Czechoslovakia; he was buried on April 30, 2007 on Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem; and

WHEREAS, Sandor Kirsche was a survivor of the Holocaust; for the first years of World War II, Mr. Kirsche lived in Hluboka; he later left to find work in Budapest, where he remained until April 1944, when he returned home; on the day after Passover, Hluboka's Jews were rounded up and taken to a ghetto in Uzhgorod; on May 26, 1944, Mr. Kirsche and the others were put onto cattle cars and taken to Auschwitz; he remained there with his younger brother and father for about a week, until they were taken to Buchenwald; from there, the three were sent to Magdeburg, a town about 50 miles from Berlin, to work as slave laborers building concrete bunkers; he was sent back to Buchenwald in March 1945; in April 1945, he and some 2,000 others were sent from Buchenwald on a death march; this march ended abruptly when the Nazi guards fled the group, followed by the surrender of Germany to the Allies on May 7, 1945; and

WHEREAS, After the war, Sandor Kirsche attempted to travel to Palestine, a trip that fell through; he met a Yiddish-speaking American soldier from New York, who offered to help Mr. Kirsche find his relatives in Chicago; through a series of serendipitous occurrences, Mr. Kirsche and his new wife, Margit, were able to gain U.S. citizenship and make their way to Chicago; their first grocery store was in Humboldt Park; in 1971, Mr. Kirsche, with his son Ira, purchased a small deli meat market on Devon Avenue called Hungarian Kosher; he managed to bring his two older sisters and their families here from the Soviet Union in 1972; in 1985, Mr. Kirsche and his son moved the business to its present location in Skokie; as an enlarged, full-service supermarket, it may have been the first of its type in the country and became the largest in the Midwest; around 1993, a kosher wine department with an online presence, reputed to be the world's largest, was added; Mr. Kirsche's grandson Daniel joined the business around 2001; and

WHEREAS, Sandor and Margit Kirsche were recognized by Hillel Torah in Skokie as "Grandparents of the Year" in 1994; they were also honored by the Associated Talmud Torahs in 1999 on the occasion of the initiation of a Department of Holocaust Studies; and

WHEREAS, Sandor Kirsche is survived by his wife, Margit; his children, Ira Kirsche and Lynn Shapiro; and his numerous grandchildren, nieces, and nephews; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn, along with his family and friends, the passing of Sandor Kirsche; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Sandor Kirsche as an expression of our respect and sympathy.