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| 1 | HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, On September 1, 1939 Poland was invaded by | ||||||
| 3 | Germany, and although Russian signed a pact against Germany and | ||||||
| 4 | promised to help Poland, they failed to keep that promise and | ||||||
| 5 | attacked Poland on September 17, 1939; and
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| 6 | WHEREAS, Approximately 250,000 soldiers of the defeated | ||||||
| 7 | Polish army who fled east were detained without resistance by | ||||||
| 8 | advancing Soviet troops and were sent to a prison camp in | ||||||
| 9 | Kozielsk; and
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| 10 | WHEREAS, The prisoners, which included lawyers and other | ||||||
| 11 | Polish professionals in addition to thousands of military | ||||||
| 12 | reserve officers, were methodically shot at sites in Western | ||||||
| 13 | Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in April and May of 1940; and
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| 14 | WHEREAS, Those killed numbered 21,857, according to a | ||||||
| 15 | since-released internal 1959 Soviet memorandum, and in 1943, | ||||||
| 16 | the German Army found a pit in the Katyn forest in Russia, | ||||||
| 17 | where they exhumed the remains of more than 4,000 Polish | ||||||
| 18 | officers, which became a propaganda coup for the Germans; and
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| 19 | WHEREAS, Although a United States Congressional committee | ||||||
| 20 | confirmed that the Soviets were responsible in 1952, little was | ||||||
| 21 | done to acknowledge the Katyn Massacre, though in 1990, Mikhail | ||||||
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| 1 | Gorbachev approved an item from the state news agency | ||||||
| 2 | acknowledging Soviet responsibility; and | ||||||
| 3 | WHEREAS, Wojciech Seweryn was an immigrant from Poland who | ||||||
| 4 | was born on the first day of World War II and whose father was a | ||||||
| 5 | reserve infantry officer for the Polish army; and | ||||||
| 6 | WHEREAS, Wojciech's father, Mieczyslaw, was part of the | ||||||
| 7 | 250,000 defeated soldiers that were sent to the camp in | ||||||
| 8 | Kozielsk and killed in the Katyn forest; and | ||||||
| 9 | WHEREAS, Wojciech came to the United States and found a | ||||||
| 10 | home in Chicago, where he devoted his time to educate the | ||||||
| 11 | Polish community about what happened in the Katyn forest; and | ||||||
| 12 | WHEREAS, Wojciech for 40 years dreamed of building a | ||||||
| 13 | monument to honor the victims of the Katyn Massacre, and | ||||||
| 14 | realized that dream in May 2007, when a monument to honor the | ||||||
| 15 | victims was completed in Niles, Illinois; and | ||||||
| 16 | WHEREAS, Wojciech served as Grand Marshal for the Polish | ||||||
| 17 | Parade in 2007 and in the crowning moment of his life, he was | ||||||
| 18 | invited by the Polish President Lech Kaczynski to fly with him | ||||||
| 19 | and other leaders to Katyn on April 10, 2010; and | ||||||
| 20 | WHEREAS, On the way to the ceremony in Katyn, the plane | ||||||
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| 1 | crashed, killing all passengers on board; therefore, be it
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| 2 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | ||||||
| 3 | NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE | ||||||
| 4 | SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, we designate a portion of Milwaukee | ||||||
| 5 | Avenue from Albion Avenue to Gross Pointe Road in Chicago, | ||||||
| 6 | Illinois the Wojciech M. Seweryn Memorial Road; and be it | ||||||
| 7 | further
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| 8 | RESOLVED, That the Illinois Department of Transportation
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| 9 | is requested to erect at suitable locations, consistent with
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| 10 | State regulations, plaques or signs giving notice of the name; | ||||||
| 11 | and be it further | ||||||
| 12 | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | ||||||
| 13 | presented to the Illinois Secretary of Transportation and to | ||||||
| 14 | the family of Wojciech Seweryn.
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