Full Text of HJR0025 97th General Assembly
HJ0025eng 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 25
| 2 | | WHEREAS, On September 1, 1939 Poland was invaded by | 3 | | Germany, and although Russia 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
| 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
| 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
| 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
| 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
| 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 Harts Road in Niles, Illinois the | 6 | | Wojciech M. Seweryn Memorial Road; and be it further
| 7 | | RESOLVED, That the Illinois Department of Transportation
| 8 | | is requested to erect at suitable locations, consistent with
| 9 | | State regulations, plaques or signs giving notice of the name; | 10 | | and be it further | 11 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 12 | | presented to the Illinois Secretary of Transportation, to the | 13 | | Mayor of Niles, and to the family of Wojciech Seweryn.
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