Full Text of SR0984 102nd General Assembly
SR0984 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | SENATE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened | 3 | | to learn of the death of Tema "Temcia" (Posalska) Bauer of | 4 | | Morton Grove, who passed away on March 23, 2022 at the age of | 5 | | 105; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, Tema Bauer was born to Hendel and Chil Posalska | 7 | | in Lodz, Poland on May 5, 1916; she was the youngest of nine | 8 | | children; her siblings were Shmiel, Frania, Gutcha, Yosef, | 9 | | Barrish, Herschel, Mania, and Sarah; and
| 10 | | WHEREAS, When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, Tema | 11 | | Bauer's siblings decided to move their parents to a smaller | 12 | | town, thinking it might be safer; she intended to close the | 13 | | family home and follow them, but she was ordered into the | 14 | | Jewish ghetto in Lodz while her relatives were sent to | 15 | | Chelmno, which was the first stationary facility where poison | 16 | | gas was used to mass murder Jews; she never again saw the 38 | 17 | | members of her family, which included her parents, her | 18 | | siblings, their husbands and wives, and her 21 nieces and | 19 | | nephews; and
| 20 | | WHEREAS, Tema Bauer worked in a kitchen and then at a shoe | 21 | | factory in the Lodz Ghetto; she underwent a three-day train | 22 | | journey in 1943, where she stood in a packed car with no room |
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| 1 | | to sit, no water, no food, and no bathroom facilities, before | 2 | | arriving at the slave labor camp Skarzysko-Kamienna; she was | 3 | | then sent to a factory in Leipzig, Germany, where she was | 4 | | forced to make munitions alongside other slave laborers; she | 5 | | was seriously injured by bombing and survived thanks to two | 6 | | Jewish doctors, who amputated her right arm above her elbow | 7 | | without anesthesia or antibiotics, causing her to lose her | 8 | | dominant hand in the process; two months after she lost her | 9 | | arm, she was ordered on a six-day death march with other women | 10 | | laborers toward the Elbe River in 1945; she was liberated | 11 | | after her Nazi captors fled due to Allied forces drawing near; | 12 | | and
| 13 | | WHEREAS, Tema Bauer returned to Lodz, seeking news of her | 14 | | family; while there, she reunited with Morris "Moishe" Bauer, | 15 | | a fellow Holocaust survivor who had survived at least seven | 16 | | camps due in part to his skills as a cobbler and who, like her, | 17 | | was also the sole survivor of his family; they married in 1945; | 18 | | they then went to a displaced-persons camp in Germany, where | 19 | | she was determined to prove that she could do with one hand | 20 | | what any other wife could do with two and received an award one | 21 | | month for having the cleanest home in the camp; they had their | 22 | | first son, Jerry, while at the camp in 1948; and
| 23 | | WHEREAS, Alongside her young family, Tema Bauer emigrated | 24 | | to the United States through Ellis Island, settling in Chicago |
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| 1 | | in 1949; they lived on Grenshaw Street on the West Side for | 2 | | approximately eight months before settling in East Rogers | 3 | | Park; her husband borrowed $1,758.38 from the Jewish Family | 4 | | and Community Service organization to open a shoe-repair shop | 5 | | on Devon Avenue, which they paid back in 1956; they had their | 6 | | second son, Michael, in 1952; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, Tema Bauer and her husband Morris remained an | 8 | | inseparable team, devoted to one another and their growing | 9 | | family; after her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's | 10 | | disease, she cared for him for the last eight years of his life | 11 | | until his death in 1995; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, Tema Bauer was affectionately known as "Mama | 13 | | Tema" to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who she | 14 | | would kvell over, attending every birthday party, bar and bat | 15 | | mitzvah, graduation, recital, sports event, and wedding; she | 16 | | was a skilled cook known for her kreplach, borscht, chicken | 17 | | matzoh ball soup, mandel bread, cinnamon-scented kugel and | 18 | | apple slices, and gefilte fish; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, Tema Bauer was one of the oldest Holocaust | 20 | | survivors in Illinois at the time of her passing, and she will | 21 | | be remembered for her wisdom, courage, and inner strength, the | 22 | | remarkable qualities of her extraordinary life; her story will | 23 | | live on through the oral history interview she provided on |
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| 1 | | November 8, 1992 to the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of | 2 | | Illinois, known today as the Illinois Holocaust Museum and | 3 | | Education Center, which is now part of the U.S. Holocaust | 4 | | Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, Tema Bauer was the beloved wife of the late | 6 | | Morris "Moishe" Bauer; the loving mother of Dr. Jerry | 7 | | (Adrienne) Bauer and the late Michael Bauer (Roger Simon); the | 8 | | adoring grandmother of Michelle (Stuart) Primack, Dr. Hillary | 9 | | Bauer-Cohen (Jeffrey Cohen), and Aaron (Lauren) Bauer; and the | 10 | | doting great-grandmother of Maya Primack, Mason Primack, Sasha | 11 | | Cohen, Jonah Cohen, Joshua Cohen, Olivia Bauer, and Miles | 12 | | Bauer; therefore, be it
| 13 | | RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL | 14 | | ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of | 15 | | Tema "Temcia" (Posalska) Bauer and extend our sincere | 16 | | condolences to her family, friends, and all who knew and loved | 17 | | her; and be it further
| 18 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 19 | | presented to the family of Tema Bauer as an expression of our | 20 | | deepest sympathy.
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