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1
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 25

 
2    WHEREAS, On September 1, 1939 Poland was invaded by
3Germany, and although Russia signed a pact against Germany and
4promised to help Poland, they failed to keep that promise and
5attacked Poland on September 17, 1939; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Approximately 250,000 soldiers of the defeated
7Polish army who fled east were detained without resistance by
8advancing Soviet troops and were sent to a prison camp in
9Kozielsk; and
 
10    WHEREAS, The prisoners, which included lawyers and other
11Polish professionals in addition to thousands of military
12reserve officers, were methodically shot at sites in Western
13Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in April and May of 1940; and
 
14    WHEREAS, Those killed numbered 21,857, according to a
15since-released internal 1959 Soviet memorandum, and in 1943,
16the German Army found a pit in the Katyn forest in Russia,
17where they exhumed the remains of more than 4,000 Polish
18officers, which became a propaganda coup for the Germans; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Although a United States Congressional committee
20confirmed that the Soviets were responsible in 1952, little was
21done to acknowledge the Katyn Massacre, though in 1990, Mikhail

 

 

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1Gorbachev approved an item from the state news agency
2acknowledging Soviet responsibility; and
 
3    WHEREAS, Wojciech Seweryn was an immigrant from Poland who
4was born on the first day of World War II and whose father was a
5reserve infantry officer for the Polish army; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Wojciech's father, Mieczyslaw, was part of the
7250,000 defeated soldiers that were sent to the camp in
8Kozielsk and killed in the Katyn forest; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Wojciech came to the United States and found a
10home in Chicago, where he devoted his time to educate the
11Polish community about what happened in the Katyn forest; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Wojciech for 40 years dreamed of building a
13monument to honor the victims of the Katyn Massacre, and
14realized that dream in May 2007, when a monument to honor the
15victims was completed in Niles, Illinois; and
 
16    WHEREAS, Wojciech served as Grand Marshal for the Polish
17Parade in 2007 and in the crowning moment of his life, he was
18invited by the Polish President Lech Kaczynski to fly with him
19and 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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1crashed, killing all passengers on board; therefore, be it
 
2    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
3NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE
4SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, we designate a portion of Milwaukee
5Avenue from Albion Avenue to Harts Road in Niles, Illinois the
6Wojciech M. Seweryn Memorial Road; and be it further
 
7    RESOLVED, That the Illinois Department of Transportation
8is requested to erect at suitable locations, consistent with
9State regulations, plaques or signs giving notice of the name;
10and be it further
 
11    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
12presented to the Illinois Secretary of Transportation, to the
13Mayor of Niles, and to the family of Wojciech Seweryn.