HJ0025eng 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HJ0025 Engrossed LRB097 11373 HEP 53640 r

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 25

WHEREAS, On September 1, 1939 Poland was invaded by Germany, and although Russia signed a pact against Germany and promised to help Poland, they failed to keep that promise and attacked Poland on September 17, 1939; and

WHEREAS, Approximately 250,000 soldiers of the defeated Polish army who fled east were detained without resistance by advancing Soviet troops and were sent to a prison camp in Kozielsk; and

WHEREAS, The prisoners, which included lawyers and other Polish professionals in addition to thousands of military reserve officers, were methodically shot at sites in Western Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in April and May of 1940; and

WHEREAS, Those killed numbered 21,857, according to a since-released internal 1959 Soviet memorandum, and in 1943, the German Army found a pit in the Katyn forest in Russia, where they exhumed the remains of more than 4,000 Polish officers, which became a propaganda coup for the Germans; and

WHEREAS, Although a United States Congressional committee confirmed that the Soviets were responsible in 1952, little was done to acknowledge the Katyn Massacre, though in 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev approved an item from the state news agency acknowledging Soviet responsibility; and

WHEREAS, Wojciech Seweryn was an immigrant from Poland who was born on the first day of World War II and whose father was a reserve infantry officer for the Polish army; and

WHEREAS, Wojciech's father, Mieczyslaw, was part of the 250,000 defeated soldiers that were sent to the camp in Kozielsk and killed in the Katyn forest; and

WHEREAS, Wojciech came to the United States and found a home in Chicago, where he devoted his time to educate the Polish community about what happened in the Katyn forest; and

WHEREAS, Wojciech for 40 years dreamed of building a monument to honor the victims of the Katyn Massacre, and realized that dream in May 2007, when a monument to honor the victims was completed in Niles, Illinois; and

WHEREAS, Wojciech served as Grand Marshal for the Polish Parade in 2007 and in the crowning moment of his life, he was invited by the Polish President Lech Kaczynski to fly with him and other leaders to Katyn on April 10, 2010; and

WHEREAS, On the way to the ceremony in Katyn, the plane crashed, killing all passengers on board; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, we designate a portion of Milwaukee Avenue from Albion Avenue to Harts Road in Niles, Illinois the Wojciech M. Seweryn Memorial Road; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the Illinois Department of Transportation is requested to erect at suitable locations, consistent with State regulations, plaques or signs giving notice of the name; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be presented to the Illinois Secretary of Transportation, to the Mayor of Niles, and to the family of Wojciech Seweryn.