Full Text of SR0431 093rd General Assembly
SR0431 93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| SENATE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, The members of the Senate of the State of Illinois | 3 |
| learned with regret of the death of Elaine "Leah" Welbel of | 4 |
| Skokie on Friday, January 2, 2004; and
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| WHEREAS, Elaine Mortkovitch was born in Vranoy, | 6 |
| Czechoslovakia; her father was a construction worker and | 7 |
| preceded her in death when she was eight; her mother was left | 8 |
| with eight children to raise; and
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| WHEREAS, In 1942, Mrs. Welbel and the other Jewish girls in | 10 |
| her town were sent by train to Auschwitz under the guise of | 11 |
| being sent to work in a factory; she was given the identifying | 12 |
| tattoo "4701" on her upper left forearm, a mark that years | 13 |
| later she refused to have removed; and
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| WHEREAS, Mrs. Welbel endured an unusually long internment | 15 |
| at Auschwitz, surviving for 33 months; when Auschwitz was | 16 |
| liberated in 1945, she was sent to a displaced persons camp in | 17 |
| Italy, where she met her future husband, Eliezer Welbel, who | 18 |
| had survived 27 months in Auschwitz; they married in 1946 and | 19 |
| the next year secretly moved to Palestine, where Mrs. Welbel's | 20 |
| three oldest siblings had moved before the war; and
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| WHEREAS, Mr. and Mrs. Welbel emigrated to the United States | 22 |
| after living eight years in Israel; they moved to Chicago in | 23 |
| 1959, where they opened a coin laundry at 3352 North Marshfield | 24 |
| Street; they retired in 1980; and
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| WHEREAS, Mrs. Welbel didn't speak publicly about her time | 26 |
| in Auschwitz until 1993, after she read a story that tried to | 27 |
| discount the history of the Holocaust; she was a sought-after | 28 |
| public speaker with a tremendous connection with the students | 29 |
| that she spoke to; she worked hard to make sure that the world | 30 |
| will never forget the tragedy of the Holocaust; and
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LRB093 20736 HSS 46626 r |
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| WHEREAS, The passing of Elaine "Leah" Welbel has been | 2 |
| deeply felt by many, especially her husband, Eliezer; her sons, | 3 |
| Michael and David; her five grandchildren; and her | 4 |
| great-grandchild; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-THIRD GENERAL | 6 |
| ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of | 7 |
| Elaine "Leah" Welbel, a woman of outstanding vitality and | 8 |
| heart, and a hero; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 10 |
| presented to the family of Mrs. Welbel as an expression of our | 11 |
| deepest sympathy for their loss.
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