Senate Resolution No. 2547

BY: Senator GAUGHRAN

COMMEMORATING the 75th Anniversary of the
liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27, 2020

WHEREAS, The people of the State of New York must never forget the
terrible crimes committed against humanity at Auschwitz-Birkenau, former
German Nazi concentration and extermination camp; and

WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to commemorate the
75th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27,
2020; and

WHEREAS, All over the world, Auschwitz has become a symbol of
terror, genocide, and the Holocaust; it was established by Germans in
1940, in the suburbs of Oswiecim, a Polish city that was annexed to the
Third Reich by the Nazis; its name was changed to Auschwitz; and

WHEREAS, The direct reason for the establishment of the camp was the
fact that mass arrests of Poles were increasing beyond the capacity of
existing local prisons; the first transport of Poles reached KL
Auschwitz from Tarnow prison on June 14, 1940; and

WHEREAS, Initially, Auschwitz was to be one more concentration camp
of the type that the Nazis had been setting up since the early 1930s; it
functioned in this role throughout its existence, even when, beginning
in 1942, it also became the largest of the extermination centers where
the Endlosung der Judenfrage, the final solution to the Jewish question
- the Nazi plan to murder European Jews, was carried out; and

WHEREAS, The first and oldest camp was the so-called main camp,
later also known as Auschwitz I which was established on the grounds and
in the buildings of pre-war Polish barracks; the number of prisoners
fluctuated around 15,000, sometimes rising above 20,000; and

WHEREAS, The second part was the Birkenau camp which held over
90,000 prisoners in 1944, also known as Auschwitz II; this was the
largest part of the Auschwitz complex; and

WHEREAS, The Nazis began building it in 1941 on the site of the
Village of Brzezinka, three kilometers from Oswiecim; and

WHEREAS, The Polish civilian population was evicted and their houses
confiscated and demolished; the greater part of the apparatus of mass
extermination was built in Birkenau; it was here the majority of the
victims were murdered; and

WHEREAS, More than 40 sub-camps, exploiting the prisoners as slave
laborers, were founded, mainly at various sorts of German industrial
plants and farms, between 1942 and 1944; and

WHEREAS, The largest of them was called Buna/Monowitz, with 10,000
prisoners, and was opened by the camp administration in 1942 on the
grounds of the Buna-Werke synthetic rubber and fuel plant six kilometers
from the Auschwitz camp; and


WHEREAS, In November of 1943, the Buna sub-camp became the seat of
the commandant of the third part of the camp, Auschwitz III, to which
some other Auschwitz sub-camps were subordinated; and

WHEREAS, The Germans isolated all the camps and sub-camps from the
outside world and surrounded them with barbed wire fencing; all contact
with the outside world was forbidden; and

WHEREAS, However, the area administered by the commandant and
patrolled by the SS garrison went beyond the grounds enclosed by barbed
wire; it included an additional area of approximately 40 square
kilometers, known as Interessengebiet, the interest zone, which lay
around the Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau camps; and

WHEREAS, The local population, the Poles and Jews living near the
newly-founded camp, were evicted in 1940-1941, and approximately 1,000
of their homes were demolished; and

WHEREAS, Other buildings were assigned to officers and
non-commissioned officers from the SS garrison, who sometimes came here
with their whole families; and

WHEREAS, The pre-war industrial facilities in the zone, taken over
by Germans, were expanded in some cases and, in others, demolished to
make way for new plants associated with the military requirements of the
Third Reich; and

WHEREAS, The camp administration used the zone around the camp for
auxiliary camp technical support, workshops, storage, offices, and
barracks for the SS; and

WHEREAS, The people of New York must educate future generations to
promote understanding of the dangers of intolerance in order to prevent
similar injustices from happening again; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau
on January 27, 2020; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be
transmitted to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation in New York
City.