United States HRES 300: Expressing support for the designation of August 23, 2019, as Black Ribbon Day to recognize the victims of Soviet and Nazi regimes.

Bill Text

IV
116TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. RES. 300
Expressing support for the designation of August 23, 2019, as Black Ribbon
Day to recognize the victims of Soviet and Nazi regimes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 9, 2019
Mr. SHIMKUS (for himself and Mr. SCHIFF) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Reform
RESOLUTION
Expressing support for the designation of August 23, 2019,
as Black Ribbon Day to recognize the victims of Soviet
and Nazi regimes.
Whereas, on August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi
Germany pledged mutual nonaggression through the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which divided Eastern Europe
into two spheres of interest in their illicit bilateral nego-
tiations;
Whereas this notorious agreement and the Friendship and
the Border Treaty on September 28, 1939, allowed both
the Soviets and the Nazis to divide and occupy Poland
in September 1939 and to occupy the three Baltic States
of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia in June 1940;
Whereas the United States refused to recognize the Soviet
Union’s forcible occupation of the Baltic States, and con-
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•HRES 300 IH
sistently recognized the independence of Estonia, Lith-
uania, and Latvia through the Welles Declaration on
July 23, 1940;
Whereas, on August 13, 1941, the United States Government
signed the Atlantic Charter to make certain common
principles in the national policies of their respective coun-
tries for a better future of the world, including ‘‘the right
of all peoples to choose the form of government under
which they will live and self government restored to those
who have been forcibly deprived of them’’ and that the
people of countries may live in freedom;
Whereas the United States Government has actively advo-
cated for and continues to support the principles by the
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and the United Nations General Assembly resolution 260
(III) of December 9, 1948;
Whereas Captive Nations Week, signed into law (Public Law
86–90) by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1959,
raised public awareness of the oppression of nations
under the control of Communist and other nondemocratic
governments;
Whereas the European Parliament resolution on European
conscience and totalitarianism of April 2, 2009, estab-
lished a day of remembrance for victims of Soviet and
Nazi regimes to remember and commemorate their vic-
tims;
Whereas the extreme forms of totalitarian rule practiced by
the Nazi and Soviet dictatorships led to premeditated and
vast crimes committed against millions of human beings
and their basic and inalienable rights on a scale unseen
before in history;
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•HRES 300 IH
Whereas hundreds of thousands of human beings, fleeing the
crimes perpetrated by the Nazi and Soviet regimes
sought and found refuge in the United States;
Whereas millions of Americans of Baltic and Eastern and
Central European descent who personally fled or whose
families fled those regimes have made unique and signifi-
cant cultural, economic, social, and other contributions to
help build the United States;
Whereas the members of Baltic Way, a peaceful political
demonstration uniting two million people in their quest
for independence of the Baltic States on August 23,
1989, joined hands and formed a human chain from
Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius, launching a new chapter
in the history of the Baltic States and leaving behind the
bitter legacy of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact;
Whereas August 23 would be an appropriate date to des-
ignate as Black Ribbon Day to remember and never for-
get the terror millions of citizens of the Baltic countries,
Central Europe, and Eastern Europe countries experi-
enced for over half a century by ruthless military, eco-
nomic, and political repression, including arbitrary execu-
tions, mass arrests, deportations, the suppression of free
speech, confiscation of private property, and the destruc-
tion of cultural and moral identity and civil society, all
of which deprived individuals of their basic human rights
and dignity; and
Whereas the memories of Europe’s tragic past cannot be for-
gotten and it is right to honor the victims, condemn the
perpetrators, and lay the foundation for reconciliation
based on truth and remembrance: Now, therefore, be it
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•HRES 300 IH
Resolved, That the House of Representatives supports 1
the designation of Black Ribbon Day to recognize and 2
honor the victims of Soviet and Nazi regimes. 3
Æ
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