Full Text of HR0338 94th General Assembly
HR0338 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
|
|
|
HR0338 |
|
LRB094 11871 HSS 45232 r |
|
| 1 |
| HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 |
| WHEREAS, The members of the House of Representatives of the | 3 |
| State of Illinois learned with sadness of the death of Lisa | 4 |
| Fittko on March 12, 2005; and | 5 |
| WHEREAS, Lisa Ekstein was born in 1909 in Uzhgorod in what | 6 |
| was then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire; most of her | 7 |
| childhood was spent in Budapest and Vienna; she was evacuated | 8 |
| and sent to the Netherlands with other children for a year | 9 |
| during World War I; after the war, her family moved to Berlin; | 10 |
| and | 11 |
| WHEREAS, She emerged from a leftist, artistic family to | 12 |
| become active in the resistance to Hitler in the early months | 13 |
| of his rule, then fled to continue the fight in other European | 14 |
| countries for seven years; during her time in Europe, she met | 15 |
| and married another leftist activist, Hans Fittko; for seven | 16 |
| tense months in 1940 and 1941, the Fittkos escorted refugees on | 17 |
| a tortuous path over the Pyrenees mountains so they could go on | 18 |
| to Spanish and Portuguese ports to seek passage to safe havens; | 19 |
| and | 20 |
| WHEREAS, Many of the people she helped were intellectuals, | 21 |
| artists, and anti-Nazi organizers; the first refugee she helped | 22 |
| was Walter Benjamin, a Marxist literary critic and philosopher | 23 |
| whose work has drawn new interest in recent years because of | 24 |
| his provocative insights on subjects from consumerism to | 25 |
| surrealism; she had earlier helped the philosopher Hannah | 26 |
| Arendt, who had been her friend in Paris, get out of a prison | 27 |
| in France; and | 28 |
| WHEREAS, Together, the Fittkos became part of the rescue | 29 |
| mission of Varian Fry, an American who is credited with saving | 30 |
| about 2,000 people, many of them artists and intellectuals, | 31 |
| including André Breton, Marc Chagall, and Max Ernst; and |
|
|
|
HR0338 |
- 2 - |
LRB094 11871 HSS 45232 r |
|
| 1 |
| WHEREAS, The Fittkos eventually escaped to Cuba, then went | 2 |
| on to Chicago, where Ms. Fittko's brother lived; Mr. Fittko | 3 |
| preceded her in death in 1960 and was posthumously awarded | 4 |
| Israel's Yad Vashem Medal, an honor reserved for gentiles who | 5 |
| risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust; and | 6 |
| WHEREAS, Ms. Fittko became well known in postwar Germany, | 7 |
| and in 1986, the president of West Germany awarded her the | 8 |
| Distinguished Medal of Merit, First Class; in the United | 9 |
| States, her story was eventually documented in several novels | 10 |
| and films, including the 1998 documentary "Lisa Fittko: But We | 11 |
| Said We Will Not Surrender"; and | 12 |
| WHEREAS, She wrote two books about her experiences; "Escape | 13 |
| Through the Pyrenees" was first published in West Germany in | 14 |
| 1985 and won that country's award for the political book of the | 15 |
| year; it was translated into French, Spanish, Italian, | 16 |
| Portuguese, Japanese, and in 1991, into English; in 1993, her | 17 |
| book, "Solidarity and Treason: Resistance and Exile, | 18 |
| 1933-1940", was published; and | 19 |
| WHEREAS, After settling in Chicago, Ms. Fittko worked as a | 20 |
| secretary to support relatives who survived the Holocaust but | 21 |
| were shattered by the experience; she was always highly | 22 |
| involved with IVI-IPO, including the campaign of the late Mayor | 23 |
| Harold Washington, and was a strong supporter of independent | 24 |
| politics; she was an active member of the Hyde Park Peace | 25 |
| Council and always brought issues of peace to other | 26 |
| neighborhood organizations; she worked with the Hyde | 27 |
| Park-Kenwood Interfaith Council to get temples and churches | 28 |
| involved in peace issues and was very involved with the nuclear | 29 |
| freeze movement; and | 30 |
| WHEREAS, Lisa Fittko had phenomenal energy; she was | 31 |
| creative and had amazing knowledge and a sense of history and |
|
|
|
HR0338 |
- 3 - |
LRB094 11871 HSS 45232 r |
|
| 1 |
| remembrance of the past; and | 2 |
| WHEREAS, The passing of Lisa Fittko has been deeply felt by | 3 |
| many, especially her nieces, Evelyn Marsh, Catherine | 4 |
| Stodolsky, and Marlena Ekstein; therefore, be it | 5 |
| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 6 |
| NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 7 |
| we mourn the passing of Lisa Fittko, who will be remembered for | 8 |
| the amazing work she did to save the lives of many; and be it | 9 |
| further
| 10 |
| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 11 |
| presented to the family of Lisa Fittko as an expression of our | 12 |
| deepest sympathy and our true respect for the life that Ms. | 13 |
| Fittko lived.
|
|