HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 4653, by Representatives Ahern, Billig, Ormsby, Hasegawa, Smith, Klippert, Asay, Shea, Johnson, Kretz, Overstreet, Zeiger, Kenney, Ross, Walsh, Maxwell, Hinkle, Wylie, Nealey, McCune, Buys, Moeller, Fagan, Alexander, Warnick, Angel, Carlyle, Blake, Goodman, Hunt, Condotta, Ryu, Kelley, Takko, Upthegrove, Haigh, Pollet, Probst, and Bailey

     WHEREAS, Eva Lassman was born as Eva Bialogrod on March 28, 1919, in Lodz, Poland, lost nearly all of her family in the Holocaust, and is survived by three sons, Joel, Richard, and Syl; and
     WHEREAS, Eva Lassman fled to Warsaw following the Nazi invasion and held out there with other Jews for more than three years when she was captured by the Germans following an unsuccessful uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto and shipped to the Majdanek death camp; and
     WHEREAS, She was forced into labor in a munitions factory and to clean the quarters for other workers and German officers, she escaped the camp after falling ill, and met her husband Walter "Wolf" Lassman at a survivor camp south of Munich, Germany; and
     WHEREAS, Eva became vocal in later years about the Holocaust and appeared repeatedly at community events, and was especially driven to deliver her message of tolerance to school children; and
     WHEREAS, Eva was an invaluable resource in organizing the well-attended Anne Frank Exhibit at Gonzaga University in 2000, was awarded a presidential commendation for her work by Whitworth College, was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by Gonzaga University, was a leader in the creation of the Spokane Community Holocaust Memorial next to Temple Beth Shalom, received the Carl Maxey Racial Justice Award from the YWCA in 2006, and was given the first Eva Lassman Award from the Gonzaga University Institute for Hate Studies in 2009; and
     WHEREAS, A memorial to the Lassman and Bialogrod families was erected at Mount Nebo Cemetery in Spokane in 2009, the site of more than 400 Jewish burials; and
     WHEREAS, Eva Lassman passed away Wednesday, February 9, 2011, and will be greatly missed by the many people whose lives she touched;
     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That the Washington State House of Representatives honor Eva Lassman for surviving the Holocaust and using her experience of pain and suffering to promote love, understanding, and tolerance in place of hate and bigotry; and
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be immediately transmitted by the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives to her sons, Joel, Richard, and Syl.