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2001 SESSION

017688744
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 727
Offered January 10, 2001
Prefiled January 10, 2001
Commending Frank Shatz.
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Patrons-- Grayson; Senator: Norment
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WHEREAS, since the establishment of the Wendy and Emery Reves Center for International Studies at the College of William and Mary, one of its major benefactors has been Frank Shatz; and

WHEREAS, a survivor of the Holocaust who once delivered a suitcase full of gold to the infamous Nazi Colonel Adolf Eichmann to ransom 3,000 Hungarian Jews, Frank Shatz spent the last two years of World War II saving Jewish lives while daily risking his own; and

WHEREAS, in the chaos of Budapest in 1944 and early 1945, Frank Shatz, who had escaped from a Nazi slave-labor group, worked with the Zionist underground to help fellow Jews escape the fascist gangs and concentration camps that ensnared so many; and

WHEREAS, still in Budapest after the war, Frank Shatz read The Anatomy of Peace, by Hungarian journalist Emery Reves, which envisioned world peace through universal law; and

WHEREAS, inspired by Reves' book, Frank Shatz, who escaped communist Hungary in 1954 with his wife, Jarka, worked with Reves' wife, Wendy, to realize the author's vision; and

WHEREAS, when the College of William and Mary announced plans to establish a world-class center for international studies in 1989, Frank Shatz recommended that Emily Reves select the college as the recipient of a $3 million endowment; and

WHEREAS, Frank and Jarka Shatz have also established a $1 million bequest to fund a diplomat-in-residence at the center and have encouraged others to make gifts that have funded a peace program, a writers' festival, a library endowment, student scholarships, and a professorship and lecture series; and

WHEREAS, Frank Shatz has used his own horrific experiences during and after World War II as inspiration for his many and invaluable contributions to the cause of world peace; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend Frank Shatz for his heroic actions during World War II and for his manifold contributions to the Wendy and Emery Reves Center for International Studies at the College of William and Mary; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to Frank Shatz as an expression of the General Assembly's admiration and appreciation for his dedication to greater human understanding, the rule of law, and world peace.