Assembly Resolution No. 2030

BY: M. of A. Williams

MEMORIALIZING Governor Kathy Hochul to proclaim
April 27, 2024, as Children of the Holocaust
Remembrance Day in the State of New York

WHEREAS, It is the custom of this Legislative Body to recognize
official days that are set aside to increase awareness of serious events
that affect the lives of citizens of New York State; and

WHEREAS, Attendant to such concern, and in full accord with its
long-standing tradition, it is the sense of this Legislative Body to
proclaim April 27, 2024, as Children of the Holocaust Remembrance Day in
the State of New York, in conjunction with the observance of
International Holocaust Remembrance Day; and

WHEREAS, From 1933 to 1945, an estimated 1.5 million children, the
youth of tomorrow, were systematically executed in the Nazi Holocaust as
part of a genocide of the Jewish people, and millions of other people
also perished as victims of Nazism; and

WHEREAS, Ghetto residences were established at the onset of Nazi
invasion, the Jew and other groups were rounded up and forced into these
horrific living conditions; and

WHEREAS, From 1942 onwards, the ghetto program ended and inhabitants
of the ghettos were murdered at various death camps; because children
were generally too young to be deployed as forced labor, they were
particularly vulnerable to being killed; they were one of the main
groups in the first deportations to killing centers or in mass shootings
near mass graves along with the elderly, the ill, and the disabled; and

WHEREAS, Children who were healthy enough for labor were often
worked to death doing jobs to benefit the camp; other times, children
were forced to do unnecessary jobs like digging ditches; and

WHEREAS, The year 2024 marks the 91st Anniversary of the beginning
of the genocide of European Jews, the bleakest, most murderous moment in
history; and

WHEREAS, The Holocaust represents the darkest period in the
civilization of mankind and must always be remembered in order to
prevent its reoccurrence anywhere else in the world; and

WHEREAS, Children of the Holocaust Remembrance Day is a day set
aside for remembering the innocent children who fell prey to the
viciousness of others; and

WHEREAS, It is critically important to remember the events of the
Holocaust to ensure that the events shall "never again" happen, which
has been the rallying cry among the Jewish people and take cognizance of
the youth that was wiped from earth for no reason besides bigotry and
hatred; and

WHEREAS, In times of war and chaos, with the threat of genocide and
ethnic cleansing present in many war-torn regions of the world, the
events of the Holocaust continue to be relevant and important to
remember so that suffering on this scale is prevented from occurring
ever again; and

WHEREAS, Knowing that the events and root causes of the Holocaust
must not be forgotten and the brightness that exudes from children to be
remembered and not erased and that, particularly as survivors diminish
in number, we must educate future generations; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
memorialize Governor Kathy Hochul to proclaim April 27, 2024, as
Children of the Holocaust Remembrance Day in the State of New York; and
be it further

RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be
transmitted to The Honorable Kathy Hochul Governor of the State of New
York.