Senate Resolution No. 230

BY: Senator MAYER

COMMEMORATING International Holocaust Remembrance
Day on January 27, 2025

WHEREAS, From 1933 to 1945, six million Jews were murdered during
the Holocaust as a part of a systematic persecution and program of
genocide to eliminate every Jew within the reach of the Nazi empire, and
millions of other people also perished as victims of Nazism; and

WHEREAS, January 27, 2025, marks the 80th Anniversary of the
liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp,
Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp; and

WHEREAS, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is observed
on January 27th each year, is a day set aside for remembering the
millions of victims of the Holocaust; this date was designated by the
United Nations General Assembly on November 1, 2005; and

WHEREAS, In the resolution, it is stated that every member of the
United Nations should honor the six million Jews, as well as those
members of other minorities who perished in the Nazi genocide, and
develop educational programs about this history to help prevent such
atrocities in the future; and

WHEREAS, Numerous commemorations are held in countries around the
world, and speeches are presented at the United Nations and in
Washington, D.C., Berlin, and London; Holocaust survivors are invited to
participate in the solemn ceremony which is held at the
Auschwitz-Birkenau camp annually; and

WHEREAS, Due to a Soviet military offensive near Krakow, the Red
Army happened upon the camp and liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on January
27, 1945; the liberation of the victims was practically unnoticed since
the world's attention was focused on the Yalta Conference where the
American, Russian, and British leaders decided the outlines of postwar
Europe; and

WHEREAS, The specific date in January was acknowledged on the 50th
Anniversary of the end of World War II in 1995; Germany became the first
State to adopt January 27th as an official holiday, commemorating the
victims of Nazism; and

WHEREAS, In 2000, many European leaders agreed that more States
should join the fight against antisemitism and racism; an agreement of
all members of the European Union was reached in 2005; the next year, a
Resolution, which was co-sponsored by 104 Member States, designated
January 27th as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the first
official ceremony took place in the Plenary Hall at the United Nations
Headquarters in New York City; and

WHEREAS, Solidarity among the nations around the globe is integral
to the eradication of such atrocities against mankind; the world must
never be allowed to forget the millions of innocent victims who lost

their lives simply for being Jews or certain minority groups that were
wrongly viewed as undesirables; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, 2025;
and be it further

RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be
transmitted to the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center.