2022 -- S 2888

========

LC003405

========

     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2022

____________

S E N A T E   R E S O L U T I O N

COMMEMORATING "HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY" ON APRIL 28, 2022

     Introduced By: Senators Bell, Miller, Kallman, Zurier, and Raptakis

     Date Introduced: April 26, 2022

     Referred To: Recommended for Immediate Consideration

     WHEREAS, Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah), which begins at sunset on

the 27th day of the month of Nisan, is a solemn day of remembrance honoring the victims of the

Holocaust and those who showed resistance and amazing heroism during this horrendous period

in our world history. Seventy-seven years ago, Soviet forces and shortly thereafter, other Allied

forces, liberated Auschwitz and other concentration camps, liberating thousands of suffering and

starving prisoners; and

     WHEREAS, Holocaust is the term used to refer to the period in world history from 1933

to 1945, before and during World War II, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis systematically and

barbarically persecuted and murdered nearly six million Jews and another five million non-Jews

throughout Europe because they were perceived to be "racially inferior" and "life unworthy of

life"; and

     WHEREAS, In the year 1933, nine million Jews lived in Europe, 500,000 of whom lived

in Germany, and were subjected to over 400 laws and regulations to strip them of their basic

human rights; and

     WHEREAS, On November 9th and 10th, 1938, referred to as Kristallnacht, Nazis torched

synagogues, Jewish homes, schools, and killed Jewish residents, beginning systemic violence

against Jews in Germany; and

     WHEREAS, This year marks the 79th Anniversary of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising,

where Jews fought and refused to surrender to Nazi forces. Their brave actions in April and May

of 1943 stand as testimony to a rare and indomitable human spirit and extraordinary courage

exhibited in the darkest hours of man's inhumanity; and

     WHEREAS, Holocaust Remembrance Day is a day to make a special effort to remember,

so that the lessons of our past are never again repeated. The day is also a time to applaud all those

who endured and who bravely rebuilt lives that had been so cruelly shattered, and acknowledge,

with admiration, those heroes who risked and often lost their own lives in order to save others;

now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island hereby recognizes the historic

significance of Holocaust Remembrance Day; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the United States Holocaust Museum, the

Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Memorial Education Center, the Board of Rabbis of Greater Rhode

Island, and Mr. Adam Greenman, President and CEO of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode

Island.

========

LC003405

========

LC003405 - Page 2 of 2