R 089

2020 -- H 7316 Enacted 01/28/2020

H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

COMMEMORATING "INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY" ON JANUARY 27, 2020

Introduced By: Representatives Ackerman, Knight, Kislak, Mattiello, and Shekarchi

Date Introduced: January 28, 2020

WHEREAS, Seventy-five 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, The infamous and brutal killing grounds of Auschwitz, Buchenwald,

Dachau and Belson, today house the unnatural quiet and ghostly calm of somber rows of sanitized

barracks and rusting ovens, and stand as speechless memorials to the six million Jews and eleven

million total victims who succumbed to the deliberate Nazi program of genocide that was the

Holocaust; and

WHEREAS, The white nationalist and neo-Nazi messages of racial, ethnic, and social

intolerance has led to senseless acts of violence that continue to terrorize and marginalize

members of racial and religious minority communities; and

WHEREAS, Currently, across our nation, anti-Semitic hate crimes are rising. Between

2016 and 2017, there was an increase of 57 percent nationally, the largest single-year record. In

Rhode Island, the number of anti-Semitic hate crimes also rose from zero in 2014 and 2015 to

nine in 2016 and 2017; and

WHEREAS, Anti-Semitic malevolent attacks are not only an affront to the more than

16,000 members of the Jewish faith living in Rhode Island, they are an assault on the humanity of

all the people in our State; and

WHEREAS, In the words of famed writer Elie Wiesel, "There may be times when we are

powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." Rhode

Islanders and people of all nations must take the time to remember the millions of men, women

and children who were slaughtered simply because of their beliefs and their heritage, or their

strengths or their frailties, and we must firmly avow that the atrocities of the Holocaust will never

be repeated; now, therefore be it

RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island Providence

Plantations hereby commemorates "International Holocaust Remembrance Day" on January 27,

2020. We call upon our fellow citizens to join us in remembering and honoring the amazing

courage and the enormous sacrifices of all those killed during the Holocaust. We moreover

reaffirm our pledge to work to eradicate bigotry, prejudice, brutality and injustice through

education and vigilance and we stand united in rejecting and condemning vile and intolerable acts

of anti-Semitism and hatred; 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

Rhode Island Holocaust Museum, the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, the Jewish

Community Center of Rhode Island, and the Rhode Island Israel Collaborative.

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LC004112

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