Preconsidered Res. No. 1225

Resolution recognizing January 27, 2020 as Holocaust Remembrance Day and the week beginning on January 27, 2020 as a citywide week of Holocaust Education in New York City.

By Council Members Deutsch, Kallos, the Public Advocate (Mr. Williams) and Rivera

Whereas, The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, and state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators; and

Whereas, In addition to wiping out a third of the global Jewish population, the Nazi regime also undertook the targeted murder of minority groups, opposition forces and specific ethnic populations; and,

Whereas, In total this killing resulted in the deaths of millions and included: homosexuals, people with disabilities, Jehovah’s Witnesses, resistance and opposition members, academics, and Gypsy (Roma), Serbian, non-Jewish Polish and Soviet civilians; and, 

Whereas, While all of these groups were deliberately targeted by the Nazi eugenics program or for their political opposition, the Holocaust, which occurred from 1933 to 1945, was due to the intense anti-Semitism and hatred toward the Jewish people that were living in Nazi Germany; and

Whereas, In efforts to exterminate the Jewish population, the Nazi regime established concentration camps, such as Aushwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek, of which Jewish men, women and children, as well as opponents to the Nazis, were herded into, to experience terrible living conditions, inhumane medical experimentation, torture and mass killings; and

Whereas, Due to the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust, there is no way in which the Jewish people and world can ever fully recover, however, in efforts to partially rectify the past, every possible positive effort should be made to ensure that all those who suffered as a result of the Holocaust be remembered and future generations learn from the past to prevent a similar event from ever occurring again; and

Whereas, In efforts to ensure this, dedicating January 27, 2020 as Holocaust Remembrance Day and the week beginning on January 27, 2020 as a citywide week of Holocaust Education in New York City would: commemorate the six million Jewish people who died during the Holocaust, effectively teach City residents about the past, encourage empathy towards others and ultimately improve the City’s future; and

Whereas, Recognizing January 27, 2020 as Holocaust Remembrance Day in New York City would also show international solidarity and encourage the preservation of humanity worldwide, as International Holocaust Remembrance Day occurs on the same day; and

Whereas, In addition, a citywide week of Holocaust Education beginning on January 27, 2020 throughout New York City’s schools would foster empathy between City residents, beginning with the children themselves, through the learning of this important historical event and the impacts it has had on the present-day world; and

Whereas, As there are about 40,000 Holocaust survivors living in New York City and Long Island, according to Selfhelp Community Services Inc., a nonprofit that cares for older adults through a specific Holocaust Survivor program, it is important to those survivors that the history Holocaust, specifically those who died as a result of this event, is remembered and taught within New York City; and

Whereas, Recognizing January 27, 2020 as Holocaust Remembrance Day and the week beginning January 27, 2020 as a citywide week of Holocaust Education in new York City would help make the city a better place by valuing humanity above all else, remembering those who have died and survived in the Holocaust and preventing similar event from ever happening again; now therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York recognizes January 27, 2020 as Holocaust Remembrance Day and the week beginning on January 27, 2020 as a citywide week of Holocaust Education in New York City

KK

LS #13408

1/6/20