05-R 260

2005 -- H 6463

Enacted 05/05/05

H O U S E R E S O L U T I O N

MEMORIALIZING "HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY" ON MAY 5, 2005

Introduced By: Representatives Lewiss, Long, Fox, Crowley, and Ajello

Date Introduced: May 05, 2005

     WHEREAS, Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah), commemorated on May 5,

2005, is a solemn day of remembrance honoring the victims of the Holocaust and those who

showed resistance and heroism during this horrendous period in our world history. The central

theme this year is "The Anguish of Liberation and the Return to Life: Marking 60 Years Since the

End of WWII"; 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 perceived these people to be "racially inferior," and "unworthy

of life"; and

     WHEREAS, This year's Holocaust Remembrance Day is a time to applaud those men

and women who endured, who rebuilt lives that had been so cruelly shattered and once again

dreamed of a future for their children. It is a day to acknowledge these brave individuals, who

stand as a testament to anyone who would try to revise or deny this horrendous period in world

history. It is also a day to recall, with admiration, those heroes who risked and often lost their

own lives in order to save others, and it is a day for the world to firmly avow that the atrocities of

the Holocaust will never be repeated; and

     WHEREAS, The horror and anguish of such infamous killing grounds as Auschwitz,

Buchenwald, Dachau and Belson, which today house the unnatural quiet and ghostly calm of

somber rows of sanitized barracks and rusting ovens, stand as speechless memorials to the six

million Jews and eleven million total victims and who succumbed to the deliberate Nazi program

of genocide known as the Holocaust; and

     WHEREAS, The citizens of Rhode Island, having our own rich heritage of resistance and

intolerance for those who would trample individual liberty and dignity, applaud the courageous

efforts of the ghetto residents for whom day to day survival was a relentless struggle. 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 humanity; and

     WHEREAS, We will always remember and never forget the millions who died for who

they were, how they worshipped, what they believed in, who they loved, and for those who were

killed because of their strength, their differences or their physical disabilities. We are proud,

humbled, and honored to memorialize their amazing courage and their enormous sacrifices; now,

therefore be it

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

Providence Plantations hereby commemorates "Holocaust Remembrance Day" on May 5, 2005.

We call upon our fellow citizens to join us in acknowledging and applauding the survivors of

Holocaust and to reaffirm our pledge to work to eradicate bigotry, prejudice, brutality and

injustice through education and vigilance; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and he 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 Federation of Rhode Island and the Jewish

Community Center of Rhode Island.

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LC03193

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