Bill Text: CA SCR41 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Chaptered

California Senate Concurrent Resolution 41 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: California Holocaust Memorial Day.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 16-0)

Status: (Passed) 2019-05-31 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Res. Chapter 68, Statutes of 2019. [SCR41 Detail]

Download: California-2019-SCR41-Chaptered.html

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 41

CHAPTER 68

Relative to California Holocaust Memorial Day.

[ Filed with Secretary of State May 31, 2019. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SCR 41, Allen. California Holocaust Memorial Day.

This measure would proclaim April 29, 2019, as California Holocaust Memorial Day, and would urge all Californians to observe this day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust in an appropriate manner.

Fiscal Committee: NO

WHEREAS, The Holocaust was a tragedy of proportions the world had never before witnessed; and

WHEREAS, More than 70 years have passed since the tragic events that we now refer to as the Holocaust transpired, in which the dictatorship of Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews as part of a systematic program of genocide known as “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question”; and

WHEREAS, Jews were the primary victims of the Holocaust, but they were not alone. Five million other people were murdered in Nazi concentration camps as part of a carefully orchestrated, state-sponsored program of cultural, social, and political annihilation under the Nazi regime; and

WHEREAS, We must recognize the heroism of those who resisted the Nazis and provided assistance to the victims of the Nazi regime, including the many American soldiers who liberated concentration camps and provided comfort to those suffering; and

WHEREAS, We must teach our children, and future generations, that the individual and communal acts of heroism during the Holocaust serve as a powerful example of how our nation and its citizens can, and must, respond to acts of hatred and inhumanity; and

WHEREAS, We must always remind ourselves of the horrible events of the Holocaust and remain vigilant against anti-Semitism, racism, hatred, persecution, and tyranny of all forms lest these atrocities be repeated; and

WHEREAS, In recent years, public displays of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incidents have increase dramatically in California and around the world; and

WHEREAS, We, the people of California, should actively rededicate ourselves to the principles of equality, human rights, individual freedom, and equal protection under the laws of a just and democratic society; and

WHEREAS, Each person in California should set aside moments of their time every year to give remembrance to those who lost their lives in the Holocaust; and

WHEREAS, The United States Holocaust Memorial Council recognizes the Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, including Holocaust Remembrance Day, known as Yom Hashoah; and

WHEREAS, According to Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and nationally recognized scholar, “a memorial unresponsive to the future would violate the memory of the past”; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly thereof concurring, That the Legislature proclaims April 29, 2019, as “California Holocaust Memorial Day,” and that Californians are urged to observe this day of remembrance for victims of the Holocaust in an appropriate manner; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit sufficient copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.