ADOPTED - APRIL 12, 2005

Agenda Item No. 12

Introduced by the County Services Committee of the:

INGHAM COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

RESOLUTION DESIGNATING THE WEEK OF MAY 1 - 7, 2005 AS "HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE WEEK@ IN INGHAM COUNTY

RESOLUTION #05-088

WHEREAS, the Ingham County Board of Commissioners and citizens of Ingham County recognize that the horrors of the Holocaust should never be forgotten; and

WHEREAS, the Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945; and

WHEREAS, in addition to the murder of some 6,000,000 Jews, millions more, including the handicapped, Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah=s Witnesses, prisoners of war, and political dissidents, also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny; and

WHEREAS, a key date in the history of the Holocaust is April 19, 1943, the beginning of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, when Jews, using homemade bombs and stolen or bartered weapons, resisted death camp deportation by the Nazis for 27 days; and

WHEREAS, this date, which in the Hebrew calendar is the twenty-seventh day of Nisan, has been established by the United States Congress as a national Holocaust Remembrance Day; and

WHEREAS, the Legislature of the State of Michigan has declared this day Holocaust Remembrance Day in Michigan, with the days through the following Sunday as days of remembrance; and

WHEREAS, the twenty-seventh day of the month of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar falls on May 5, 2005; and

WHEREAS, the Board of Commissioners wishes to honor the memory of all who lost their lives and all who have and continue to suffer as a result of the Holocaust.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and in honor of the survivors, as well as the rescuers and liberators, the Ingham Board of Commissioners declares that the twenty-seventh day of the month of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, May 5, 2005, shall be Holocaust Remembrance Day in Ingham County and the week of May 1 - 7, 2005 Holocaust Remembrance Week.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the Board of Commissioner encourages individuals, educational institutions, and social, community, religious, labor and business organizations to pause during Holocaust Remembrance Week and reflect upon the terrible events of the Holocaust, so that as a society we will remain vigilant against hatred, persecution, and tyranny and actively rededicate ourselves to the principles of individual freedom in a just society.

COUNTY SERVICES:  Yeas:  Celentino, Copedge, De Leon, Schor, Severino

    Nays:  None       Absent:  Vickers          Approved 4/5/05