HomeMy WebLinkAbout23-013 RESOLUTION NO. 23-013
A RESOLUTION PROCLAIMING TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 2023 AS
"HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY" IN ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FLORIDA
WHEREAS, the Board of County Commissioners of St. Lucie County, Florida, has made
the following determinations:
1. Congress established the Days of Remembrance as our nation's annual commemoration of the
victims of the Holocaust.
2. The Holocaust was the systematic murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazis and their
collaborators. Between the German invasion of the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941 and the
end of the war in Europe in May 1945, Nazi Germany and its accomplices strove to murder every
Jew under their domination.
3. Because Nazi persecution of the Jews began with Hitler's accession to power in January 1933,
many historians consider this the start of the Holocaust era. Although the Jews were not the only
victims of Hitler's regime, they were the primary group that the Nazis sought to annihilate.
4. While Holocaust is the common name used for this tragedy since the 1960s among the English-
speaking world; the event was historically referred to as Shoah by the Jews themselves, which
has a slightly different meaning.
S. Holocaust is from an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures and originally meant a
sacrificial offering that was burnt completely, until nothing was left. Some people object to using
this term, as it suggests some sort of sacrificial or religious significance to the event. The word
Shoah is Hebrew and when translated means "a great catastrophe".
6. The theme for this year's Days of Remembrance is Ordinary People. Genocide is facilitated by
ordinary people. Ordinary people turn a blind eye, believe propaganda,join murderous regimes.
And those who are persecuted, oppressed and murdered in genocide aren't persecuted because
of crimes they've committed—they are persecuted simply because they are ordinary people who
belong to a particular group (eg, Roma, Jewish community, Tutsi).
7. The Holocaust demonstrates one of the greatest lessons about individual responsibility that each
of us has the choice to act or not to act, and there are consequences to our decisions.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of County Commissioners of St. Lucie County,
Florida that this Board does hereby proclaim Tuesday, April 18, 2023 as "HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE
DAY" in St. Lucie County, Florida and further urge all St. Lucie County citizens to join us in this special
observance.
PASSED AND DULY ADOPTED this 4th day of April 2023.
ATTEST: BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
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