HOUSE BILL No. 4602


     April 17, 2001, Introduced by Reps. Shulman and Jacobs and referred to the Committee on House Oversight and Operations.


        A bill to establish Holocaust remembrance week in the state

   of Michigan.

               THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:

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           Sec. 1.  (1) The legislature recognizes that the horrors of

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      the Holocaust should never be forgotten.  The Holocaust was the

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      state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of

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      European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933

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      and 1945.  In addition to the murder of some 6,000,000 Jews, mil-

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      lions more, including the handicapped, Poles, Gypsies, homosexu-

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      als, Jehovah's Witnesses, prisoners of war, and political dissi-

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      dents, also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi

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      tyranny.

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           (2) A key date in the history of the Holocaust is April 19,

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      1943, the beginning of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, when Jews,

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      using homemade bombs and stolen or bartered weapons, resisted


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      death camp deportation by the Nazis for 27 days.  This date,

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      which in the Hebrew calendar is the twenty-seventh day of Nisan,

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      has been established by the United States congress as a national

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      Holocaust remembrance day, and the week surrounding this date has

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      been established as the Days of Remembrance.

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           (3) The legislature declares that the twenty-seventh day of

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      the month of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar shall be Holocaust

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      remembrance day, and that the period beginning on the Sunday

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      before that day through the following Sunday shall be the Days of

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      Remembrance in this state, in memory of the victims of the

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      Holocaust, and in honor of the survivors, as well as the rescuers

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      and liberators.

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           Sec. 2.  The legislature encourages individuals, educational

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      institutions, and social, community, religious, labor, and busi-

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      ness organizations to pause on Holocaust remembrance day and

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      during the Days of Remembrance and reflect upon the terrible

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      events of the Holocaust, so that as a society we will remain vig-

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      ilant against hatred, persecution, and tyranny and actively

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      rededicate ourselves to the principles of individual freedom in a

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      just society.

















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