Arizona House of Representatives honors Holocaust Remembrance Day

Photo Courtesy United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Photo Courtesy United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Contributed Article

PHOENIX – The Arizona House of Representatives today paused to reflect and remember the victims and survivors of the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. An official legislative proclamation, sponsored by Republican State Representative Lupe Diaz, was read aloud on the House floor declaring a day of remembrance in Arizona to honor the victims of the Holocaust, and other victims of Nazism.

Whereas, on January 27, 1945, the Soviet Red Army entered the Auschwitz concentration camp operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland; and

Whereas, the soldiers found more than 7,000 survivors within the camp complex who were targeted for annihilation by the Nazis and victims of horrific atrocities; and

Whereas, January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz–Birkenau, was designated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005; and

Whereas, the world remembers the six million Jewish men, women, and children who were killed by the evil Nazi regime and its collaborators; and

Whereas, on this day we also remember the fewer than 180,000 living survivors of the Holocaust who reside primarily in Israel; and

Whereas, with the rise of anti-Semitism, we stand to expose this unjust treatment of the Jewish people and (their) nation.

Therefore, I, Representative Lupe Diaz, invite the Members of the Arizona House of Representatives to join me in honoring the victims of the Holocaust, and other victims of Nazism, by declaring January 27th a day of remembrance in Arizona and its public entities. 

Lupe Diaz is a Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives serving Legislative District 14, which covers Cochise and Greenlee counties, southern Graham County, and a portion of Pima County. Follow him on Twitter at @LupeDiaz4AZ.