WHEREAS, Saturday, January 27, 2024 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which marks the seventy-ninth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp; and

WHEREAS, this is a day of remembrance for the six million Jews who were murdered by Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945; and

WHEREAS, on this anniversary, the State of Maine recommits itself to combating the global rise in anti-Semitism; and

WHEREAS, on May 26, 2016, thirty-one member states of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), of which the United States is a member, adopted a non-legally binding “working definition” of anti-Semitism; and

WHEREAS, the working definition reads as follows: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities”; and

WHEREAS, anti-Semitic attacks are an assault on the humanity of all people and we should always take time to remember the millions of men, women and children who were killed simply because of their beliefs and their heritage, and we must avow that the atrocities and genocide of the Holocaust never be repeated;

NOW THEREFORE, be it resolved that I, Janet T. Mills, Governor of the State of Maine, do hereby proclaim January 27, 2024 as

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

throughout the State of Maine, and I urge all citizens to honor the memories of those killed during the Holocaust and reject and condemn acts of anti-Semitism and hatred.

In testimony whereof, I have caused the Great Seal of the State to be hereunto affixed GIVEN under my hand at Augusta this seventeenth day of January Two Thousand Twenty-Four