REMARKS
Council Member Eric Dinowitz's remarks on Resolution 713 for Auschwitz Remembrance Day
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Council Member Eric Dinowitz provides remarks on the passing of Resolution 713, which recognizes January 27th as Auschwitz Remembrance Day in New York City. He emphasizes the importance of actively remembering the Holocaust, especially in light of rising antisemitism, and how this remembrance should inform actions and become part of the city's identity.
- Dinowitz distinguishes between acknowledging history and truly remembering it, stressing that remembering means experiencing it as if it happened to you.
- He highlights that remembering is not passive but should impact how people live their lives and make decisions.
- The council member emphasizes that this resolution makes remembering the Holocaust part of New York City's "DNA" going forward.
Eric Dinowitz
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Today, we pass resolution 713, recognizing January 27th as the 80th anniversary of the anniversary of the liberation, the Auschwitz, Bergenau concentration, extermination camps, commemorating January 27th annually as Auschwitz Remembrance Day in the city of New York.
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And I think it's an important notion to remember something and not just acknowledge an historical event, because to remember something means to have experienced it, to have a memory of something.
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To remember it is to have this memory as if it had happened to you.
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And at this time of rising hate, rising antisemitism, here in the city, and throughout the world, it's important to remember that which came before us, and and live with it, and sit with it.
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So going forward, we're not experiencing that again.
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When we remember something, it's part of who we are, and it informs our actions.
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It informs what we do and how we live our life.
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And with this resolution passing today, we are acknowledging and we are saying that New York City remembers Auschwitz, that New York City remembers the Holocaust.
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And that remembering something isn't passive.
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Remembering something is to go forward and recognize how it impacts your life, and now how it impacts the life of everyone here in New York City.
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So I wanna thank you, Chair, for bringing this resolution forward so that we in New York City can remember and make it part of our DNA the 80th anniversary of the liberation from Auschwitz, and every year going forward that we remember and have it part of our DNA here in the city, Auschwitz and the Holocaust.
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Thank you, chair.