February 26, 2004

LANSING – A new law will establish a Holocaust Remembrance Day in Michigan to honor the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, the lives of the survivors, and the efforts of the rescuers and liberators.

"I am honored to sign House Bill 4276 into law to honor the dead, celebrate the living, and recognize the heroes who witnessed first-hand the horrors of the Holocaust," Granholm said. "I encourage Michigan citizens to set aside Holocaust Remembrance Day and the Days of Remembrance as time to reflect on the need to be vigilant against hatred, intolerance, and tyranny today based on the lessons of the past."

The law establishes the 27th day of the month of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar as Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the period beginning on the Sunday before that day through the following Sunday as the Days of Remembrance in Michigan. The Hebrew calendar is described as a lunar calendar based on 19-year cycles. The 27th day of Nisan corresponds to April 18 this year. In 2005, it will be May 5, April 25 in 2006, April 15 in 2007, May 1 in 2008, April 21 in 2009, and April 11 in 2010.

A key date in the history of the Holocaust is April 19, 1943 – the beginning of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, when Jews, using homemade bombs and stolen weapons, resisted death camp deportation by the Nazis for 27 days. The persecution and annihilation of more than 6 million European Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators was carried out from 1933 to 1945. Millions more of handicapped citizens, Poles, gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, prisoners of war, and political dissidents also suffered persecution and death during the Holocaust.

The new law creating Michigan’s Holocaust Day of Remembrance was sponsored by State Representative Marc Shulman (R-West Bloomfield).