The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s Never Again Education Act to support Holocaust education across the country.
The vote came Monday as the world recognized International Holocaust Remembrance Day which this year marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
“As we recommit ourselves to the promise of ‘Never Again’ on this 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, I am reminded that the lessons of the Holocaust do not just apply to anti-Semitism, but to all forms of hate and bigotry and I can think of no better way to honor the memories of those murdered that to make sure our students know their names and their stories,” Maloney said. “If we do not learn from history we are doomed to repeat it. I urge the Senate to act quickly on this bill.”
Ahead of the vote, Maloney joined Jewish leaders, Holocaust survivors and educators to discuss Holocaust education. Her legislation would expand the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s education programming to teachers across the country requiring the museum to develop and disseminate accurate, relevant and accessible resources to improve awareness and understanding of the Holocaust and educate individuals on the lessons of the Holocaust.
Meanwhile, Governor Andrew Cuomo traveled to Poland, where he joined hundreds of Holocaust survivors at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Cuomo brought along rocks from the state capital engraved with the words “New York state remembers” and he left them at the infamous railroad tracks that led to the camp.
“The official commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau was a somber, yet powerful reminder of what the Jewish people have gone through and what they are still going through today,” Cuomo said. “The horrific rash of anti-Semitism we are experiencing in our state and across the nation is disgusting and repugnant [to] our values as new Yorkers and Americans, and because of it another generation of young people are experiencing the discrimination, hatred and pain that they’ve read about in history books. New York is home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel. We must continue to speak out and fight back against these abhorrent acts of hate whenever and wherever we see them, and we must vow to never let what happened to the 6 million Jewish people during the Holocaust happen again.”
