In a recent proclamation, Bothell Mayor Mark Lamb proclaimed the week of April 15-22 as Holocaust Remembrance Week in conjunction with the National Days of Remembrance. He encourages citizens of Bothell to strive to overcome intolerance and indifference through learning and remembrance.

According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia Web site, the Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators between 1933-1945.

During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived “racial inferiority”: Roma (Gypsies), the disabled, and some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians and others). Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses and homosexuals.

“We, the people of the city of Bothell, should actively rededicate ourselves to the principles of individual freedom in a just society,” said Mayor Lamb.

The Days of Remembrance have been set aside to remember the victims of the Holocaust, as well as to reflect on the need for respect of all peoples.  For more information about the National Days of Remembrance, visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Web site at www.ushmm.org. A program about the Holocaust is also airing on Bothell’s cable station, BCTV Channel 21/26, through the month of April.