Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Bergen, Passaic) issued the following statement in solemn observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day:

“On Holocaust Remembrance Day we mourn the 11 million lives that were stolen by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. A tragic day for countless Jewish families that can never be whole.

The Holocaust was not a singular horror, but a process of escalating dehumanization that culminated in genocide. Beginning in 1933, the world watched as concentration camps were opened, as the Nuremburg Laws were enacted, as violent pogroms targeted Jewish communities, as the Nazi war machine spread across Europe massacring Jewish people in its wake, and as the Nazis implemented their Final Solution- the annihilation of the Jewish people in extermination camps.

We remember the victims and the survivors- Jewish, Slavic, Romani, the disabled, LGBTQ+, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and left-wing political prisoners, all deemed unworthy of life. And we renew our promise of never again.

As each year passes, there are fewer survivors to share their stories of resilience. To combat the rise in anti-Semitism, we must preserve and honor their legacy. We must stand against those who would renew the violence. Baruch Dayan HaEmet.”