The President’s Commission on the Holocaust is being urged to consider New York City as the site of “a living memorial” to the six million victims of the Holocaust New York City Mayor Edward Koch suggested this to the Commission at hearings being held by Congressional members of the Presidential group appointed to make recommendations for a suitable memorial.
Herbert Richman, special assistant to the Mayor, urged that New York City be established as the site inasmuch as the New York area has the largest number of survivors of the Holocaust living there.
Richman made his suggestion to Rep. S. William Green (R. NY), who held a hearing in New York Friday to receive testimony on the Commission’s mandate to establish a national memorial. Previous hearings were held by Rep. William Lehman (D. Fla.) in Miami and by Rep. Stephen Solarz (D.NY) in Brooklyn. All three Congressmen are among the five Representatives and five Senators on the Commission.
Dore Schary, honorary chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, suggested at Friday’s hearing that a “living memorial” such as a museum be established either in New York or Washington. He also suggested a special clock to tick off the minutes “one after another for six long years and every single minute for 60 minutes an hour for 24 days, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year for six years” to record the murder of six million Jews.
Former New York Democratic Rep. Allard Laweratain also supported the idea that the memorial be in New York or Washington, or possibly Skokie, III. where there is a large concentration of Holocaust survivors.
Meanwhile, the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington is urging that “every Jewish home” light a yahrzeit candle on Monday evening. April 23 in memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. The Council also urged that” no joyous activities be planned for this night and the following day,” Tuesday, April 24.
The appeals were made in connection with the “Days of Remembrance” to be observed for the week beginning April 22 as proclaimed by President Carter and the President’s Commission on the Holocaust. Washington will hold its annual community-wide memorial observance for the victims of Nazism on Sunday afternoon, April 22 at Adas Israel Congregation.
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