The Bowne House acknowledges International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, a day that commemorates the victims of the Holocaust, six million Jews, two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population, along with countless members of other minorities, who were murdered between 1933 and 1945 during World War II. January was chosen to commemorate the date when the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated in 1945. The day was designated by United Nation’s General Assembly resolution 60/7 on November 1, 2005.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Poland, January 2020, Rafal Zambrzycki, CC BY 2.0

Resolution 60/7 urges every member nation of the U.N. to honor the memory of Holocaust victims, six million Jews, and encourages the development of educational programs about Holocaust history to help prevent future acts of genocide. It rejects any denial of the Holocaust as an event and condemns all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement or harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief.

Almost three hundred years before this tragic history, Flushing citizens protested religious intolerance in 1657 when they wrote a demand for religious freedom and tolerance that is today known as the Flushing Remonstrance. These principles, manifested by John Bowne’s courageous stand for religious freedom after his arrest at the Bowne House in 1662, have become enshrined in the United States Constitution. We must never forget how precious this liberty is world-wide.