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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: May 19, 2009 <br />1 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. 4 - 2 <br />SUBJECT: A Resolution to Foster Genocide Remembrance <br />DEPARTMENT: Human Rights and Relations PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Resolution Shoshannah Sayers, 960-3877 <br />PURPOSE: To recognize and remember the millions who have perished through acts of <br />genocide. <br />BACKGROUND: Throughout the 20th century and into this century, countries have perpetrated <br />genocide or mass killing for hateful reasons. There have been numerous atrocities against <br />humankind throughout history, horrible cases of genocide directed against innocent people -- <br />10-20 million black Africans who died during the 200 years of the international slave trade, the <br />decimation of nearly 12 million Native American Indians in North America between 1600 and <br />1850, Joseph Stalin's forced relocation and murder of millions of Soviet citizens, and the more <br />recent, so-called ethnic cleansings in Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur. <br />The first genocide of the 20th century occurred when two million Armenians living in Turkey <br />were, through forced deportation and massacres, eliminated from their homeland. The <br />government order to exterminate the Armenian people on April 24, 1915 led to more than 1.5 <br />million Armenians - 75% of the population -being killed. In honor of this massacre, April 24 <br />has been designated Armenian Martyrs Day every year. <br />The Armenian genocide spawned other governmental efforts to exterminate populations <br />throughout the 20th century. The most far-reaching was promulgated by Nazi Germany under <br />Adolph Hitler. On August 22, 1939, Hitler gave the following instructions to his Army <br />commanders: <br />"Thus for the time being I have sent to the East my `Death's Head Units' with the orders to <br />kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in <br />such a way will we win the vital space that we need. Who still talks nowadays about the <br />Armenians?" <br />After the initial massacre of the Polish people, the Nazis moved on to acts of genocide against <br />other groups, most famously Jews. In addition to the 6 million Jews who were exterminated in <br />