Student Holocaust Writing, Art and Multimedia Contest
“Auschwitz — A Place On Earth”
"For the dead and living, we must bear witness."
-Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel
The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation is inviting students in grades 7-12 in Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana Counties, and Western Pennsylvania to enter its annual Holocaust Writing, Art, and Multi Media contest. This annual contest is held in conjunction with Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day), an internationally recognized day to be commemorated this academic year on Thursday, April 24, 2025, set aside for remembering all victims of the Holocaust and for reminding society of what can happen to civilized people when bigotry, hatred, and indifference reign.
The theme for the 2025 contest is “Auschwitz – A Place on Earth.” The title is drawn from a sixteen panel exhibit from Yad Vashem titled “Auschwitz – A Place on Earth: The Auschwitz Album.” The Auschwitz Album is the only surviving visual evidence of the process leading to mass murder at Auschwitz-Birkenau, also known as Auschwitz II. The Auschwitz exhibit, which will be on display at the Jewish Community Center in the Thomases Family Endowment of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation Art Gallery from April 23-30, 2025, includes photographs from 1944 depicting the arrival of Hungarian Jews from Carpatho-Ruthenia. The exhibit is free to view.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland from May 1940 to January 1945, was the largest of the concentration and extermination camps. Auschwitz-Birkenau differed from other extermination camps because it included a concentration camp and a labor camp, as well as large gas chambers and crematoria. Approximately 2,000 people at a time could be put to death in each of the gas chambers at Auschwitz, and the Birkenau crematoria could burn approximately 4,500 corpses per day. Historians estimate that at least 1.3 million people were deported to the Auschwitz camp complex between 1940 and 1945, and of these deportees, approximately 1.1 million people, a million of whom were Jews, were exterminated. An estimated 75,000 Poles, 20,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and some 15,000 prisoners of other ethnic backgrounds also were murdered at this complex.
The atrocious acts committed by Nazi Germany to systematically exterminate the Jewish people during the Holocaust resulted in the creation of a new word “genocide,” a word which had not existed prior to World War II. Derived by combining “geno” from the Greek word for race or tribe, with “cide” from the Latin word for killing, genocide refers to acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Auschwitz Birkenau is the most recognizable symbol of genocide in the world.
Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel stated, "For the dead and the living, we must bear witness." This quote encapsulates the importance of remembering and acknowledging the atrocities of places like Auschwitz, ensuring that the memory of those who suffered and were killed there remains alive in our collective consciousness. Contest submissions must relate to the genocide of Jews at Auschwitz or any other extermination camp. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the victims, the perpetrators, the process employed at Auschwitz or any other extermination camps to kill, and the antisemitic reasons used to justify the genocide of Jews. The guidelines for the format of the contest entries are as follows: The writing component can be a narrative composition or piece of poetry, no more than 1,500 words, double spaced and submitted in Microsoft Word. The art component should demonstrate originality and a creative representation of the theme, using paint, crayon, pencil or other similar medium, on 8.5x11 white paper. Multi-media submissions, no longer than five minutes, will be accepted in the form of YouTube videos, Instagram stories, or TikTok posts submitted electronically or on a flash drive. Media entries should demonstrate originality and a creative representation of the theme and should be as substantial in form and content as a written entry, though in accordance with the possibilities of these forms of media.
All entries, whether writing, art, or media, must be accompanied by a title page or label containing the following information: student’s name, home address and telephone number; student’s school name, address, and telephone number; teacher’s name; and grade.
The deadline is Friday, March 28, 2025. Submit submissions via email to Nancy Sentelik at the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation, nsentelik@jewishyoungstown.org. Presentation of contest awards will be made during the Yom Hashoah Community Commemoration at noon on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, at the Mahoning County Courthouse. All are also invited to the Shoah Memorial Service on Sunday, April 27, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center.
Contact the JCRC at 330.746.3250, ext. 108 for further information.
2024 Winners:
Charles Beichner, first place, grade 7-8 Poetry, Boardman Glenwood Junior High
Ronnell Gordon, second place, Grade 7-8 Poetry, Akiva Academy
Shelby Sullivan, third place, Grade 7-8 Poetry, Austintown Middle School
Danica Stanley, third place, Grade 7-8 Poetry, Austintown Middle School
Morgan Avery, first place, Grade 7-8 Essay, Austintown Middle School
Averi Billups, second place, Grade 7-8 Essay, Austintown Middle School
McKena Briggs, third place, Grade 7-8 Essay, Austintown Middle School
Addison Woodburn, first place, Grade 7-8 Art/Multi-media, Lowellville School District
Rubylyn Payumo, second place, Grade 7-8 Art/Multi-media, Austintown Middle School
Marion Pazin, third place, Grade 7-8 Art/Multi-media, Akiva Academy
Kharma Flowers, first place, Grade 9-10 Poetry, Sebring McKinley High School
Ava Acevedo, second place, Grade 9-10 Poetry, Boardman High School
Gianna Berardino, first place, Grade 9-10 Essay, Boardman High School
Jack Benson, second place, Grade 9-10 Essay, Boardman High School
Alexander Hoffman, third place, Grade 9-10 Essay, Boardman High School
Ella McGree, first place, Grade 9-10 Art/Multi-Media, Boardman High School
Kyrie Heeman, second place, Grade 9-10 Art/Multi-Media, Boardman High School
Natalie Vasquez, first place, Grade 11-12 Poetry, Boardman High School
Kaylee McCarty, second place, Grade 11-12 Poetry, West Middlesex High School
Ayzlin Jones, third place, Grade 11-12 Poetry, West Middlesex High School
Brayden Aratari, first place, Grade 11-12 Essay, Crestview High School
Lola Gordiejew, second place, Grade 11-12 Essay, Boardman High School
Maggie Hoffman, third place, Grade 11-12 Essay, West Middlesex High School
Natalie Vasquez, third place, Grade 11-12 Essay, Boardman High School
Sara Tackett, first place, Grade 11-12 Art/Multi-Media, Boardman High School
Ella Bartholomew, second place, Grade 11-12 Art/Multi-Media, West Middlesex High School