This year's theme: Heroes of the Holocaust
"Write or create an art piece about someone that you view as a hero from the Holocaust. This hero could be a resistor, a rescuer, a liberator, a role model, or a survivor."
The contest was open to grades 5-8 and 9-12 in the Miami Valley area. Hillel intermediate students participated in the contest through both art and writing. Submissions were due in the beginning and middle of March.
For the writing entries, most students wrote non-fiction essays while others wrote poems. Two students chose to write about their great-grandparents that survived the concentration camps. The rest of the students wrote about other Holocaust heroes--whether it was survivors or people that aided in rescuing Jews from the concentration camps. Students researched, typed, revised, and edited their entries before submitting them for judging.
Students were instructed to create a piece of artwork inspired by the Holocaust hero they wrote about for their writing piece. They thought about specific things from that person's life and incorporated elements of darkness and light to represent going from the fear, uncertainty, and danger of the Holocaust time to the peace, hope, and life that came afterward. Some art pieces were flat and others were three-dimensional but every student did mixed media to show a variety of effects. Materials used included photography, paint, oil pastels, charcoal, colored pencils, construction paper, and Sharpies.
Awards will be announced at the Greater Dayton Yom Hashoah Observance on April 8, 2018 at 4PM at Beth Jacob Synagogue. Art entries will be on display before and after the program.
Good luck to all the participants!
