The Fourth Annual Holocaust
Writing Contest

Conscience and Community:
Choices of Courage

During their years in power, the Nazis and their collaborators worked to shatter communities throughout Europe, dividing people from one another. They narrowed the definition of community to people “like us” and through the use of intimidation, terror, and brutality, they sought to silence voices of conscience who opposed them. Intolerance can shatter any community.

In Germany, soon after coming to power, the Nazis began systematically to deprive Jews of their rights as citizens to vote, to sit on a park bench, to own a business or to practice a profession. They killed those with disabilities, children and adults, whom they regarded as “unworthy of life.” The Nazis targeted those who by their opposition, by their stance of conscience, defined themselves as the “other.”

With the outbreak of war, the Nazis and their collaborators ruthlessly separated Jews from their communities, expelled them from their homes, and sent millions to the concentration and death camps. Entire communities were wiped off the face of the earth.

Yet, in the midst of a world of silence and fear, there were those who rejected this narrow definition of community, and, as a matter of conscience, refused to allow the bonds of community to be broken. They sought to save lives and preserve community. Those expelled from their homes faced the challenge of creating new communities — communities of resistance — under the most difficult of circumstances. These individuals and communities struggled against all odds to maintain the dignity of the human spirit.

Middle School Competition

First Place Essay:  Brittany Horth
Second Place Essay: Andrew Grimm

First Place Poem: Jennifer Thompson
Second Place Poem:  Amanda Mener

High School Competition

First Place Essay: Andry Finegersh
Second Place Essay: Jennifer Wiegert

First Place Poem: Elaine Inoue
Second Place Poem: Vickey Mendez