» Annual Holocaust Art & Writing Contest

“At the very last moment my mother reached into the pile of rags on the shelf where she slept and pulled out a walnut-size piece of dry bread. It was all in the world my mother had to give me, the best she could do.”
LEON LEYSON
The Boy on the Wooden Box

All too often the images of the Holocaust we carry in our minds are those created by the perpetrators. We see people humiliated, starved, and beaten, dressed in rags or tawdry striped uniforms, robbed of their humanity. If our study of the Holocaust ends there, we see the Nazis’
victims the way they wanted us to see them, deprived of their identities and individuality.

But when we listen to a survivor testimony or read a survivor memoir, we come to see those targeted as individuals. We meet them as people who gave and received love and for whom the memory of those they loved was a source of extraordinary strength. Love nourished the soul and
inspired hope.

Viktor Frankl endured the camps by thinking constantly of his wife and even conversing with her in his mind. Those conversations and the memory of her love enabled his mind to escape to another place and time. As he wrote in his memoir Man’s Search for Meaning, “nothing could touch the strength of my love, my thoughts, and the image of my beloved.”

After she was separated from her family, young Gerda Weissmann secretly carried in her boots photographs of her beloved parents and brother, Arthur. On the death march, when it seemed she did not have the strength to take another step, she said to herself: “I had to hope. I had to go on to the end. If Papa, Mama, and Arthur survive, they will wait for me, hoping and praying. I must not disappoint them.”

Love empowered a boy named Leon Leyson to search for his mother in the Plaszow concentration camp, daring to venture into a part of the camp where males were prohibited. As Leon wrote in his memoir, The Boy on the Wooden Box, “I knew I would be severely punished if I were discovered. Yet the danger was worth it if I could find my mother.” Well aware of the peril, Leon’s mother sent her beloved son away almost as soon as she saw him, but not before giving him a precious and tangible symbol of her love: “At the very last moment she reached into the pile of rags on the shelf where she slept and pulled out a walnut-size piece of dry bread. It was all
in the world my mother had to give me, the best she could do. I’m sure it was the only food she had.”

Viktor Frankl wrote: “[The person] who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.” For those targeted in the Holocaust, even when they had no idea of how they could survive, love—as both memory and hope—became the why. Love overcame despair and proved stronger than hate, inspiring people to fi nd a way to survive against seemingly impossible odds.

• Chapman University’s Holocaust Art & Writing Contest website, featuring video testimonies from the collection of the USC Shoah Foundation — The Institute for Visual History and Education at Chapman.edu/contest-testimonies
• South Carolina Council on the Holocaust website at scholocaustcouncil.org/survivor.php
• The 1939 Society website at the1939society.org
• USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education’s YouTube channel at Youtube.com/uscshoahfoundation (“Full-Length Testimonies” playlists only)

* Lists of testimonies that are one to two hours in length are available on the last page of the Educator Guide.

2. As you listen to the survivor’s testimony and reflect on the stories they tell, choose a specific word, phrase, or sentence that references a memory of love from before the Holocaust or an experience of love during the Holocaust that became a source of strength in the struggle to survive.

Please note the timestamp from the video testimony where the specific word, phrase, or sentence occurs.

3. As the person now entrusted with this individual’s memory, through your creativity in art, poetry, prose, or film, explore this word, phrase, or sentence as central to the survivor’s story, your knowledge of the Holocaust, and your own understanding of what it means to live a life that is shaped by and shares love.

• Regardless of delivery method (digital or hard copy), all entrants must complete the online submission form
• Entries must reflect genuine engagement with the survivor's testimony in its historical context and constitute a thoughtful and creative response.
• Entries must be based on a survivor's testimony available from one of the following sources:
  • Chapman University’s Holocaust Art & Writing Contest website, featuring video testimonies from the collection of the USC Shoah Foundation — The Institute for Visual History and Education at Chapman.edu/contest-testimonies
  • South Carolina Council on the Holocaust website at scholocaustcouncil.org/survivor.php
  • The 1939 Society website at the1939society.org
  • USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education’s YouTube channel at Youtube.com/uscshoahfoundation (“Full-Length Testimonies” playlists only)
• Entries must include a time stamp (timecode) from the video testimony. This is the moment in the testimony that the student chooses that references the theme of the contest prompt.
• Entries that do not follow the criteria will be disqualified.

• Regardless of delivery method (digital or hard copy), all entrants must complete the online submission form
• Entries must be submitted with the artist’s statement that includes
  • Title of the work
  • Name of survivor to whose testimony this work is a response
  • Statement of how the work addresses the prompt
  • Statement must not include student or school name and must not exceed 100 words.
  • Acknowledgement of sources – to protect copyright holders, proper citation of all sources is required. Permission for sources that are not public domain must be obtained in writing from copyright holder and submitted with entry.
  • Please do not staple, tape, or otherwise attach the artist statement to the artwork
• Submissions must be two-dimensional only, on medium no thicker than ¾”, and must not exceed 12” x 18.”
• Artwork must not be matted or framed.
• Fixative spray must be applied to charcoal, pencil, pastel, and chalk art.
• Submissions can include photography and computer-generated images.
• Artists can use charcoal, pencil, pastel, chalk, watercolors, acrylics, or oils.
• Renderings of another’s work will be disqualified. Please note that all images, whether computer, artist, or photo generated must be the creation of the student artist.
• Entries that do not follow the criteria will be disqualified.

• Regardless of delivery method (digital or hard copy), all entrants must complete the online submission form
• Entries must be submitted with the filmmaker’s statement including:
  • Title of the work
  • Name of survivor to whose testimony this work is a response
  • Statement of how the work addresses the prompt
  • Statement must not include student or school name and must not exceed 100 words.
  • Acknowledgement of sources – to protect copyright holders, proper citation of all sources is required. Permission for sources that are not public domain must be obtained in writing from copyright holder and submitted with entry.
• Content viewing time (without credits) may be no longer than three (3) minutes.
• File size must not exceed 600 MB.
• Films are to be submitted without credits for blind judging. A completed film with credits should be prepared in the event the film is selected for screening.
• Films may be submitted using WeTransfer.com, Google Drive, or other free file transfer websites.
• To ensure compatibility with MAC and PC, please use either QuickTime or MPEG format.
• Entries that do not follow the criteria will be disqualified.

• Regardless of delivery method (digital or hard copy), all entrants must complete the online submission form
• Entries must be titled.
• Entries must be typed.
• Entries must not include graphics, drawings, or other images. It must be clear that the entry is a poem and not artwork.
• Entries must not include reference to student or school name.
• Students should include the name of the survivor about whom the entry is written. If the name doesn’t appear in the work, it should appear under the title.
• Entries may be no more than 30 lines.
• Entries that do not follow the criteria will be disqualified.

• Regardless of delivery method (digital or hard copy), all entrants must complete the online submission form
• Entries must be titled.
• Entries must be typed.
• Entries must not include reference to student or school name.
• Students should include the name of the survivor about whom the entry is written. If the name doesn’t appear in the work, it should appear under the title.
• Entries may be no more than 500 words.
• Entries that do not follow the criteria will be disqualified.