[YSU-Jewish] Holocaust writing opportunity

[Center for Judaic and Holocaust Studies at YSU]

JCRC ANNOUNCES STUDENT HOLOCAUST WRITING CONTEST

 

"That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay
the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the
judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has
ever paid to Reason."
- Justice Robert Jackson, Chief U.S. Counsel to the International Military
Tribunal, Nuremberg, Germany, November 21, 1945

 

Students in Mahoning, Trumbull, and Columbiana Counties, and in Western
Pennsylvania, are invited to enter a Holocaust Writing Contest, sponsored
annually by the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Youngstown
Area Jewish Federation.  The theme for this year's contest is "Justice and
Accountability in the Face of Genocide: What Have We Learned?"

 

Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day (to be commemorated this year on
May 1, 2011), is an internationally recognized day 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. In keeping
with the national theme set by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
in Washington, D.C., the 65th anniversary of the verdicts at the first
Nuremberg trial, and the 50th anniversary of the trial of Adolph Eichmann,
this year's contest topic addresses how the rule of law rather than
vengeance better serves humanity. 

The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1945 held 22 top Nazi
leaders accountable for atrocities they commanded and perpetrated.
Subsequent proceedings between 1946 and 1949 prosecuted another 183 persons.
This total represented only a tiny fraction of those responsible for the
Holocaust, but established important precedents.  Who was prosecuted was
more telling than how many stood trial. No one, regardless of official
position, was above the law. The argument that someone had just been
following orders was no longer considered a valid defense. Not only were the
shooters at mass executions and the guards at gas chambers tried, but
physicians and business leaders, government officials and civil servants
also were required to take responsibility for their actions-for as noted
historian Raul Hilberg wrote, "The annihilation of Jewry required the
implementation of systematic administrative measures in successive steps."

After Nuremberg, a new understanding of international responsibility for
human rights emerged, as the world began to fully understand the events now
called the Holocaust, spurring on a process to create a new vehicle that
criminalized attempts to destroy any entire group of people-the 1948 United
Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide.

Fifteen years after the first Nuremberg convictions, a single individual
would come to personify these crimes-Adolf Eichmann. A midlevel SS officer
central to the planning and implementation of the "Final Solution," Eichmann
was captured by Israeli agents while hiding in Argentina in 1960 and brought
to Israel for what would become known then as the "trial of the century."

In an event televised around the world, the Eichmann trial refocused
attention on the murder of the Jews of Europe. Unlike the Nuremberg trials,
which relied heavily on documentary evidence, the Eichmann trial featured
eyewitness testimony by Holocaust survivors, speaking out in a way they
never had before, enabling the world to put a face not only on the
perpetrators, such as Eichmann, but on the millions of victims and
survivors.

These anniversaries come at a time when some of the last living Nazis are on
trial and perpetrators of recent genocides and crimes against humanity are
being prosecuted. Precedents set in trials against Holocaust perpetrators
have guided a new understanding of justice as a tool for seeking
accountability, providing affirmation to victims, warning perpetrators, and
reflecting society's highest ideals about truth and justice. These trials
are also a harsh reminder that while accountability is necessary in the
aftermath of genocide, early intervention is vital to saving lives. Whether
it is prevention, response, or accountability, the Holocaust teaches us that
inaction can be deadly.  Actions, even small ones, can make all the
difference for those whose lives are at risk, now and in the future.

Students from grades 7-12 in public and private middle and high schools, and
all college students in the region are invited to submit an original piece
of poetry and/or narrative composition on this theme in four categories:
grades 7-8; grades 9-10; grades 11-12; collegiate.  Each category will
receive one award for poetry and one for narrative writing.  Honorable
Mention awards will be given in each category.

 

All entries must by typed or  printed, double-spaced on one side of numbered
pages, up to 1,500 words.  Each entry will be judged on originality,
content, appearance, and adherence to the theme, and must be accompanied by
a title page containing the following information: student's name, home
address and telephone number; student's school address and telephone number;
teacher's name; and grade.  

 

The deadline is April 4, 2011.   Although submissions may be mailed,
students are strongly encouraged to submit entries via e-mail in the
Microsoft Word format. Writings may be sent to the Jewish Community
Relations Council, 505 Gypsy Lane, Youngstown, OH 44504-1314, or e-mailed to
jcrc at jewishyoungstown.org.   Presentation of awards to the winners will be
made during the Community Yom Hashoah Commemoration Ceremony at the Mahoning
County Courthouse, 120 Market Street, Youngstown, on Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at
12 Noon.  Winners and their teachers will be contacted in advance of the
event.

 

For further information about the writing contest, contact the Jewish
Community Relations Council at (330) 746-3251.