This contest is held under the auspices of the Holocaust Education Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton. It is sponsored by Renate Frydman and family in memory of Grandfather Max May, pictured here. Framing of the art is sponsored by Allen Seymour in memory of his wife Carole.
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Each winter the Dayton Holocaust Resource Center sponsors two contests for students in grades 5 through 12. Click on the links below for complete details about the contests, including this year’s themes and deadlines. Contact dhrcdirector @ gmail.com with any further questions.
The theme for this year’s Lydia May Memorial Holocaust Writing Contest and Max May Memorial Holocaust Art Contest is
Heroes of the Holocaust
Always remember, Never forget!
“זכור לנצח, לעולם אל תשכח”
Create an art piece about someone that you view as a hero from the Holocaust. Teachers, please strongly discourage the use of AI! This hero could be a Resister, a Rescuer, a Liberator, a Survivor or another role model. Please encourage your students to look for a lesser known hero (some, like Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel, have already been covered extensively). The person’s efforts may have been world-changing or very humble. As the Talmud says, “If you save one life, you save the world.”
Entries must be submitted by the week of March 2-6, 2026. Click on the links below for full information on each contest, including how to submit.
Lydia May Memorial Holocaust Writing Contest
Click here to see a booklet of some past winning entries.
Max May Memorial Holocaust Art Contest
2026 Contest Resources
First, we encourage you to look at “Faces of the Holocaust,” our interviews with local survivors, rescuers and camp liberators.
Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@DaytonHolocaust
Curriculum guide: https://daytonholocaust.org/resourcesexhibits/education/faces-of-the-holocaust-using-the-interviews-in-the-classroom/
Also check out our research links on the DHRC website
Rescuers
Thousands of Europeans (Jews and non-Jews alike) in Nazi-occupied areas risked their lives to save Jews and others who would, if captured, have died in the camps.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (UK)
Stories of Women Who Rescued Jews During the Holocaust (from Yad Vashem)
Non-Jewish Rescuers in the Holocaust (from Jewish Virtual Library)
Discover Compassion: Stories of Rescue (from Jewish Foundation for the Righteous)
Rescue in the Holocaust (from Institute for the Study of Rescue and Altruism in the Holocaust)
Rescuers (from USC Shoah Foundation)
Survivors
You can find a great number of survivor interviews on Youtube, but we hope you will consider helping us to perpetuate the memory of our local survivors at the DHRC Youtube channel. Most survivors still living today were children during the war.
Survivor Reflections and Testimonies (from the USHMM)
USHMM’s Database of Holocaust Survivor and Victim Names
There are many survivors in Canada, too – see Survivors’ Stories from Montréal Holocaust Museum
Survivors in the UK, from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust
Liberators
The usual term for soldiers who took part in liberating camps near the end of the war. Most available interviews are with Americans or British veterans, but Russians were the most numerous liberators.
Excellent collection of 142 video interviews with liberators (from USHMM)
Liberation virtual tour and podcast (from Dachau’s official website)
Liberators’ stories (from the Florida Center for Instructional Technology)
The Liberators (from JewishGen)
Liberator accounts from the Warfare History Network
The Dayton Art Institute has a virtual tour of the 2021 art on exhibit there:
www.daytonartinstitute.org/exh
In 2002 we published a booklet containing some of the best contest entries from the past decade. Contact us if you would like copies, or view the entire booklet here. (large PDF file)
In 2003 and 2004, a selection of Art Contest entries were exhibited at the Webster Street Market, the Dayton Art Institute, and Sinclair Community College. Click here for the complete exhibit catalogue – thanks to Jill Wysong of the DAI.
Since 2004, selected Art Contest entries have been exhibited at the Dayton Art Institute. Some of these are pictured on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/DaytonHRC
Entries must be submitted by the week of March 23-28, 2025. Click on the links below for full information on each contest, including how to submit.
The librarians at the ERC at Wright State will be happy to help: contact beth.anderson @ wright.edu
We know that the uncertainties of this school year may present obstacles to students, teachers and parents alike when it comes to creating art and writing for the contests. We encourage entries from students being schooled at home as well as from the traditional classroom.
Entries must be submitted by the week of March 23-28, 2025. Click on the links below for full information on each contest, including how to submit.
Winners will be notified soon after the deadline, March 28, and will be announced at the annual Yom HaShoah commemoration at Beth Abraham Synagogue in April.
click: artentryform for the contest entry form
If you have trouble downloading the form, contact daytonholocaustresourcecenter @ gmail.com
You can also ask to be added to that e-mail list, if you are not on it already; we send updates periodically.
Entries should be brought to Beth Abraham Synagogue during the week of March 23-28. It is in Oakwood, at 305 Sugar Camp Circle, Dayton 45409. Be sure to phone first to make sure someone is there to let you in. See their website for their location, hours, etc. Their phone is 937-293-9520. Problems getting your entry to Beth Abraham? Call Melinda at 937-238-1194.
DIVISIONS: Division I is for grades 5-8. Division II is for grades 9-12. Students at any greater Dayton area school, public, parochial or private, are eligible. Entries must be submitted through a teacher, except in the case of home-schooled students. No more than two entries per student, please.
AWARDS: Monetary awards will be given for First, Second, Third Place and possibly Honorable Mention or Best of Show. Awards will be announced at the annual Yom Hashoah commemoration, this year at Beth Abraham Synagogue on April 28.
FORMAT:
Media that may be used: Drawing, Painting, Photography (if using computer imagery, it must be created as part of your own design), Printmaking, Three-dimensional Sculpture (mixed media assemblages, wood carvings, etc). Particular care must be taken with sharp edges, glass, and other delicate material. The glue must hold up when displayed and traveling to various locations.
All entries must be of manageable size and suitable for public display.
The Holocaust Education Committee reserves the right to exhibit any of the art entered in this contest, including photos of entries on this website or elsewhere. The art remains the property of the Holocaust Education Committee.
Each entry must have TWO entry forms: one attached to the artwork itself (on the back or bottom) and another copy to be included in an envelope mailed to the Resource Center by the teacher. This envelope may include forms for all the entries from a school or class. This makes it easier to identify and keep track of all entries. Download the online form just above.
mailing address:
Dayton Holocaust Resource Center
525 Versailles Dr, Dayton, OH 45459
questions? e-mail dhrcdirector @ gmail.com.
Here is a list of resources:
Holocaust Second Generation Resources
Videos for general researchers
Faces of the Holocaust: Marlene Stine (video, local second-generation survivor)
Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses intergenerational trauma (video)
Inherited trauma: Growing up the child of a Holocaust survivor (video)
Trauma Studies, Creativity, and the Second Generation (video)
The Voices of the Second Generation: Children of Survivors Writing Their Stories (video)
‘Makes you value life’ | Second-generation Holocaust survivor recounts mother’s escape from Europe (video)
Stories of Regeneration from the Second Generation – Esther Perel (video)
Survivor Testimony: Second-generation Holocaust survivor (video)
Holocaust Survivors And Their Descendants Share Generational Trauma (video)
Negative Experiences with Second Generation Groups and A Desire to Connect On A Human Level (video)
What It Means to Be Second Generation (video)
Intergenerational Transmission Through Three Generations in Holocaust Survivor Families (video)
The Second Generation: Children of survivors (video, from Australia)
Helen Epstein’s Reflections on Children of Holocaust Survivors (video)
Marion Deichmann shares her Family History (video)
Intergenerational Trauma: The Everlasting Impact of the Holocaust Part 2 (video)
Study finds PTSD effects may linger in body chemistry of next generation (video)
Absorbing Trauma by Osmosis: Holocaust Memory Across Generations (video)
The Voices of Descendants: The Continued Impact of the Holocaust (video)
Dr. Edith Eger and Daughter Audrey Eger Thompson (video)
Coffee with a Survivor: Third Generation Speaker Jaime Frankle (video)
How do you cope with the trauma you didn’t experience? | Leah Warshawski | (TEDx video)
Trauma Studies, Creativity, and the Second Generation (article and video)
Articles for general researchers
Second Generation Survivors (from New Voices)
Interesting story from the BBC on ancestry research helping with intergenerational trauma
“The Second Generation” – The Effects of the Holocaust on the Children of Survivors
How trauma suffered by Holocaust survivors has affected the next generation
A Conversation with Helen Epstein about the Second Generation
Scars of the Past – Group Work with Holocaust Survivors and Descendants
‘Holocaust survivor trauma rare in 2nd generation’ (seems to be a minority view)
BBC traces ‘unimaginable trauma’ of Holocaust inherited by children of survivors
Interview: The trauma of second-generation Holocaust survivors (from England)
Being the Grandchild of a Holocaust Survivor
Scars of the Past – Group Work with Holocaust Survivors and Descendants
The lives of second-generation Holocaust survivors
Remembrance: Perspective of a Second Generation Holocaust Survivor
The Second Generation Project (from Manhattan College)
‘I believe that my experience began in the womb and was later absorbed
through my mother’s milk’ (from Wales)
On the Periphery: The “Tangled Roots” of Holocaust Remembrance for the Third Generation
Holocaust and Diaspora Survival: The Next Generations. Past, Present, Future
Art and the Demands of Memory: Works by Second Generation Holocaust Survivors
Understanding Epigenetics as a Descendant of Holocaust Survivors )Jewish Women’s Archive)
The Ones Who Remember: Second-Generation Voices of the Holocaust
COULD THE HOLOCAUST REALLY HAVE AN IMPACT ON THE THIRD GENERATION? (from the UK)
Trauma handed down from parent to child
Generations After (from New Zealand)
The trauma of second-generation Holocaust survivors
Some technical/psychological/medical articles
Second-generation Holocaust survivors: Psychological, theological, and moral challenges
CASE STUDY: Second Generation to Holocaust Survivors: Enhanced Differentiation of Trauma Transmission
Transgenerational Transmission of Holocaust Trauma and Its Expressions in Literature
The Evolution of a Second-Generation of Holocaust Survivor Identity
Reli(e)ving the Past: Emotion Work in the Holocaust’s Second Generation
Second-generation Holocaust survivors: Psychological, theological, and moral challenges
Intergenerational Trauma in Second and Third-Generation Holocaust Survivors (video)
Sample records for second-generation holocaust survivors
Study finds epigenetic changes in children of Holocaust survivors
Missing the “Real” Trace of Trauma: How the Second Generation Remember the Holocaust
Children of Holocaust Survivors: The Experience of Engaging with a Traumatic Family History
Descendants of Holocaust Survivors Have Altered Stress Hormones (from Scientific American)