The Lydia May Memorial Holocaust Writing Contest is named for the grandmother of DHRC Director Renate Frydman. Lydia is shown here with her daughter Carmen, Renate’s mother, who passed away in 2014 age 107.
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 further questions.
The theme for this year’s Lydia May Memorial Holocaust Writing Contest and Max May Memorial Holocaust Art Contest is
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 Friday, March 6, 2026. But any time before that is fine!
Because of the large volume of entries we receive each year – both art and writing – please try to send us only your students’ best work.
Important: You may either e-mail entries or send them by regular mail. If mailing hard copy, you need to include a cover sheet with the student’s name and grade, teacher’s name, and school; the entry itself should not include any of this information, in order to ensure anonymity in judging. Please send three copies. Entries coming directly from students will not be accepted – they need to come through a teacher, except in the case of home-schooled students.
Send e-mail entries to: jhochstein @ jfgd.net
Mail entries to:
Dayton Holocaust Resource Center
525 Versailles Dr, Dayton, OH 45459
Your entry may be fiction, nonfiction, prose, drama or poetry.
DIVISIONS: Division I is for grades 5, 6, 7, and 8. Division II is for grades 9-12. Students at any greater Dayton area school, public, parochial or private, as well as home-schooled, are eligible.
AWARDS: Monetary awards will be given for First, Second, Third Place and Honorable Mention.
GUIDELINES:
Entries must represent the independent and unassisted work of the student under whose name they are submitted. Proofreading for corrections by a parent or teacher is acceptable, but content must not come from anyone but the author.
Entries will be judged for originality, content, and understanding of the subject.
Entries become the property of the Dayton Holocaust Resource Center, which reserves the right to publish them in part or in their entirety.
PLEASE NOTE that the deadline is Friday, March 28. Winners will be notified soon after that date, and will be announced at the annual Yom HaShoah commemoration at Beth Jacob Synagogue in April
If you aren’t already on our e-mail list, please ask to be added; updates are sent out periodically.
Some resources for students
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