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
The 2027 Lydia May Writing and Max May Holocaust Art Contests have as their theme:
Children of the Holocaust
The Holocaust stole the childhoods of millions of Jewish children, taking away their normal lives, daily routines, and the people they loved. Some escaped through the Kindertransport and were adopted or fostered by complete strangers in Britain. Others – known as “hidden children” – were taken in by non-Jewish families who risked everything to protect them and passed them off as their own. Some endured ghettos and concentration camps, while a few survived entirely on their own. Most never saw their families again. And a million and a half Jewish children died.
Reflect on the experiences of these survivor children, their courage, their resilience, and the lasting impact of the Holocaust on their lives.
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: LZambilovici @ 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 19. 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.
See the previous (main) page for a list of resources.