The Holocaust Writing, Art, and Digital Media Contest is offered in memory of Jacob Friedman. Special thanks to Jamie and Jeff Merriman-Cohen for supporting this contest.

Featured - "Red Shoes" by Marina LaBossier, Grade 10, Eastside Catholic High School, Sammamish.

This year we received approximately 700 entries representing 64 classrooms.  Thank you to all of the students and teachers who participated in this contest!

List of participating schools and teachers

More information about the 2014 Writing, Art, Digital Media Contest

Winners are listed by category:

Art - 5th/6th Grade
Art - 7th/8th Grade
Art - 9th - 12th Grade
Writing - 5th/6th Grade
Writing - 7th/8th Grade
Writing - 9th - 12th Grade
Digital Media - All Grades

Art - 5th/6th Grade

1st Place: Rylee Grant, Grade 6, Cedar Park Christian School, Bothell.  Teacher: Hahnna Christenson.  Artist Statement: My theme is liberation. I was inspired by the people who were strong throughout the holocaust. My art piece is showing all of the struggles, but finally breaking free of the trials and hardships. The title of my piece is “Unmarked”. The skin that was marked represents torture and tribulation, but it is finally coming off, to start a new life and break free of misery.

2nd Place: Korrina Greben, Grade 6, Cedar Park Christian School, Bothell. Teacher: Hahnna Christenson. 

Artist's Statement: Irena Sendler always thought she wasn’t doing enough to help those around her. First she started just caring for the sick. Then a Jewish mother begged Irena to take her child and hide him. It was then when Irena started to hide Jewish children with Polish and Ukrainian families. Irena Sendler kept a jar and with every child she hid she kept an account of them on a strip of paper. Their real name, the place where she hid them, and their fake name. This art project is what I think Irena’s desk looked like. Irena Sendler really inspires me to help homeless and orphaned children.

3rd Place (TIE): Phoebe Kucera, Grade 6, Moran Prairie, Spokane. Teacher: Paul Regelbrugge.  Artist's Statement: I was inspired to create my art about children. I did this because I have a connection with them. Their lives were broken. I was looking through the names of these children, and some of the children were 2 years old. Take Maria Batman, for example, this little child died at 8. None of these kids had a chance to grow up, to live their lives. So in honor of these children, I wrote a lot of their names down in the shape of a heart.

3rd Place (TIE): Maya Nathani, Grade 6, Lake Washington Girls Middle School, Seattle. Teacher: Chelsea McCollum. Artist's Statement: The Anonymous Girl Diarist from the Lodz Ghetto was a young girl who lived in the Ludz Ghetto. She wrote in her diary every day for months. Her words were inspiring and really showed life in the holocaust in a beautiful, poetic way. For the contest, I wrote a poem in the shape of this girl. The poem tells of the girl’s words and their impact on me and my perception of the Holocaust. Surrounding her, there is barbed wire is made up of her quotes. I chose her because her words really changed my perception of the Holocaust.

Honorable Mention: Danny DeNike, Grade 6, Moran Prairie, Spokane. Teacher: Paul Regelbrugge.  Artist's Statement: My inspiration for this project is three books and a movie about the Holocaust. The inspirations were called, Sharing is Healing, Maus, The Book Thief and the Island On Bird Street (movie). What really inspired me to make these clay pieces, is my Holocaust teacher who gave me my knowledge about the Holocaust, and the book Maus because the author (Art Spiegelman) showed me that I could tell a Holocaust story artistically, as he did by his wonderful drawings. My favorite part is my burning book pile piece. This is my tribute to Holocaust survivors everywhere.

Honorable Mention: Rachel Eder, Grade 6, Lake Washington Girls Middle School, Seattle. Teacher: Lindsey Mutschler. Artist's Statement:  My art piece is of a bird cage with the names of the groups of people who were targeted in the Holocaust leaving the cage. The bird cage is black to represent the darkness of their world during the Holocaust, and also to represent being locked up and not able to escape. I chose to have the words colorful because it shows the diversity of the people and how they can’t just be a Jew or a Gypsy because that was how the Nazis saw them. I chose to do this art piece because it shows the victims growing and keeping hope even after the war.

Honorable Mention: Stella Matthews, Grade 6, Lake Washington Girls Middle School, Seattle. Teacher: Lindsey Mutschler. Artist's Statement: My art piece is a mix between markers and collage. My art piece represents Kindertransport. The scene in my art piece is of some kids from Kindertransport on a boat going back home. I did silhouettes instead of detailed drawings because a lot of the kids when they came back their attitudes and expressions had changed because during the war they had to grow up fast and be able to take care of themselves and many others. The Star of David is there to represent that they’re Jewish. I wanted to do a symbol for Kindertransport because I am a kid and I wanted to learn more while I was making this art piece.

Art - 7th/8th Grade

1st Place: Ethan Hunter, Grade 7, St. George's School, Spokane. Teacher: Rachel Peters. Artist's Statement: This is a drawing that I drew from a picture of child survivors of Auschwitz. The picture was taken during the soviet liberation of Auschwitz in January 1945.

2nd Place: Larissa Schwendiman, Grade 8, Cheney Middle School, Cheney. Teacher: Stacy Spakousky.

3rd Place: Jordan Craft, Grade 8, Columbia Jr. High School, Fife. Teacher: Ed Scheidt. Artist's Statement: Oskar Schindler, 1908-1974, a man credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews by employing them in his factories during the Holocaust. The youngest of these Jews as a boy, 13 years old, named Leon Leyson. To take this photograph, I simply let go of it into the wind. I waited for the name, typed exactly how Schindler had written it, to drop before I took an excessive amount of pictures. I did this to represent how Leon, and all the other Holocaust survivors, were eventually set free, and were able to live life freely, willingly, and wherever they wished.

Honorable Mention: Jacki Patnoi, Grade 7, Saint George's School, Spokane. Teacher: Rachel Peters. Artist's Statement: “The Girl from the Annex”- My photo was inspired by Anne Frank’s diary, and although she did not write when she was in the concentration camps, many kids wrote while in ghettos, camps and other occupied areas. The girl in the photo is my sister who has Downs Syndrome. Hitler killed over 200,000 people that were disabled mentally and physically, and those people were the first to be put during this time in gas chambers and continued in secret throughout the war. The children’s diaries reflected human suffering and the struggle of hope against misery.

Honorable Mention: Annika Johnson, Grade 8, Columbia Junior High School, Fife. Teacher: Ed Scheidt. Artist's Statement: While reading I have lived a thousand years by Livia Bitton Jackson and Eli Weisel’s Night I have notice that no matter how much pain or suffering they endured, it seemed that ther was hope for a better day. The art work I created represented that hope. The white daisy is often a symbol of hope and innocence, so that is why I choose it over other flowers. The daisy grows in a place where surviving is at a minimum.

Art - 9th-12th Grade

1st Place: Jessica Kim, Grade 10, Bellevue High School, Bellevue. Teacher: Faye Scannell.  Artist's Statement: Born in 1920 Poland, Miles Lerman was a child who had great dreams and a bright future. However, soon crushed by the German Nazis, he became separated from his valuable family and was sent to a slave labor camp in 1941 when a German massacre occurred in Poland. Unlike many of the laborers in these camps, Lerman successfully escaped from the horrendous environment. He soon joined the Jewish Partisan unit where he fought against the unjust rules of the Nazis. This piece connects to the liberation of the trapped victims who continued the struggles to break free from the Nazis.

2nd Place: Kate Marie Christiansen, Grade 10, Eastside Catholic School, Sammamish. Teacher: Aimee O'Donnell.  Artist's Statement: This doll is a depiction of the them children. The barbwire and nails show the agony inflicted on everyone, especially the children during the Holocaust. This girl is inspired by the story of Miriam Wattenberg. Her diary describes the horrors of the Holocaust and her life in the Vittel internment camp in France in 1944. Mirriam Wattenberg describes the accounts of the Warsaw ghetto under the pen name “Mary Berg”. Her diary describes the terrible pain inflicted on the victims inside the camp. The barbwire and nails on the doll show the sadness and hurt that will not be forgotten.

3rd Place (TIE): Juan Sebastian Bernal, Grade 10. Seattle Preparatory School, Seattle. Teachers: Matt Barmore and Sheryl Healy.

Artist's Statement: “Not far from us, flames…were rising…Something was being burned there…Babies…Children thrown into flames.” (Elie Wiesel, Night Pg. 32) I was haunted by the image of burning children from Elie Wiesel’s Night. When we were prompted to create a work inspired by the Holocaust, one of the possible themes was children, and my mind jumped there instantly. The image is a dark possibility of Nazi concentration camp life for children, one that rushed towards a slow, scorching end. My art melds flames and babies together, almost like Life (symbolized by the babies) is burning.

3rd Place (TIE): Claire Manley, Grade 11, Holy Names Academy, Seattle. Teacher: Amy Anderson. Artist's Statement: My piece is to remind us of the children that had to experience the Holocaust. This piece was inspired by the movie, Life is Beautiful. That little boy in that movie is sheltered from the trust of the Holocaust. His father lies to him in order to preserve the innocence of the child. There are so many other children in the Holocaust that were not sheltered. I drew this to represent the innocence lost in these children by the horrors they had to experience.

Honorable Mention: Evan Sarantinos, Grade 10, Seattle Preparatory School, Seattle. Teacher: Jennifer Freeman.  Artist's Statement: Resistance during the Holocaust was carried out in a variety of different forms. Commonly, resistance is perhaps viewed at violent outbreaks within the ghettos Jews live in. However, a boy by the name of Juliek Yitzchak conducted his last act of resistance by playing his violin. During the holocaust, it was unlawful for Jews to perform music by German composers. During his last living moments, Juliek performed a fragment of a piece by Beethoven, a German composer. The quote used in the artwork, from Elie Wiesle’s Night, recounts the last moments of Juliek’s life. By capturing billowing smoke onto the wooden canvas, the artwork displays symbols of the crematoriums, the locations where Juliek’s family was killed during the Holocaust.

Honorable Mention: Megan Freer, Grade 10, Freeman High School, Spokane. Teacher: Pia Longinotti. Artist's Statement: Always silenced and hidden when he was young, Holocaust survivor Pete Metzelaar shared his story with my school in early November. Pete’s mother inspired me with her determination to protect their lives and to stay together. She thought quickly and worked hard to never get caught. Cold, dark, and tired, Pete Metzelaar’s mother lead him down the snowy paths of the city they had been hiding in. Wearing a handmade Red Cross uniform, with sheer brilliance and a silver tongue, she managed to get a ride out of this city where they were about to be turned in.

Writing - 5th/6th Grade

1st Place: Mena Bova, Grade 6, Lake Washington Girls Middle School, Seattle. Teacher: Lindsey Mutschler.  "Hope. There was a reason that this word was scarce during the Holocaust. There just wasn't enough. People in the Holocaust suffered unmentionable horrors, horrors that left many scarred and hopeless, with good reason." READ MORE

2nd Place: Adrien Regelbrugge, Grade 6, Moran Prairie, Spokane. Teacher: Paul Regelbrugge.  "And now, this is the twenty-first century. And it is nearly impossible for me to imagine a world in which where was not a Holocaust. And that realization crushes me, because somehow, even though I wasn not a part of that awful time, I feel more than scarred by it." READ MORE

3rd Place: Mara Wald, Grade 6, Lake Washington Girls Middle School, Seattle. Teacher: Chelsea McCollum.  "When someone says the name, 'Hannah Senesh,' what words come up when I think of her? For a start, she was brave, courageous, loyal, and confident. She was a Hungarian Jew that parachuted into enemy country during the Holocaut to help Jewish communities." READ MORE

Honorable Mention: Jocelyn Cruz, Grade 5, Selah Intermediate, Selah.  Teacher: Lorri Clifton.  "'Nice people, the Germans! To think that I was once one of them too! No, Hitler took away our nationality long ago. In fact, Germans and Jews are the greatest enemies in the world.' These are the words of Anne Frank, who, though she died at fifteen, still does and will remain known throughout the world as the author of a very detailed and elaborate diary, which shows us that even young teenagers can have strong opinions and feelings as well as adults." READ MORE

Writing 7th/8th Grade

1st Place: Attiya Khan, Grade 8, Meridian Middle School, Kent.  Teacher: Debbie Robinson.  “Your skin is like paper-mâché.”  “I know.”  “We’re going to die.” “I know.”  Wendelin wasn’t a smart twenty-four year old. In fact, he was rather lackluster and shattered in places that didn’t make sense. He couldn’t tell the difference between breads anymore because they were all a dry shade of sepia and they all felt unceasingly compact. He couldn’t tell the difference between soups because they all tasted insipid and contained makeshift potatoes. But he knew.  READ MORE

2nd Place: Journey Orchanian, Grade 7, Chimacum Middle School, Chimacum.  Teacher: Gretchen Berg.  "His name is Joseph Zivelewski Zola. He was not only my cousin, but a Holocaust survivor. I met Joseph, once, when I was a little girl. I have heard his story countless times and I was intrigued by his passion to survive." READ MORE

3rd Place: Mattye Gunner, Grade 7, Selah Intermediate School, Selah.  Teacher: Lorri Clifton.  “The story I’m going to tell you is my personal experience,” Metzelaar said. “It’s not a made-up story or something I read about. “ Have you ever wondered how hard the lives were of a child refugee? For Peter and his mother Elli Metzellar, they had extremely difficult life experiences such as staying hidden for more than four years and being dangled by the collar from the fist of a Nazi soldier. The Metzelaar’s were always in danger. READ MORE

Honorable Mention: Kyle Greenspan, Grade 8, Catlin Gabel School, Portland, OR.  Teacher: David Ellensberg. Throughout human history, there have been innumerable leaders brave enough to break the silence. This silence, is the silence of the oppressed. Elie Wiesel, a famous Holocaust survivor and author, once said, “silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” If people succumb to oppression, if they remain silent, then change will never arise. READ MORE

Honorable Mention: Makayla North, Grade 8, Centennial Middle School, Snohomish.  Teacher: Karen Taylor.  Elegy for Ebi Gruenblatt - You were a star, a star of rarest beauty | Hanging suspended in the clearest skies of night | Over your sprawling home and countryside, you watched and you played, | Surrounded by the love of your brothers. READ MORE

Writing 9th-12th Grade

1st Place: Tulasa Ghimirey, Grade 12, Foster High School, Tukwila. Teacher: Chris Kraght.  She remembers the crowd mumbling and moving about here and there. At fourteen the girl was standing by the window and capturing the beauty of nature, thinking, “why do the days come and go as night arrives? Why does the sun have to go and the moon have to replace it each night? Why can’t they both come at the same time?” The thinking of a person who is caught between two worlds can sometimes seem like the thoughts of one who is dazed and confused. READ MORE

2nd Place: Jonathan Tan, Grade 10, Jackson High School, Mill Creek. Teacher: Deb Kalina.  Over the course of time,  the mentally disabled were always characterized as useless and inferior by those who call themselves superior than us. In the Holocaust, many mentally disabled people were thrown into gas chambers after being physically examined because of the Nazis dream of a race without any imperfections. READ MORE

3rd Place: Emily Zebala, Grade 10, Eastside Catholic High School, Sammamish. Teacher: Aimee O'Donnell. Zebala Family Heritage: Impact of the Katyn Forest Massacre and Russian Invasion of Poland - World War II began on September 3, 1939, with the surprise attack on Poland’s western border by Nazi Germany (1). Only 16 days later, on September 19, 1939, the Russian Red Army invaded Poland’s eastern border (2). The invasion ended on October 6, 1939 with the division and annexing of the whole of the Second Polish Republic by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, In September 1939, my Great Grandfather, Stefan Zebala was among 15,000 Polish officers taken prisoner by the invading Red Army and put in camps at Ostashkov, Starabelsk and Kozelsk, USSR. READ MORE

Honorable Mention: Jennifer Hanna, Grade 10, Jackson High School, Mill Creek.  Teacher: Deb Kalina.  Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, those as just a few people that became known as heroes of society. Each one had a slightly different goal, however in the end they all wanted the same thing; justice. Attaining justice can be difficult in this world that is often filled with misunderstanding, prejudice, ignorance and hate. READ MORE

Digital Media - All Grades

1st Place: Marina LaBossier, Grade 10, Eastside Catholic High School, Sammamish.  Teacher: Aimee O'Donnell.   "Red Shoes"

2nd Place: Julia Mundell, Grade 6, Lake Washington Girls Middle School, Seattle. Teacher: Chelsea McCollum.  "Brundibar"

3rd Place: Davin McKinley, Grade 9, Charles Wright Academy, Tacoma. Teacher: Nick Coddington. Website - "Denmark During the War" 

Honorable Mention: Quinn Drathman, Grade 8, St. Nicholas Catholic School, Gig Harbor. Teacher: Kathleen Buxell.  Footage from school trip to Auschwitz with survivor narratives.

Honorable Mention: Carl Schildkraut, Grade 7, Congragation Kol Ami, Woodinville. Teacher Stephanie Shernicoff.  "Nefarious" This would fall under the theme of Resistance.  It was created using Finale composition software, and the audio played is a Finale file rather than a performance.  LISTEN NOW