Every year, we encourage the schools we work with to participate in Annual Holocaust Art & Writing Contest organized by the Rodgers Center at Chapman University in Orange County, California. This year, in its 23rd run, the words “Turning Memory to Strength. Living with hope, courage and resilience” are the overarching slogan. To participate, the students need to first watch video testimonies of Holocaust Survivors and analyze and reflect on the motivations and messages of the witnesses to the story. They translate their considerations in creative ways: art projects, poems, stories, or films which they submit as their entries.

The competition combines things that are extremely important to us in the context of education about the Holocaust, and working with testimonies is always a unique experience. This year, teachers and students have the opportunity to use a much wider database of testimonies in Polish.

We encourage them to use recordings related to their area, as we believe that the connection with local history can significantly enrich their work. In the previous edition, one of the finalists was a student from Warsaw’s Romuald Traugutt High School. We are certain that this year will bring another unique submission or submissions from Poland!

In 2022, Forum has offered additional support to teachers in their work with students. We have invited interested educators to participate in workshops on using testimonies of Holocaust Survivors in education. The workshop was led by Monika Koszyńska, the regional representative of the USC Shoah Foundation in Poland., who showed how to use the materials collected in the digital archive. Together, we reflected on and discussed the ways of using this type of sources, often difficult to interpret, in education.

Project co-financed by Friends of the Forum, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, and individual and institutional donors from Poland and abroad.

In appreciation to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) for support. Through recovering the assets of the victims of the Holocaust, the Claims Conference enables organizations around the world to provide education about the Shoah and to preserve the memory of those who perished.