What Can Holocaust Films Teach Us?: Indian Student Essay-Writing Contest for Yom HaShoah

In partnership with the American Jewish Committee (AJC) India and the Indian Pluralism Foundation (IPF), the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) is launching an essay-writing contest for youth across India to learn more about the Holocaust by watching an age-appropriate film about this horrific time period in human history, ahead of Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) on April 27th, 2022.

Students across India from grades 8-12 are invited to join a creative writing contest, with participants being asked to submit 1,000-word essays about the lessons of the Holocaust for modern societies. The Nazi regime led a campaign of hatred and racism until it became acceptable to persecute and murder Jews and other minorities on a mass scale. However, on the other hand, many individuals, the “Righteous Among the Nations,” took great personal risks to help Jews escape the clutches of the Nazis and survive the war.

Please choose ONE of the below questions to base your essay on:

1. What can and should contemporary democratic countries learn from the Holocaust to ensure it is never repeated?
2. Why do people sometimes choose to stand with evil on the wrong side of history and how can this be prevented today?
3. What is to be learned from the “Righteous Among the Nations” and their willingness to endanger themselves to lend assistance to oppressed Jews?

Students will submit their essays online, and a panel of distinguished judges will evaluate them.

Winning essays will be published on the Combat Antisemitism Movement website.

Some movie suggestions for the purposes of the contest include:

Life is Beautiful (1997)
The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017)
Europa Europa (1990)
Run Boy Run (2013)

The panel of judges will include:

• Mr. Tarsem Singh, Khalsa School, Executive Board Member & Former IAF (Indian Airforce Officer)
• Dipankar Basu, Academician, St Xavier School & Interfaith Ambassador
• Ms. Mehak Burza, Scholars & Researcher Holocaust, JMI University, Delhi
• Arjun Hardas, India Representative
• Professor Safoora Razeq, History Department, Allah University
• Ms. Jo Cohen, General Secretary, Jewish Community Affairs, Kolkata
• Mrs. Abeda, Vice Principal Jewish Girls’ School
• Rev Martin Pakhre, Scottish College, Board Member
• Dr. Rev. Sunil Caleb, Principal Bishops College

Prizes: Five first-place winners and fifteen runners-up will be chosen, all receiving awards of up to ₹3000. Each participant will also receive the book Night, authored by late Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel.

All submissions — including your full name, age, email address, and school name — must be uploaded here (https://bit.ly/IPFessaycontest) for consideration in the contest by MARCH 2ND.

We invite participants to learn more about the Holocaust by visiting the following educational websites:

Yad Vashem: World Holocaust Remembrance Center: http://www.yadvashem.org.il
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: https://www.ushmm.org
About the Holocaust: https://aboutholocaust.org/en