Two students from Highlands High School were selected to be the two winners of the “Holocaust and Humanity” essay writing competition on April 12, 2021. The two students chosen were sophomores Kennedy Baioni and Megan Calme. 

     The Holocaust took place during World War Two, where over six million Jews were killed in brutal ways by the Nazis in Germany who were ruled by Adolf Hitler. This tragedy was finally put to an end in 1945 after the Nazis troops were defeated by the Soviet Union.

     The Holocaust and Humanity essay writing contest is a competition for students from different schools. It’s mainly targeted at those who are in grades 7-12. The Cincinnati, Kentucky, and Indiana tri-state region can submit an essay or a poem they write from a theme chosen by the contest holders.

     This year their theme was “In the aftermath of the Holocaust” and it focused on how the survivors share their story and use their voice for those who couldn’t. The prompt instructed them to choose a holocaust survivor for the project, “The Holocaust remembered”. They are required to do their own research on their chosen person, and listen and do interviews on said person. Both girls said that the experience of learning was very impactful and eye-opening. 

     “Learning about the Holocaust was really shocking, I never understood the process of it and all of the stuff we learned showed the deeper aspects of it,” said Calme.

     The students had to answer a list of questions they had to answer, provided in their instructions. Some of these questions included, “What did you learn from the survivor’s story about their life and the Holocaust?” and “How does what you learned to shape your view of your own life and your role as a citizen?”

     Baioni was surprised she won. “I was excited to find out I won, I was kinda surprised and with all that work I put into the essay it really paid off,” Baioni explained. Baioni has always enjoyed writing, so this wasn’t very difficult for her and was a good experience.

     Calme also expressed her feelings after her victory. “I didn’t expect to win, it was just me writing a poem for class and they told me I won.

     Both students’ writing experiences resulted in quite an outcome, where they put themselves in a different perspective and were able to fully understand the situation and what happened.

Below is a link to a post by Holocaust & Humanity Center announcing the writing contest winners:

https://www.facebook.com/CincyHHC/videos/757812738436057/?t=14