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Students at participating schools are invited to submit a piece of art or writing to the Waldman Arts and Writing Competition hosted by the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh! Details of the types of work suitable for each category, as well as requirements for your submission, can be found below and in these judging rubrics.

Students in grades 6 through 12 may submit work in any of these three categories:

  1. 2-D Art 
  2. 3-D Art 
  3. Poetry

High school students (grades 9-12) may also participate in a fourth category:

  1. Essay

All competition details and resources can be found on this page or in the Student Toolkit.

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Rounds and Awards

Once you submit your piece to your Sponsor, there are up to 3 rounds of judging (school level, regional level, and grand prize level).

Round 1 – School Winners

Up to four students per high school (up to one per category) and up to three students per middle school (up to one per category) will be recognized by the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh as the winning Waldman Competition representatives for their school. These students will be chosen by in-school judging. Each winning student will receive a certificate of recognition.

Round 2 – Category Winners

Four high school students and three middle school students will be chosen from across all submissions as the winners of each category. These winners are determined by Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh judging panels. Each winner will receive a cash prize of $100 and an award certificate.

Round 3 – Grand Prize Winner

As the overall grand prize winner, one student will win an additional cash prize of $150 and an award certificate. The grand prize is given to the student with highest scoring piece of the category winners.

Winning students from all three rounds of judging are invited to a celebratory event on May 14th 2025, where they will be honored with winners from around the region.

Instructions – Arts and Poetry

Prompt for Categories 1, 2, and 3

For the categories of Poetry, 2-D Art, and 3-D Art, we ask that students submit a piece that addresses the following prompt:

Established in 1980, the Holocaust Center was created as a living memorial to honor Holocaust survivors who came to Pittsburgh to rebuild their lives. Rather than build a statue or monument, local survivors and their children built an organization that would be a home for them—to talk about their stories and experiences, to gather in community, and to invite the rest of the Jewish community and all of Pittsburgh to gather together for commemorations like Yom HaShoah, Kristallnacht, and International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In an act of resilience against antisemitism, they undertook a mission to create a comprehensive resource center that would help people learn about the Holocaust and counter intolerance and hate in all its forms.

It was local survivors themselves that inspired Hal and Diane Waldman to start the Arts and Writing Competition in 1984. Now, for its 40th year, we are celebrating this history with the theme “Local Legacies: Holocaust Survivors of the Pittsburgh Region.” 

This theme grants students the opportunity to commemorate, honor, and connect with survivors who settled in our own communities after surviving unspeakable hardship. With the loss of so many survivors in recent years, it’s more important than ever to keep the memories of survivors alive.

We ask that students reflect on the lives and experiences of Holocaust survivors who settled in the Pittsburgh region, using primary sources, true stories, and testimonies to create poetry or artwork that represents the story or stories of at least one local survivor.

We are looking for entries that reflect genuine engagement with individual experiences in a historical context, and constitute a thoughtful and creative response. Judging will take place using the provided rubrics. Entries must be created by students. AI-generated works are not permitted. All projects must be individual; no group projects.

With your work of art or writing, be sure to include these required components:

  • Your name and contact information (your email and the email for a parent or guardian is recommended), on separate page from your art or writing piece
  • MLA-style bibliography (details in dropdown below)
  • Artist Statement (details in dropdown below)
Sources / Bibliography

Entrants must utilize one or more historical source(s) as inspiration for your work. Sources MUST be documented in an MLA-style bibliography that will be submitted along with your piece. Works must utilize at least one primary source or CHUTZ-POW! story or Generations presentation. Fictional accounts will NOT be considered valid sources. Suggested resources can be found here. Failure to submit an MLA-style bibliography including at least one primary source (i.e. survivor testimony) or CHUTZ-POW! story or Generations presentation will result in disqualification.

Examples of primary sources include: 

  • Oral testimonies and oral histories
  • Journal and diary entries
  • Memoirs and autobiographies
  • Interviews and other audio/visual recordings
  • Newspaper articles from the time period (history unfolded)

See recommended resources at the bottom of this page.

Artist Statement

Your submission must also include an artist statement which includes the title of the piece and may not exceed more than 100 words. (The title does not count toward the word count limit. Statements that go over the word limit will be disqualified). This article goes in depth about what an artist statement is and how to come up with one. Failure to include an artist statement will result in disqualification. Failure to include an artist statement will result in disqualification.

An artist statement should answer the following questions:

  • Why did you use them/it?
  • What materials did you use to create your piece, and why did you choose the medium/materials that you did?
  • What is the message of your piece?
  • What kind of personal meaning does that message have to you?
  • What is/are symbolic images that you used in your piece?

Rubrics can be found here.

Submitting your work to your Sponsor

Please submit your piece, sources, and artist statement to your Sponsor by the deadline they provide.  If selected as one of the winning works of art or writing from your school, and if you met all the requirements and deadlines of the competition, your Sponsor will submit your name for Round 2 of judging by the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh.

Instructions – Essay

The fourth category, Essay/Response Paper (high school only), follows a different format than the other three categories and has its own separate prompt which is different from the three other categories. Your essay must be 1000 words or less. Essays that go over the word limit will be disqualified.

Essay Prompt

Why is it important that we remember the lives of local Holocaust survivors? What can we learn from their stories? How can we incorporate these lessons into our lives and translate remembrance into meaningful action? In your essay, please reference the required resources and reflect on the story of at least one local survivor, citing your source(s).

Required resources:

  • Resource 3: Your Choice of Testimony from a Local Holocaust Survivor (Cite your source. See recommended resources at the bottom of this page.)

Please note that a response paper is a brief essay that explains your thoughts about a reading. It is not a research paper (you do not need to use resources outside of those required), nor is it simply a summary of the work. A response paper should demonstrate your understanding of the material by giving an original response (i.e., your thoughts) to the content of the material. Entries must be created by students. AI-generated works are not permitted. All projects must be individual; no group projects. Rubrics can be found here.

Submitting your work to your Sponsor

Please submit your essay and source(s) to your Sponsor by the deadline they provide. Please include your name and contact information (your email and the email for a parent or guardian is recommended) on separate page from your essay. (All projects must be individual; no group projects) If selected as the winning essay from your school, and if you met all the requirements and deadlines of the competition, your Sponsor will submit your name for Round 2 of judging by the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh.

HCP Local Survivors Archive

With this newly created page, you can learn about Holocaust survivors who settled in the Pittsburgh area by accessing their individual profiles. These profiles provide a central hub for any available testimony, photos, and other resources.

Access Here

The Holocaust Testimony Project

In honor of our 30th anniversary, the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh created a 2 part documentary, The Holocaust Testimony Project. Both parts are available in their entirety on our YouTube channel, featuring testimony from 17 local survivors.

Access Here

Generations Speaker Series

The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh’s Generations Speaker Series consists of video recordings of dialogues between Holocaust survivors and their family members, as well as talks by members of our Generations Speakers Bureau.

Access Here

Flares of Memory

In a series of writing workshops at the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, survivors who were children or teens during World War II assembled to remember the pivotal moments in which their lives were irreparably changed by the Nazis. These “flares of memory” preserve the voices of over forty Jews from throughout Europe who experienced a history that cannot be forgotten in ninety-two brief vignettes.

Access Here

Local Testimony at USHMM

Collection of oral video testimony that consists of 35 interviews of Holocaust survivors and liberators in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area.

Access Here

The Living Legacy Project

In 2015 and 2016, staff members of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and photographer Ryan Michael White visited with Pittsburgh’s Holocaust Survivors and documented their stories.

Access Here

CHUTZ-POW! Superheroes of the Holocaust

CHUTZ-POW! SUPERHEROES OF THE HOLOCAUST is an acclaimed and ongoing comic-book series created and published by The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh that seeks, as its mission, to place stories of UpStanders’ courage, resilience, and sacrifice at the forefront of Holocaust awareness. 

Access Here

Publications by and about
Local Survivors

Many books have been written by and about Holocaust Survivors. Click the button below to find a list of publications involving local survivors.

Access Here