To honour the life and legacy of Leon Greenman, the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education will once more be launching a competition inviting students to reflect on the power of his story. Last year, students responded to an unfinished poem by Leon and we at the Centre were amazed by the creativity, craft and care that went into the poems we received from students across the country. You can discover last year’s winning entries here.
This year, we’d like students to respond with original artwork based on a single day in Leon’s life, to tie in with this years’ Holocaust Memorial Day theme “One Day”. This theme talks to the idea of a single day as a turning point in an individual’s life, often tragically, as we reflect on the upheaval and destruction that can happen to victims of genocides in a single day.
‘One day’ can be seen as a snapshot or moment of time but it also speaks to hopes for the future, and the idea that ‘One Day’ we may build a world without genocide. The very best entries will speak to the nuances of the Holocaust Memorial Day theme and the experiences of Leon Greenman.
The stimulus for this art piece, drawn from Leon’s memoir An Englishman in Auschwitz, can be found here. The stimulus also has a connected discussion activity, and we recommend teachers spend some time discussing the meanings of the stimulus in order to develop student reflections ahead of producing their artwork.
This theme talks to the idea of a single day as a turning point in an individual’s life, often tragically, as we reflect on the upheaval and destruction that can happen to victims of genocides in a single day. ‘One day’ can be seen as a snapshot or moment of time but it also speaks to hopes for the future, and the idea that ‘One Day’ we may build a world without genocide. Leon himself said “Create love, understanding, and that will create happiness. And I hope one day there will be no more war, and everybody will have sufficient to live a happy life. That’s my dream. I hope it can happen” when interviewed about the Holocaust in 1994.
Please submit your entries by Friday 18th of February by email to holocaust@ucl.ac.uk, attaching either digital versions of the artwork or photographs of the piece.
Please be sure to include the following in your email:
- Pupil name(s)
- School
- Year group
- Image file(s) containing artwork
