The opinions expressed in these works belong to the student artists and do not necessarily express views of the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater.
Senior Visual Arts
1st Place - Senior Visual Arts
Sonia Sabater
Cape Henry Collegiate, Mr. Jeff Warden
Tuned In
For my artwork, I chose to represent the news censorship carried out by the Nazi regime, effectively controlling the truth. In it, there is an ordinary citizen attentively listening to the radio, seeking to be ‘tuned in’ with the stories occurring. However, the radio is being gripped by a hand, illustrating the Nazi government who had complete control over the news and facts being reported. The hand also has blood dripping down the radio, representing the blood of the millions of Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
2nd Place - Senior Visual Arts
Spencer Barkan
First Colonial High School, Ms. Nona Weddle
The Truth Behind the Holocaust
This artwork shows a person walking down a city street, meant to represent a place like New York City, while the people around them stare with red eyes. The red eyes symbolize hatred, fear, and prejudice that may not always be spoken out loud but are still present. Behind the person is a dark shadow made up of dehumanizing words, representing the harmful labels that society places on marginalized groups. The shadow is not who the person truly is, but what others project onto them when they look for someone to blame. This piece connects to how Jewish people were scapegoated in Nazi Germany and shows how similar patterns of othering and hatred still exists today. By placing the scene in a modern setting, the artwork warns that hatred left unchecked does not stay in the past and can continue to harm people in the present.
3rd Place - Senior Visual Arts
Kiersten Jacobs
Cape Henry Collegiate, Mr. Jeff Warden
Faith or Fault?
Judaism was turned into a symbol of evil in the Holocaust when it should have been a display of everlasting faith through hardship. No one saw it coming when the Nazis rounded up over 6 million Jewish people to be killed or worked to death. In Elie Wiesel’s book “Night”, this is displayed, how even though the Jewish people had done nothing wrong, they were blamed for every German shortcoming, with only God to rely on to save them from suffering. This resulted in the dehumanization of many and can still be seen today. The woman, who is cracking from the iron grip of the Reich, blinded by the belief that no one would let the Holocaust happen, holds a menorah and an apple, two symbols of Judaism. She is surrounded by a crimson pit, full of the words used to blame hardship on Jewish people, many still heard today.
Special Commendation - Senior Visual Arts
Jon Gjokoli
Cape Henry Collegiate, Ms. Megan Mattson
Truth Behind the Holocaust
The art piece that I made for my Elie Wiesel project was a mix of buildings, people, and books. The first part of my project is the transition of buildings. You can see how they go from normal and well-built buildings to burning buildings that are breaking. Also, the sky changes colors in that transition, going from blue to red. This transition shows what happens when people find out the truth of the holocaust. The watch tower on the complete left shows the control that some people have over others, and in the middle, there are blindfolded people to hide them from speaking and seeing the truth. Finally, at the bottom there are burning books that represent burning the truth so that people never find out the truth of the state. This whole piece represents the state hiding the truth from the people.
Chairs’ Choice - Senior Visual Arts
Zachary Wright
Cape Henry Collegiate, Mr. Jeff Warden
Weight of the Star
The Weight of the Star is a sculpture that captures the weight carried by the Jewish people during the holocaust. The figure is portrayed as a malnourished being who is forced to carry this heavy star up the start of a staircase. The crude technology used to carry the star is a symbol of the mistreatment and inequality the Jewish population experienced during this time.
Chairs’ Choice - Senior Visual Arts
David Contreras
Contreras Home School, Ms. Rachel Contreras
They are Not Criminals
I wanted to make an art that spoke out against the violence that ICE (ordered by Trump's administration) has used towards immigrants. I am the son of an immigrant, and I decided I was going to portray the “the impact of scapegoating and the peril of hatred left unchecked” using this situation as my guide, but I wanted to generalize it. The script on the podium says “they are criminals” this is what is told to the audience. The large yellow and purple arm represents power. It's shooting those three words at people who look like they are holding weapons. But no, they hold tools which represent their skills and each profession. Each hand is different, representing diversity. My artwork represents the continuous pattern through history of those in power calling civilian’s criminals when they are not.
Junior Visual Arts
1st Place - Junior Visual Arts
Eva Contreras
Contreras Home School, Ms. Rachel Contreras
The Lies
In the center of the commotion is a boy being flooded with Nazi newspapers and posters filled with lies. Above him are a couple and a Nazi soldier who is pointing to a Jewish family, implying that “Those people over there cause your problems.” The children represent the children of Germany being influenced by Nazis in their school and all other aspects of life. The red on the floor represents the millions of innocent lives lost. The dead songbird represents that there is no joy and no happiness but suffering and sadness. The two women who are almost identical, shows that the only real difference between them is that one of them wears the Star of David.
2nd Place - Junior Visual Arts
Karen Humphrey
St. Matthews Catholic School, Mrs. Avis & Mrs. Mercado
The Tragic Solution
The Holocaust was a very sad and horrible part of history. It was a time where people got murdered because of their faith and race. It was a very dark time that caused a lot of pain for people all over the world. The Germans built gas chambers inside concentration camps to murder the Jewish people because of their faith and their background. To keep everyone, calm and prevent them from fighting back, they used a trick to make the victims think they were just going in to take showers and get cleaned up. They even had the people hang their clothes on hooks to make it look real, even though they were actually about to be killed. Their efforts to conceal their actions show that they understood the gas chambers were a cruel and wicked way to treat other human beings. My project symbolizes the horrid things Nazis committed.
3rd Place - Junior Visual Arts
McKayla Pubins
St. Matthews Catholic School, Mrs. Avis & Mrs. Mercado
The Annex
The Holocaust was a very sad and important event in history. During World War II, the Nazi government, led by Adolf Hitler, treated Jewish people very badly because of hate and lies. Millions of Jewish people were hurt and killed simply because of who they were. Learning about the Holocaust helps us understand why it is important to treat everyone with kindness and respect. One very cruel part of the Holocaust was how Jewish people were forced onto trains called cattle cars. These trains were made for animals, not people. The cars were crowded and cold with little food and water. Many people became very sick, scared, and tired during the trip. When they arrived at camps, families were often separated, and many people were forced to work or they would be killed. This shows how the Nazis did not respect human life.
Special Commendation - Junior Visual Arts
Julius Paulauskas
Cape Henry Collegiate, Ms. Megan Mattson
Train Ride to Hell
I wanted to create this piece not only because I wanted to participate in this competition, but because I wanted to tell a story. I wanted to show the trains that the Russians used to exile Lithuanians from Lithuania to Siberia. My great grandparents were forced onto a train very like the one I depicted. They were then cruelly transported for three weeks. But the worst part about this is that my great grandmother was pregnant with my grandma at the time. My grandmother was then born in Siberia, and for the first ten years of her life, she lived in a concentration camp. These camps are in some ways different from the Jewish concentration camps happening around the same time. I drew the story of the train ride to hell that my ancestors had to experience. I accomplished this using multiple layers of oil pastels to depict a train. Once I was done, I glued red tissue paper to my work to make the cabins of the train. I drew thick black smoke coming from the train's engine, and over top, I made the smoke form into a skull-like shape. Overall, I made a piece of art depicting a train, I used different techniques to do this, and I cannot wait to see the results of this competition.
Chairs’ Choice - Junior Visual Arts
Samara Hatchell
Cape Henry Collegiate, Ms. Megan Mattson
Innocence Behind the Wire
My artwork represents the hardships and sorrow of being a Jewish citizen that has been forced into a concentration camp during Hitler's rule. This message is depicted through articles about Elie Wiesel that were painted with watercolor to give it an older look, which were glued to the canvas as the background. In front, a boy wearing “striped pajamas”, sits in front of the barbed wire covering the articles. This shows how even such a young, innocent boy could be so discriminated against and forbidden from seeing the world when his life had barely begun.
Chairs’ Choice - Junior Visual Arts
Antoinette Mark
Saint Patrick Catholic School, Ms. Cassidy Wright
Do Not Forget About Us
When something goes wrong people are often quick to blame anyone, but themselves. They look for someone else to take the fall. When Germany lost World War One, they also looked for someone to blame, this was the Jewish population. Instead of facing their mistakes a whole innocent population was sacrificed. Hurt people hurt people, but this is no excuse for what Germany did to their Jewish citizens. They ostracized them, forsaken them, took away their human rights, and murdered them in cold blood. Their hatred of themselves for the loss of World War One, turned into a burning hot hatred for their own Jewish citizens who had done no wrong. This hatred was left unchecked until it killed six million Jews. Which is why the world should never forget what happened in the Holocaust and never let it happen again.
