1st Place Senior Multimedia

Julian Silver

Hillbrook School

Teacher - Ms. Lauryl Grimes

A Journey of a Soul in a Sea of Millions

I was fifteen when I began searching for the Corenzuits, a family branch severed by the Holocaust. Discovering that my ancestor Frida Corenzuit Bay was murdered in the Lodz ghetto brought necessary closure, but it also unveiled a tragic missed connection. Her daughter, Adela Bay, survived the camps and lived in New York City until 2002, unknown to us, despite our family living nearby. While I successfully reunited with cousins in South America and Israel, the silence that separated us from Adela is devastating. I was able to find newspaper articles, video footage from the Shoah Foundation, photographs, music she played, and other primary documents to try to learn about Adela’s life. This video tribute is an act of remembrance for her resilience. It seeks to heal the gap in our history and honor the survivors who, despite enduring the unimaginable, remained isolated from the loved ones searching for them.

1st Place Junior Multimedia

Joshua Burch 

Smithfield Middle School

Teacher - Ms. Leslie Hamrick

Mark Cundiff

My video honors my grandpa, Mark Cundiff.