NOTE: This page is a mash-up of 2022-23 contest info and revisions to the website for 2023-24. LFP
Submit Your EntryContact Laura Patton, via email or 913-327-8236.
The enormity of the Holocaust was such that no victim response to it would have stopped the Germans from implementing genocide. Jews under Nazi control faced various and overwhelming obstacles to effective resistance. Despite this, Jews repeatedly sought to oppose Nazi policy in various ways. While armed uprisings or partisan activities are often held up as examples of successful Jewish resistance, not all resistance was armed. Often the only course of action available was an act of unarmed resistance.
Successful acts of resistance took many forms, ranging from personal acts to preserve dignity; social acts to preserve the community such as organizing clandestine schools, soup kitchens and underground record keeping; political acts such as the sabotage of the German war industry; and eventually, armed uprisings. Nowhere was resistance more robust than in the ghettos where Jews last lived as families and communities and resistance activities occurred amidst extreme conditions and against enormous odds.
A successful essay or documentary entry will address both portions of the following prompt. At minimum, one-fourth of the finished work must be devoted to the REFLECTION prompt.
RESEARCH: Describe the goals and obstacles to one specific form of Jewish resistance in the ghettos. Explain how that method was used by one Jewish person or group.
REFLECTION: Consider the Kansas City Holocaust memorial and Nathan Rapoport’s Memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. After researching several types of resistance, why do you think that memorialization disproportionately focuses on armed resistance? How might you elevate forms of non-armed resistance in memorialization efforts.
Though not one of the required documents, all students are encouraged to read the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Resistance During the Holocaust booklet for reference. More information on Oneg Shabbat can be found here. Please note these do NOT count as one of the three required primary source documents from the list below.
Students–The following contest rules govern the use of sources:
We recognize that writing bibliographic entries for Holocaust sources can be challenging; they might not match the examples given in style guides. Therefore, we have tried to help! The document linked here shows citations for all of the MCHE-provided documents for 2022-23 White Rose contest. Approximately one-third of the sources are formatted in each of the three required citation styles — MLA, APA, and Chicago. If pdfs of the research documents are missing a piece of information needed for a complete citation, check the bibliographic entry. You are expected to reformat citations as needed so that all of your paper and Works Cited use one citation style consistently.
Contest Eligibility
The White Rose Research Contest is open to students in 8th through 12th grades.
Entries are accepted in two categories–essay or documentary.
Entrants compete in two age divisions–Lower (8th and 9th Grade) and Upper (10th, 11th, and 12th Grade).
Students may submit one entry in one contest category per year. Students may enter the contest every year they are eligible. Previous winners may enter gain.
Sponsoring teachers may enter the ten best essays and the ten best documentaries created by their assigned students during a contest year. (Please consult the scoring rubrics for detailed criteria.)
General Contest Rules
Contest Rules for Written Work
Contest Rules for Audio-Visual Work
A documentary is an audio/visual presentation that uses many types of sources such as still images, video, and sound to communicate a historical argument, supported by research, and a reflection on this year’s contest prompt.
Entrants submitting a documentary must also submit a Process Paper that answers the following questions:
The end of the documentary must show a list of credits that acknowledges the sources of still images, moving images, interviews, information used in narration, and music used within the film/video. These source credits must be brief—not full bibliographic citations and not annotated. However, these credits should match the citations on the Works Cited page that must accompany the Process Paper. (See Contest Rules for Written Work above and on the downloadable White Rose Contest Guide.)
Documentaries should be saved in mp4 format, submitted as a YouTube link. Finalists may be asked to submit the mp4 files of their documentaries to MCHE. (See Additional Format Instructions for Process Papers on the downloadable White Rose Contest Guide.)
MCHE encourages teachers to utilize this research contest as a classroom exercise.
Sponsoring teachers are limited to submitting no more than ten essays and ten documentaries per age division per contest year. Teachers, you are the first White Rose judges! Please use the contest scoring rubrics to determine the most worthy contest candidates among your students’ entries.
If several teachers within the same school are working with their students on the White Rose contest, each of those teachers may submit up to ten essay and ten documentary entries. Please assign one sponsoring teacher to each entry even if a team of teachers worked with students together.
The following resources may be helpful to both teachers and students:
Contest entries will be evaluated in two rounds of judging.
View the scoring rubric for essay entries.
View the scoring rubric for documentary entries.
All White Rose Finalists and their sponsoring teachers will be recognized in early May at MCHE’s Academic Awards Ceremony.
Winners of each contest category and age division will be announced at the ceremony. Winners will be asked to read their essays or screen their documentaries for the assembled audience.
Contest winners in each category and age division will receive a $300 prize.
Sponsoring teachers of each winner will be awarded a voucher worth $150 of Holocaust-related books, instructional materials, or professional development workshops.
2022-2023 Contest Theme: Jewish Resistance in the Ghettos
RESEARCH: Describe the goals and obstacles to one specific form of Jewish resistance in the ghettos. Explain how that method was used by one Jewish person or group.
REFLECTION: Consider the Kansas City Holocaust memorial and Nathan Rapoport’s Memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. After researching several types of resistance, why do you think that memorialization disproportionately focuses on armed resistance? How might you elevate forms of non-armed resistance in memorialization efforts.
Note that the word allowance has been changed for the new contest year. 2022-2023 contestants worked within a 1,200-word limit for essays and a 500-word limit for process papers. The time restraints on documentaries have not changed.
Lower Division Essay Winner: Sylvie Idol
Upper Division Essay Winner: Makenzie Brantner
Upper Division Documentary Winner: Braden Thompson — Documentary and Process Paper
This research contest is named in honor of the White Rose resistance movement of German university students. Hans and Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst, other friends, and their professor were arrested and executed for distributing leaflets denouncing the policies of the Nazi regime. May memories of these brave young people inspire us to reflect upon our own responsibilities as citizens in a democratic nation.
Our mission is to teach the history of the Holocaust, applying its lessons to counter indifference, intolerance, and genocide.
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