The Midwest Center for Holocaust Education is pleased to announce the finalists in the 2017-2018 White Rose Student Essay Contest. This year students were asked to write on the following theme:

Victims of the Nazi Era

Between 1933 and 1945 the Nazis sought to create a racial state comprised of what they deemed to be a racially pure population, while at the same time attempting to bring the thoughts and values of their citizens in line with Nazi ideology. To that end, individuals of multiple groups were persecuted by the Nazis because of their political convictions, sexual orientations, religious practices, or their perceived biological identities. Though the ultimate aim of the Holocaust was the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question,” which resulted in the genocide of approximately 6 million Jews, the persecution, suffering, and murder of others deemed unworthy of inclusion in the Nazi state often pre-dated the persecution of the Jews and laid the groundwork for the mechanisms that would be used against the Jews.

Students were asked to explain why and how a non-Jewish victim group was targeted by the Nazis and the illustrate how that persecution affected an individual or family within that group. They were further asked to identify a primary parallel and a primary difference between that victim group and the Jewish experience in the Holocaust.

8th - 9th Grade Finalists

10th - 12th Grade Finalists