Claire King, eighth-grader in St. Paul School, Princeton, was recognized as one of three New Jersey student winners of the Fifth Annual Holocaust Essay Competition.
King’s winning essay reflected on the childhood experiences of Holocaust survivor Daniel Goldsmith, who spoke to SPS upper school students last spring as a culmination of their Holocaust Studies Program, the brainchild of Sally Chrisman, seventh-grade language arts teacher.
The essay contest was sponsored by Fegelson-Young-Feinberg Post 697 Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. King read her essay during a recent awards ceremony and received her honor from Allan Silverberg, chairman of the Holocaust Remembrance Program.
“What really stood out to me during [Mr. Goldberg’s] presentation was the night when the Nazis came to his town to eradicate every Jewish person living on his street,” King wrote in her essay. “The way Mr. Goldsmith’s mother acted to save her children is the way we need to act to save people being persecuted in our world today, such as the Rohingya in Myanmar. We need to be courageous enough to help save these persecuted people, just as his mother showed courage in order to do what is best for others.”
The essay competition is open annually to students who participate in the nationally and internationally acclaimed Holocaust Remembrance Education Program, sponsored by Post 697. Goldsmith is the program’s current featured speaker, who shares his incredible survival story, while emphasizing that his audience is the last generation that can hear directly from those who survived the atrocities committed by Hitler and the Nazis.
Goldsmith challenges the students to be “righteous Gentiles,” sharing what they have learned and seeking ways to foster tolerance among their friends, in their schools and communities.
Post 697 and its donors have made the multimedia program cost-free, and available to public, private and parochial schools; institutions of higher learning; retirement communities; libraries and houses of worship throughout southeastern Pennsylvania, southern and central New Jersey and northern Delaware.