The Amud Aish Memorial Museum’s (Amud Aish) Kleinman Holocaust Education Center division has launched its third annual Student Visual Arts and Literacy Contest, Born to Live: Remembering the Children of the Holocaust. Open to students in grades six through 12, this year’s contest focuses on children who lived through the Holocaust and the items they took with them when they escaped or were sent to a ghetto.

Students are asked to focus on one of six items: (1) a letter that may have been a father’s last words to his son as he boarded a kindertransport; (2) a Book of Psalms that was a parents’ last gift to their son; (3) a challah cover embroidered by a sister who was later murdered; (4) a doll, a child’s sole connection to home while in hiding; (5) a wallet filled with receipts from parcels a son sent to his doomed parents; (6) a shoe from a toddler who escaped with his family.

To enter, students may write a poem or a letter to one of the children who owned one of these items, or they may create a work of art reflecting on the child’s life and the cherished item.The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2017.

The contest is sponsored by Meridian Capital Group, LLC, The Jewish Press, and The ArtScroll Library. Grand prize winners receive a $150 Visa gift card, second place winners receive a $72 Visa gift card, and third place winners will each receive a $25 Visa gift card.

For more information: amudaish.org.