Annual Holocaust school prize goes online

The Dora Love Prize, which teaches schoolchildren in the region about the Holocaust, inspiring them to stand up against hatred, discrimination and intolerance, is launching online next week.

The Prize usually sees more than 200 schoolchildren attend an induction day at our Colchester Campus. This year it will be launched online on 7 October by Emeritus Professor Rainer Schulze and Janet Love, daughter of Dora Love after whom the Prize is named.

The launch, which will be live-streamed and recorded, will also feature a short clip from inspirational speaker and Holocaust survivor, Frank Bright.

Schools will be able to watch the launch event and a variety of workshops on a secure online platform, either live or recorded to suit their timetables. All schools that sign up will be given a password.

Workshops will explore topics such as Jewish life before the Holocaust, the persecution of the Roma and Sinti during the Nazi period, and gender, trauma and genocide. Workshop leaders include Catrina Kirkland, from the Holocaust Educational Trust, Owen Jones, from Hope not Hate, artist Alison Stockmarr, and Antony Penrose, from the Lee Miller Archive and Penrose Collection. Schoolchildren will also have the chance to hear drama students read love poems written by Dora Love.

Professor Schulze, from the Department of History, said: “We will miss the buzz of the induction event this year but running the Prize online offers schools much greater choice and flexibility to attend the workshops at times that are convenient for them and their students.”

The theme for the 2020-21 Prize aligns with the national Holocaust Memorial Day Trust theme: Be Light in the Darkness.

“The theme fits perfectly with present difficult times. We need optimism and activism to combat racism, discrimination and ‘othering’ of people, and to overcome fear,” said Professor Schulze.

“The young generation must develop a mentality, an activism, a spirit that instils in them the belief that they can and have to be actors, and that they can change the world if they want to, little-by-little, step-by-step.

“This year we are encouraging projects that link learning about the Holocaust to today’s unprecedented pandemic. We must make sure that it’s not fear that wins, but that we all shape the post-Covid world together, without leaving anyone behind.”

Schoolchildren taking part will develop an online community-based project which links what they have learnt about the Holocaust with current challenges in the world, exploring themes of solidarity, inclusion and diversity.

For information, or to register to take part in the Prize, email Professor Schulze or Hannah Onslow in the Department of History.