Mountlake Terrace High School students were honored this weekend during the Holocaust Writing, Art and Film Contest Awards Ceremony at the Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle.

Rising junior Semira Beraki won first place in the writing contest for high schools. Her poem, titled “Fighting Injustice” is about her home country Eritrea and highlights the oppressive government she said her family faces back home.

“My poem addresses a topic that is very dear to me,” Beraki said.

Beraki’s parents left Eritrea for a better life in the U.S., she said. But she still has family back home, who weren’t able to leave and still live in oppression and live in fear.

“They can’t tell their stories back there (in Eritrea), so I wanted to share them,” she said, alluding to her poem.

She has a hope of her family being free, and she said that in placing in the Holocaust Center’s contest and having people actually read her work, she feels a small step closer to that.

Rising juniors Andy Shaw, Robert Krieger, Reece Newhouse and Daniel Quach won first place for their short film, “Do Not Go Gentle.”

It tells the story of a young man witnessed another student being bullied. Upon realizing his school couldn’t do much since it wasn’t on school grounds, doing his part to change the school’s policies through posters and other forms of protest. At the end of the film, a news story is shown from KOMO News about a school that changed their policies after major protest from students.

The prompt for the contests was a quote from Holocaust survivor, “there may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” Shaw said, upon reading the quote, they thought bullying would tie in well, especially in a high school setting.

The three-minute film was independently created by the four students, with the only received help from a math teacher who acted for a short scene.

“We just want people to know that there is a lot of injustice in the world and we need to be the people to step up against it because that’s the only way we can improve the current state of the world,” Shaw said.

Second place in the film category was also awarded to MTHS students. Rising juniors Andy Nguyen, Justin Guaren, Selam Ayele, Sharanjit Natt, Karly Rismoen and Christian Todorakev won the award for their short film, “United We Stand.”

Their film shows a student who’s being bullied for his stutter. He sees other students being treated the same way and they inform a teacher, who tell them they shouldn’t be acting this way. At the end, other students stick up for those being bullied and get them to leave.

“Our inspiration was knowing that someone is feeling what you’re feeling or is willing to help you through a situation can make a huge difference in your confidence,” Guaren said.

The message the group wanted to send was that a small deed can have a big impact, such as helping a friend and that leading to putting an end to the bullying.

Throughout the awards ceremony on Sunday, July 16, different guest speakers told their own experiences.

Henry Friedman, a Holocaust survivor and the author of several books, hasshared his story several times, sometimes in front of thousands of people.

He tells of his time hiding from the Gestapo under freezing and starving conditions for almost two years.

“I was living hour to hour in fear,” Friedman said. “I woke up every day hoping I would not die hungry. Now I wake up happy that I am alive.”

He said teaching young men and women about the Holocaust is important because it can prevent future tragedies.

“These groups of students will not be silent when they see injustice to a fellow human being. They can make a difference,” he said.

Holocaust Center Executive Director Dee Simon agreed with Friedman. She said that the importance of education on the Holocaust is invaluable. The Holocaust Center has books and trunks with supplies, along with training for teachers to properly have lessons.

Simon has had teachers of teachers from every subject approach her about how to teach, she said. From English and history teachers to math and science teachers. When she asks why they teach it in their class, she said they respond, “because I could not imagine teaching without first teaching ethics.”

Also, Simon said that the Holocaust Center often studies how students react to learning about the history of the genocide.

“We get to see this great work and great expression (through writing, art and film) but also we get to measure outcome,” she said. “We can see how students walk and talk afterward. They learn that what they do everyday matters.”

–By Stephi Smith, MLTnews intern