The Midwest Center for Holocaust Education is pleased to announce its fifteenth annual White Rose Student Essay Contest, now open to 8th through 12th grade students in the 18 county Greater Kansas City area .

THEME
CRITERIA
TEACHER INSTRUCTIONS
ELIGIBLE COUNTIES
CONTEST CHANGES FOR 2009-2010

The enormity of the Holocaust was such that no victim response to it would have stopped the Germans from implementing genocide. Jews under Nazi control faced various and often overwhelming obstacles to effective resistance. Despite this, Jews throughout occupied Europe repeatedly sought to oppose Nazi policy in various ways.

Part A: Describe one form of Jewish resistance to Nazi policy including details about the obstacles to that form of resistance. The essay should include the experiences of at least one person or group who engaged in armed resistance in teh camps or ghettos or by partisans or one of the following forms of unarmed resistance: underground newspapers, documentation efforts, maintaining a Jewish identity, acts of sabotage, underground couriers, clandestine political meetings, attempts to alleviate the suffering of camp inmates, attempts to inform the outside world, or staying alive.

Part B: Based on your research, write a concluding paragraph reflecting on the following quote by historian Lucy Dawidowicz: "The wonder is not that there was so little resistance, but that, in the end, there was so much."

CRITERIA
Each contestant is limited to one entry per year. Previous winners may enter again. Essays will be evaluated on development of content and theme, original expression, historical accuracy, grammar, and mechanics. The most successful essays will meet the following criteria:

• Adherence to theme, demonstrating substantial supporting detail for Part A
• Evidence of comprehensive and accurate historical research
• Sincere passion, personal insight, and unique writing style with minimal direct quotes
• Synthesis of information gathered from a variety of both electronic and non-electronic sources, all properly cited
• No more than two errors in grammar, spelling, or mechanics (Be particularly careful in the spelling and punctuation of Nazis, Nazi’s, Nazis’.)

Entries not meeting each of the following criteria are subject to disqualification:

• Completed entry form, including authentic, original signatures where indicated.
• Properly recorded footnotes (including those for specific ideas as well as direct quotes) and a detailed bibliography reflecting a variety of both books and electronic sources. Whole books found online are considered electronic sources. Internal citations are acceptable.
• Essays must be free of plagiarism and will be verified for original wording through web-based educational services. Those with passages copied directly from other sources, without proper citations, or containing vast amounts of quoted or minimally paraphrased material are subject to disqualification.
• Typed or computer printed double-spaced on 8 1/2” x 11” plain white paper, with one-inch margins and size 12 font. Use only one side of the paper.
• Disk or CD copy of essay, cover sheet, and bibliography --- submitted as ONE document --- in text or Word format. Label with student’s name, school, and teacher’s name. Use a new disk and verify that the document will open.
• MAXIMUM OF 1,200 WORDS. All words in the body of the essay are counted in the total, including articles a, an, and the. Disks will be used to determine word count.
• Five copies of essay submitted, each stapled in the upper left corner. To ensure blind judging, the student’s name and school should appear ONLY on one cover sheet and should not appear on other pages of the essay. Only one cover sheet is necessary for the five copies. Do not use a cover or binder.

Decisions of the judges are final.

GUIDELINES FOR TEACHERS

• Entries are limited to 1,200 words. This includes the body of the paper only. It does not include the cover sheet, title, footnotes, or bibliography. Papers exceeding this limit, even by one word, will be disqualified. Students should use the “Word Count” function on their computers. We will.
• MCHE encourages teachers to utilize this writing contest as a classroom exercise. To ensure that each essay receives the full attention of our judges, however, sponsoring teachers are limited to submitting no more than 10 essays per division (8-9/10-12).
• Each essay should reflect the student’s own work, guided and reviewed, but not edited in detail by the sponsoring teacher. Teachers should take care in attesting to compliance with contest requirements. A completed entry form with authentic, original (not photocopied) signatures must accompany each essay.
• In previous years, some students have accessed sites with inaccurate information. Therefore, we strongly recommend that students link to reliable web sites through www.mchekc.org and visit MCHE’s Resource Center, which houses more than 1,400 titles available for free loan. Hours are 8:30 until 5:00, Monday through Friday and until 7 PM on Wednesdays when school is in session.
• In past years, some students have left out citations of their source materials for direct quotations and paraphrased facts. Plagiarism results in disqualification.
• Entries must be postmarked NO LATER THAN Friday, March 26, 2010, or delivered in person to the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education office by 5:00 PM that day. Essays postmarked after the deadline, those brought to MCHE after the designated time, or essays sent by fax or e- mail will not qualify for judging. (NO EXCEPTIONS!)

ELIGIBLE COUNTIES
Kansas : Atchison, Douglas, Franklin, Johnson, Leavenworth, Miami, Shawnee, Wyandotte

Missouri: Buchanan, Cass, Clay, Clinton, Jackson, Johnson, Lafayette, Livingston, Platte, Ray

CHANGES FOR 2009-2010

• Students in the 18 county Kansas City area are eligible to participate. This is up from 11 counties in 2009.
• Sponsoring teachers may submit 10 entries per division. This is down from 20 entries in 2009.

 Questions? Contact Jessica Rockhold at 913-327-8195.

With Appreciation to our Contest Benefactors:

The Estate of Evelyn Gorten
The White Rose Society of the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education