By Lindsay Steele
The Catholic Messenger
DEWITT — Several eighth-grade students from St. Joseph Catholic School in DeWitt placed in the 2026 Ida Kramer Children and the Holocaust Essay Contest. They will be recognized during a Yom HaShoah program April 19 at St. Ambrose University in Davenport.
The essay contest, sponsored by the Quad Cities Yom HaShoah Committee, was open to Quad-City-area students in grades 6-12. Organizers asked entrants to research the history of a specific child or youth who was caught in or witnessed the events of the Holocaust in Europe. “He or she could have been a Jew or a non-Jew, or have been a part of a family or a group of children suffering the same fate,” the application materials stated. “Tell how learning about the Holocaust through the personal story of this one individual makes the Holocaust more meaningful to you.” Essays were evaluated on development of content and theme, original expression, historical accuracy, grammar and mechanics.
The top finisher from the DeWitt Catholic school, Alyssa Cloos, earned runner-up honors and a $200 scholarship for her essay, “Never Forgetting.” She wrote that the Holocaust “was about so much more than the physical pain and suffering. It was the cold, hard truth that the world can be a cruel, mean place when no one stands up or makes an effort towards a change.”
Cloos focused her essay on the testimony of Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning author whose memoir, “Night,” offered a first-hand look at life in a concentration camp. Cloos was particularly moved by Wiesel’s account of German soldiers amusing themselves by throwing bread to starving prisoners and watching them “fight and beat each other for it. The soldiers knew the prisoners were starving and would do anything for food, so they entertained themselves at the prisoners’ expenses.”
“We will never truly know how it would have felt to go through what they did,” Cloos wrote of those who suffered during the Holocaust, “but one way we can stand with them in solidarity is by learning about their struggles and never allowing this treatment, to any degree, to happen again.” Honoring survivors is important, “but we also need to make a change in the world,” and that starts with being kind and treating everyone with respect, even those with whom we disagree.
Eighth-grader Roman Kramer placed third for his essay, “Reflection of the Past and Hope for the Future,” earning a $100 scholarship. Classmates Adelyn Arndt, Melrose Block, Hayley Jeffers, Tayla Petersen, Brighton Wallas and Mia Zimmer earned honorable mentions.
The DeWitt students’ sponsoring teacher, Demi Franck, incorporates the essay contest into her Holocaust unit each year. Survivor Yvonne Aronson, who was a young child during the Holocaust, will visit Franck’s classroom the day after giving the keynote address at the Yom HaShoah event in Davenport.
Contest winner Cora Creger, a sixth grader at Rock Island Center for Math and Science in Rock Island, Illinois, earned a $500 scholarship. Sponsoring teachers receive gift certificates from the Yom HaShoah Committee for their support.
The essay contest’s namesake, Ida Kramer, was the executive director of the Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities and a longtime Holocaust educator. At least 12 million people, including 6 million Jews, perished in the Holocaust, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
If you go
The Quad Cities Yom HaShoah Committee is hosting a Holocaust remembrance program April 19 in the Rogalski Center Ballroom at St. Ambrose University in Davenport. The program begins at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Keynote speaker Yvonne Aronson, now in her eighties, will speak about her experience as a child survivor of the Holocaust. Winners of the Holocaust essay contest and visual arts contests will be recognized, and Kim Busic from the Quad City Symphony will play several violins from the Violins of Hope project.
Community leaders of various faiths and organizations serve on the Quad Cities Yom Hashoah Committee. Sponsors are the Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities, Temple Emanuel, Tri-City Jewish Center, Churches United, Augustana College, St. Ambrose University, Black Hawk College, and Scott Community College.
