In June 2010, the European Shoah Legacy Institute, in cooperation with the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem (the project’s chief organizer), and the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris – who ran the project in France; launched an international competition for the best poster for Holocaust Remembrance Day. The project’s objective was three-fold: to stimulate the younger generations to actively participate in Holocaust remembrance, to raise awareness amongst the public at large that January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and to support discussion in society about the importance of commemorating the Holocaust.
The project was co-financed by the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF).
Over the course of the competition, in which art, design, and graphic arts students in Israel, the Czech Republic, and France participated, a great number of posters was created on the theme “Children and the Holocaust.” Before creating their work, participants took part in a special seminar on “Art and the Holocaust” that was held on November 9, 2010, at the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň; on November 24, 2010, at J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem; and on February 10, 2011, at Tomáš Baťa University in Zlín. The international jury met in May 2011 at the Berlin office of the ITF. The jury comprised experts on graphic art and Holocaust education: Jan Arnesen, Chief of the Exhibits Unit at the United Nations; Jean-Marc Bretegnier, France, graphic designer and teacher; Debbie Hartmann, Israel, International School for Holocaust Studies of Yad Vashem; Helga Weiss-Hošková, Czech Republic, artist and Holocaust survivor; Kimberly Mann, Manager, Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Program, UN; Kathrin Meyer, Executive Secretary, ITF; Sophie Nagiscarde, France, Cultural Program Director, Mémorial de la Shoah; David Tartakover, Israel, graphic designer and Israel Prize laureate; and Ondřej Zámiš, Czech Republic, graphic artist. The jury selected the winning works which were exhibited on International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27, 2012) at the United Nations building in New York and in other prestigious venues in at least twenty-eight countries around the world.
The sixteen artists who achieved the highest scores were invited to Israel to take part in a week-long educational seminar in November 2011, and the three winning works also received a financial reward. The results of the competition were publicly posted at the traveling exhibition, on websites, and in brochures.
More: Poster gallery.