Young Writers Respond to the Holocaust and Other Genocides

In 1944, Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish lawyer, used the word "genocide" to describe the Nazi policy of systematic murder, the aim of which was to annihilate all European Jews. When the International Military Tribunal held at Nuremberg, Germany, charged top Nazis with crimes against humanity, the term "genocide" was included in the indictment. Since that time, many cases of group-targeted extermination have occurred.

Even today, over 60 years later, preventing genocide remains a challenge that nations and individuals continue to face.

In Remembrance and Reflection: Students' Response to Genocide, students who studied the Holocaust, ranging from eighth grade through college level, have taken up the genocide- prevention challenge. As British philosopher Edmund Burke observed, "All that it takes for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing." In this anthology, contributing young writers have done "something". In their touching and poignant poetry, short stories, essays, and letters, they have increased our awareness of the human spirit and the depraved mind. In their reflections and inspirational tributes, they have brought to our memory the estimated 170 million civilians who were mass murdered in genocides of the twentieth century. And by their shared insights and youthful interpretations of tragedies past, this anthology keeps the memory of the fallen innocents alive in the hearts and minds of those of us who perhaps never knew, but now will never forget.

The wise words of Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel emphasize "...for the dead and the living, we must bear witness...To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time." Remembrance and Reflection: Students' Response to Genocide fulfills that noble purpose of bearing witness, revealing truth, and giving life to all the men, women, and children from whom life was taken the first time and honors the survivors and rescuers.