South Bend, Indiana has a rich history post-World War II. The community “The People Next Door” is an organization in South Bend that preserves the stories of survivors of the Holocaust, specifically from the Jewish community. Once a year, during the springtime, they have an art and writing contest for high school students. They choose certain ones to be acknowledged at a ceremony to remember the lives lost over the Holocaust.

Before working on the art, the class watched a video from survivors of the Holocaust that are involved in “The People Next Door”. Students learned more about the organization and what it would mean to submit something to them.

This year Saint Joe had 5 students win from the art department. Ian Parks, a senior,  won first place for his artwork called “Shattered Homeland”. His inspiration behind his work was focusing on the results that will occur when the wrong person is in charge and the devastating results that could occur. That was seen with World War II with Hitler and now the world is seeing that with Ukraine with Putin. After watching the video, Parks wanted to portray how people felt during and after World War II.

Caroline Kocovski, a freshman, won second place for her artwork called “Hitlers Holo-cost”. Kocovski wanted to talk about the Holocaust in a different light. Her inspiration behind “Hitlers Holo-cost” was to focus on the details of the Holocaust and going through the timeline of the holocaust and the effects of the Holocaust. Kocovski’s art was extremely detailed which told a story within itself.

Andrew Shelley, Lindsey Gutermuth, and Sara Fry won Honorable Mention for their digital art.