Participants will create on the topic “Unordinary actions of ordinary people” in the context of the Holocaust

Center for Jewish-Bulgarian Cooperation “Alef” launches the Ninth Student Literary Competition “Whoever saves one human life, saves a whole universe”. The competition is already with international participation and is once again included in the National Calendar of the Ministry of Education and Science.
The participants in the competition will create on the topic “Unordinary actions of ordinary people”. They must be transferred to the time of the Holocaust and create a literary work in which to tell about ordinary people who committed acts requiring courage, sacrifice, valor and other high moral qualities, which were evident in the rescue of Bulgarian Jews.

The competition is aimed at students from VIII to XI grade in Bulgaria, Europe and Israel. They must present a short story written specifically for this competition, unpublished and not participated in other competitions.
The ranking will be done in separate categories for Bulgarian and foreign participants. Stories that are based on historical specifics and based on authentic stories will be considered with priority. The jury will highly appreciate the research spirit of the authors – searching for eyewitnesses or their heirs, as well as the creative reproduction of their memories. The competition starts on 11th of  October 2021 and will last until 1st of February 2022, which is the deadline for receiving student stories.
The jury will nominate the best literary works, and the winners will be announced. In addition to monetary and material rewards, they will have the right to apply for scholarships under the Ordinance on the terms and conditions for the protection of gifted children and the Program of measures for the protection of gifted children.
A novelty in the ninth edition of the competition are its final events, to which all nominees will be invited at the expense of the organizers. The competition will end with a three-day festival”Friendship – Meaning and Salvation”. In addition to a solemn award ceremony, the festival will include: screenings of documentaries dedicated to the Holocaust and the unique salvation of Bulgarian Jews, presentation of books, exhibitions, literary workshops led by famous Bulgarian writers and historians, literary readings and more. A special evening of friendship will give young artists the opportunity to communicate in an informal setting and create new friendships and promising contacts.
Alef’s literary challenge continues to be established as a platform for the manifestation and discovery of young literary talents and the development of their potential as active participants in the life of modern society, rethinking the lessons of history and responsible for the future.
The co-organizer of Alef is again the Municipality of Burgas, whose support the competition has received since its inception. Internationally behind the literary challenge are the embassies of Israel, Germany, Slovakia, Poland, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center – Yad Vashem,  the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland, the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, Netherlands and many other educational, social and cultural institutions in Bulgaria and abroad.

Additional information about the rules of the competition and its organization is published on Alef’s website: www.alef-bg.org