Diane Williams with winning Holocaust essay writers and members of Anser’s Human Rights Leadership Team
On April 16th, 2014, the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights in Boise, Idaho announced the winners of their first annual Holocaust Remembrance Essay Contest. Hundreds of students throughout the state submitted essays, but only six students received certificates of appreciation and awards ranging from $50 to $100. Five of the award recipients attend the Anser Junior High School, and four of these five recipients, including the grand prize winner, are students of Memorial Library Educator and Satellite leader Diane Williams. Grand prize winner Emily Call read her essay at Yom Ha’Shoah: Idaho Day of Holocaust Remembrance on April 29th, 2014 at the Idaho State Capitol. Emily wrote that the Holocaust “left the world with a scar that will never fully heal.” She asserts, however, that, “learning tolerance through the Holocaust may prevent us from re-opening the wound.” Emily’s writing and speaking were met with rave reviews, but all of Diane’s students wrote eloquently and passionately on the essay prompt: “Why everyone should learn about the Holocaust.” Diane writes, “I can directly attribute this to the Memorial Library and the gift of my own better understanding of what will never be fully understood.” Diane is an English teacher who first participated in the Memorial Library Summer Seminar in 2007, and she is a co-leader of the Satellite Seminar in Boise. Diane finds that “in twenty plus years of teaching I have never had such powerful writing out of all 110 students.”