Candidates for Youth Award (SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ACTIVE CONTRIBUTION TO THE COMMUNITY) are:
1. Center for Youth Integration Belgrade
(for Drop-in Shelter project)
2. Youth Center from Novi Sad
(for the Mobile Youth Club (MOK))
The Remembering Hilda Dajč Award
The Remembering Hilda Dajč Foundation was established on the initiative of Terraforming, Education for 21 Century, and a group of citizens, to contribute to fostering, improving, and strengthening the Holocaust remembrance culture that deals with the violent past in a way that fosters democracy, civil and human rights, pluralism, and critical thinking, while countering nationalism, hate speech, intolerance, and discrimination. Also, the Foundation strives to promote youth activism, personal and civic responsibility, social awareness, commitment, and solidarity among the youth.
Тhe Foundation has put a special effort on promoting and preserving the memory of Hilda Dajč, a young person who had made brave choices and remained an example of moral superiority and resistance during the times of the Holocaust.
As a special part of its activities, the Foundation has established the Remembering Hilda Dajč Award.
The 80th anniversary
In May 2022, we mark 80 years since the last group of Jewish inmates of the concentration camp Staro Sajmište was killed in a gas van, a mobile gas chamber. The Remembering Hilda Dajč Award will be presented on the May 8th as a contribution to the commemoration of this anniversary.
The Remembering Hilda Dajč Award will be presented for the first time this year
The awards ceremony will be held at the University Library “Svetozar Marković” in Belgrade on May 8 at 2:00 P.M.
Four letters in terracotta
The award trophy is designed by Prof. Dr. Vojislav Klačar, professor at the Faculty of Contemporary Arts in Belgrade, and President of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia ULUS.
The award trophy is designed as a bundle of four letters. It represents the four letters written by Hilda Dajč from the concentration camp Staro Sajmište. At the same time, the award trophy represents the words of all those who were killed together with Hilda Dajč, and millions of victims of the Holocaust. These letters are sent to us, in the present day, as a pledge that the victims must never be forgotten, and that it is up to us to ensure that a crime like the Holocaust never happens again.
The Remembering Hilda Dajč Award will be presented in two categories
The Remembering Hilda Dajč Award is an annual award. Each year the award will be presented in two categories:
- the Youth Award, and
- the Outstanding Contribution to the Remembrance Culture Award.
1. YOUTH AWARD
The Youth Award is intended for young people, an individual, group, or organization from the Republic of Serbia that showed notable personal and civic responsibility, social awareness, commitment, and solidarity, identifying a problem and taking action, particularly in their local communities.
The Youth Award will particularly seek to promote:
- addressing challenges and dangers posed by xenophobia, racism, discrimination, and intolerance;
- fostering active citizenship, pluralism, and constructive critical discussion that leads to finding solutions for overcoming challenges and problems in local communities;
- leading by own example, initiating and engaging others in activities aimed to support vulnerable groups in local communities;
2. THE OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO THE REMEMBRANCE CULTURE AWARD
The Outstanding Contribution to the Remembrance Culture Award is intended for individuals, groups, organizations, or institutions, from the Republic of Serbia or from other countries, that made a significant contribution to fostering, improving, and strengthening the Holocaust remembrance in the Republic of Serbia.
The award in this category will particularly seek:
- to encourage the improvement of Holocaust education in the formal and informal educational system in Serbia in accordance with the international standards set by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance IHRA, UNESCO, and The Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights;
- to promote programs and activities in Holocaust education and remembrance aimed to address antisemitism and antigypsyism;
- to support countering Holocaust denial, distortion, manipulation, trivialization and politicization of this history;
- to promote identifying and safeguarding Holocaust records, and their utilization for research and education in Serbia and internationally;
- to advance higher education about the Holocaust and the Holocaust research;
- to promote a meaningful culture of remembrance, that deals with the violent past in a way that fosters democracy, civil and human rights, pluralism, and critical thinking, while countering nationalism, hate speech, intolerance and discrimination;
Candidates for the outstanding contribution to the remembrance culture award are:
1. Historical Archives of Belgrade
(for the Jewish Digital Collection)
2. Museum of Sabac Jews
(for a great local grass-root initiative)
3. Sombor National Theater
(for the play “Semper idem”)
Congratulations to all the candidates!
The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony at the University Library “Svetozar Marković” in Belgrade on May 8 at 2:00 P.M.
The “Remembering Hilda Dajč” award has a Steering Board and its organized on the basis of a special rulebook.
The Steering Board ensures that the rulebook is respected, as well as the principles and values on the basis of which the recognition is based.
Members of the Steering Board:
(in alphabetical order)
- Albahari Biljana, Librarian, National Library of Serbia, Belgrade
- Bajalica Nevena (Chair of the Board), Program Manager at Terraforming, member of the delegation of the Republic of Serbia to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance IHRA, Novi Sad
- Barbulović Saša, Editor-in-Chief of the Belgrade Program (Morning Program and Belgrade Chronicle), Radio Television of Serbia RTS, Belgrade
- Danon Danijela, (representative of SJOS), Secretary-General of the Federation of the Jewish Communities of Serbia, Belgrade
- Keskinov Maja, Philosophy teacher, XIV Belgrade Gymnasium, Belgrade
- Dr. Klačar Vojislav, Professor at the Faculty of Arts in Belgrade, President of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia ULUS, Belgrade
- Dr. Koljanin Milan, Historian, member of the Board of the Memorial Center “Staro Sajmište”, member of the delegation of the Republic of Serbia to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance IHRA, Belgrade
- Dr. Lajbenšperger Nenad, Historian, Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia, Belgrade
- Nešović Gordana, Journalist, Radio Belgrade 1, Roma program, editor of the daily program “The Roma World”, Belgrade
- Stanišić Miško, Director of Terraforming, member of the delegation of the Republic of Serbia to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance IHRA, Novi Sad
- Dr. Šuica Marko, Professor, History Dept, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade
- Šuica Župančić Lidija, Art Teacher, NGO “Education for the 21st Century”, Belgrade