Meredith Egge is not Jewish. She doesn’t even know any Jews in Oak Harbor. Yet the North Whidbey Middle School sixth grade student showed such empathy to victims of the World War II Jewish Holocaust that she was recently awarded third prize in a statewide writing contest sponsored by a prominent Jewish organization.

The 12th Annual Jacob Friedman Holocaust Creative Writing Contest was part of a week-long effort by the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center in Seattle to mark Holocaust Remembrance Week, April 27 through May 4.

All the students in teacher Jennifer Beck’s 6th grade language arts class entered the competition, whose topic was “Resistance and Moral Courage,” but Meredith was the only winner, taking third place in the fifth and sixth grade category. Meredith said she prepared for the contest by doing a lot of research on the Holocaust, but she couldn’t come up with a title for her poem. “Untitled” was good enough for the judges.

The first stanza of her poem reads:

Resistance is much more than just a word.

It’s more than a word that’s casually said in an idle time.

Resistance is pain, death, and suffering for beliefs and family,

Freedom and rights.

Jewish people found this out in World War II.

By overcoming obstacles,

And resisting the Germans,

They fought for the lives of their families and Jews.

Meredith said after writing the poem she had a better idea of what the Jews endured during the Holocaust.

“I felt I knew more about what people suffered and how evil people can be,” she said.

The contest winner traveled to Seattle May 4 with her family to be recognized in a program at Temple DeHirsch Sinai. The program included talks by an American G.I. who participated in the liberation of Buchenwald Concentration Camp, and a child survivor of Buchenwald.

At a ceremony for the contest winners she received a certificate and a savings bond, and had her poem published in a booklet of all the winning entries.

Meredith is the daughter of David and Patti Egge, and has a sister, Katie, 7.

Patti Egge said she was very proud of her daughter, and gives a lot of credit to the Jacob Friedman Foundation, and Meredith’s teacher, Ms. Beck, for presenting the contest exercise to the class.

“It’s great to see her efforts rewarded in a positive way,” she said.

Meredith’s poem, as well as the other winning entries, can be viewed in its entirety on the WSHERC Web site at www.wsherc.org

You can reach News-Times reporter Marcie Miller at mmiller@whidbeynews

times.com or call 675-6611