Tuesday, February 14, 2023, the winners of the 5th edition of the Ilan Halimi Prize held at the Shoah Memorial

This prize allows to commemorate the memory of Ilan Halimi, victim of antisemitic barbarity, and also allows to promote projects that fight against racist and anti-Semitic prejudices and who commit for fraternity. Thank you to Élise Fajgeles, Secretary General of DILCRAH and the young "memory bearers".

About the Ilan Halimi Award:

The Ilan Halimi Prize was created in 2018 by the Interministerial Delegation for the Fight against Racism, Anti-Semitism and Anti-LGBT Hatred (DILCRAH) as part of the national plan to combat racism and antisemitism 2018-2020. It is named after Ilan Halimi, a young French man kidnapped, held hostage and tortured, who died of anti-Semitic hatred.

Ilan Halimi was 23 years old, he is the one who could be our brother, cousin, friend. This award aims to reward those who mobilize and who, through their creativity and inventiveness, commit to fighting prejudice.

GRAND PRIX

"In their eyes", School Center of the minor ward of the prison center of Liancourt (Oise)

The project was created to respond to a series of racist altercations between inmates in the juvenile wing of the prison by providing them with historical knowledge on the creation of stereotypes. These young inmates have designed an interactive exhibition of eight posters, a questionnaire and a quiz on racist and anti-Semitic prejudices. The visual realization of the project was entrusted to a class from a vocational high school in graphic design in Oise, as part of work on prejudices. The exhibition, questionnaire and quiz were then submitted to an elementary class as a gateway to a more global project on harassment. The jury was touched by the original involvement of young inmates that responds to a reality: racism in prison. He saw in this project a great pedagogical and preventive value and the possibility of developing the model (quiz, posters). The jury was particularly sensitive to the plurality of audiences involved, to the collective work between these audiences which normally do not meet.

JURY PRIZE

«Les Xénophobes Anonymes», Simone Veil Social Center in Angerville (Essone)

A group of 5 young people from the social center created an audio-visual project around the concept of cohesion. This fictional short film is inspired by the concept of Alcoholics Anonymous, and adapted to xenophobia. A session of Xénophobes Anonymes is staged during which two rap/slam pieces, composed by the young people are performed. The jury appreciated the very original, playful and clever format, which intertwines music, black humor and pedagogy as well as the high quality of the texts, the production of the video and the involvement of the two young rappers.

«Small museum for peace», Joliot-Curie elementary school in Bagneux (Hauts de Seine)

Pupils from a class of CM1/2 created a "small museum for peace", where about thirty works they have created are exhibited. This museum, located in the heart of the city of La Pierre Plate, where Ilan Halimi was kidnapped, addresses issues of discrimination, racism, and antisemitism throughout history. The visits – of students' parents, residents of the city, students from the nearby middle school, all classes of the elementary school – were ensured by the students themselves, taking on the role of lecturers of the exhibition. The jury was touched by the process of transmission by the young generation in this neighborhood of La Pierre Plate, traumatized by the drama of Ilan Halimi.

«Around the memory of Ilan Halimi», Jean Guéhenno High School in Saint-Amand –Montrond (Cher)

The project, led by 7 students in their final year at the vocational high school, focuses on the memory of Ilan Halimi and the history of the Holocaust in their territory. Screening-debate of the film "24 days", visits to places of remembrance of the 2nd World War on their territory (discovery of the wells of Guerry where 34 Jews were thrown alive), gateway in a priority area of the city (QPV) in order to raise awareness among the inhabitants about antisemitism and the story of Ilan Halimi, publication of a special issue of the high school newspaper on this theme. Highlight of the project, the students obtained from the mayor of the city the name of a square in the name of Ilan, inaugurated on Tuesday, December 6, 2022, during a public ceremony. The public appreciated the numerous pedagogical situations that prove that the project is part of a long time and in the territory. The involvement of these young people in vocational high school and rural territory, particularly for the nomination of the square is very touching.