The Holocaust Memorial and Educational Center of Nassau County recently announced the winners of their Fifth Annual Juried Arts Competition and Brian Strumwasser, a resident of Plainview, received honorable mention for his creation.

Each year, students from middle and high schools from Suffolk County, Nassau County, Queens and this year Brooklyn are invited by the Holocaust Memorial and Educational Center of Nassau County to participate in the center's annual art competition to express their feelings about the Holocaust and prejudices. Many had visited the center previously to see and hear the history of the Holocaust through photographs, videos and testimony of survivors and/or liberators.

Strumwasser created his project, entitled No Longer a Victim in pen, ink and watercolor. The piece, which measures 16x20, portrays a survivor being liberated and around him are the words survivor, hope, courage, safe and withstand.

"The Holocaust was about survival so I used the word survival," said Strumwasser. "I then branched off by thinking what you need to survive - you need to withstand everything, you need to have faith and you have to have courage and hope."

Strumwasser submitted his artwork, which took him just over two months to create, to Rochelle Morgan, a teacher at Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School where Strumwasser is a freshman. Although this was not done through the school or for any school credit, Morgan submitted his piece to the Glen Cove Museum.

The judges for the contest were Wilma Diamond and Fran Kessler and they judged the integrity of the artwork as well as the artistic quality. A variety of media and many types of artistic expression were exhibited. There were etchings, photographs, charcoal renderings, paintings and sculpture. All winners received certificates at the May 20 ceremony, at which there was standing room of an audience comprised of parents, students and teachers.

Strumwasser received a Certificate of Achievement signed by Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta, a Certificate of Recognition signed by Nassau County Presiding Officer Judy Jacobs and a Holocaust Memorial Award, which was signed by Boris M. Chartan, president of the Holocaust Memorial and Educational Center and also a survivor.

The most exciting part for Strumwasser is that his piece, No Longer a Victim, was accepted to become part of the permanent artwork at the Holocaust Memorial and Educational Center of Nassau County located at 100 Crescent Beach Road in Glen Cove.