Steven Spielberg’s Holocaust education organisation has launched a competition for schoolchildren in the UK to make films inspired by the testimonies of survivors of the Shoah and genocide.

The Stronger Than Hate Challenge, organised by the USC Shoah Foundation in partnership with Discovery Education, has run in North America since 2013 but is open to British secondary school students this year.

Participants will have to listen to some of the testimonies of survivors from the Holocaust and other genocides, which the USC foundation has been collecting for over 20 years.

They must work on something to tackle prejudice in their own communities and record their efforts in a short video essay.

Claudia Wiedeman, the foundation’s director of education said: “Every year, USC Shoah Foundation continues to advance the mission of engaging students in themes around discrimination, genocide and identity to help young people build the necessary skills to counter hate.”

Hazel Carter, Discovery Education’s UK marketing director, hoped the completion would “enable students to explore challenging topics with their peers, using their voices to stand against all forms of discrimination and intolerance, while working for positive change in their own communities.”

Spielberg launched the foundation in 1993  after his Oscar-winning film about the Shoah, Schindler’s List.

The film challenge is part of a broader initiative to encourage students, Teaching with Testimony.

The competition, with a prize fund of up to £12,500, closes on May 4.