Fort Braden’s World History classes, taught by Mrs. Brooks, began Holocaust Remembrance Week with the book “…I never saw another butterfly…” This book is a collection of children’s drawings and poems recovered from the Terezin Concentration camp from 1942-1944.
This book is collection of the poetry, diary entries, and artwork was created by children who were imprisoned in the Terezin concentration camp near Prague (present day Czechia) from 1942 to 1944. Terezin was a ghetto and a concentration camp for Jews on their way to concentration camps and the Germans used this camp as a model camp. Of the 15,000 children who passed through the Terezin Concentration in these two years, most of them were eventually deported to concentration camps and death camps in eastern Europe, and fewer than 100 survived the Holocaust. Terezin was a unique concentration camp where there were facades of stores, houses, and cafes all used to deceive the Red Cross and the world into believing that prisoners were being provided with an acceptable quality of life. The children held in Terezin played, secretly attended school, drew, wrote, and acted. Within the camp they saw two very different realities with scenes of meadows, hills, and birds in some areas, juxtaposed with the brutality of visions of flies, food lines, sick and starving people, concrete and bunks, beatings and executions in others. They saw the reality for what it was and yet continued to believe in truth and hope. To pass the time and express their overwhelming emotions, they used whatever materials had been smuggled into the camp to create these pieces of art.
Edited after the war by Hana Volavková, the book preserves the voices of children who expressed their inner lives through art under conditions of extreme deprivation and terror. The title comes from a poem by Pavel Friedmann, a teenage boy whose words capture the profound loss of innocence and freedom experienced in the ghetto. Across the collection, the children write about hunger, fear, separation from family, longing for nature, and memories of life before imprisonment. Butterflies, flowers, sunlight, and open fields appear repeatedly as symbols of freedom and beauty that stand in stark contrast to the barbed wire, overcrowding, and constant threat of deportation that defined their daily existence.
Students in Mrs. Brooks class first learned the background of the Holocaust and about different people’s reactions to the Holocaust. During a walkthrough, Assistant Principal Mrs. Gay observed an engaging lesson with scenarios and discussion about bystanders, upstanders, and perpetrators. Students then dissected the poem, the drawings from the book, and had deep discussions about hope and resilience.
Students demonstrated their creativity and understanding of what they had learned by showcasing individualized butterflies with the accompanying poem displayed in the hallway. Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor said, “when we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” By continuing to teach and remember the Holocaust at our schools, we are making the changes the future needs to see.
Roberts Elementary’s History classes, taught by 5th Grade ESE and Social Studies teachers Lauren Jones and Tara Lovern also created a project inspired by “…I never saw another butterfly…” Students explored the book and poem and used their newfound understanding to create art honoring the symbol of the butterfly, as a way to remember the children who lost their lives during the Holocaust. These visual reminders help to keep the memories of the victims alive and present in minds of all who see them
Students demonstrated their creativity and understanding of what they had learned by showcasing individualized butterflies with the accompanying poem displayed in the hallway. Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor said, “when we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” By continuing to teach and remember the Holocaust at our schools, we are making the changes the future needs to see.
Roberts Elementary’s History classes, taught by 5th Grade ESE and Social Studies teachers Lauren Jones and Tara Lovern also created a project inspired by “…I never saw another butterfly…” Students explored the book and poem and used their newfound understanding to create art honoring the symbol of the butterfly, as a way to remember the children who lost their lives during the Holocaust. These visual reminders help to keep the memories of the victims alive and present in minds of all who see them