I Never Saw Another Butterfly - Children’s poetry and drawings in Terezin during the Holocaust

Six million Jews, of whom one and a half million were children, perished in the Holocaust while the world remained silent.

The Butterfly The last, the very last, So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow. Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing against a white stone... Such, such a yellow Is carried lightly 'way up high, It went away I'm sure because it wished to kiss the world good-bye. For seven weeks I've lived in here, Penned up inside this ghetto. But I have found what I love here. The dandelions call to me And the white chestnut branches in the court. Only I never saw another butterfly. That butterfly was the last one. Butterflies don't live in here, In the ghetto.

As part of the “final solution” to rid Europe of Jews, Hitler established concentration camps. “Concentration” means bringing together, and in these camps Hitler brought together Jews from all over Europe. In some of the camps, gas chambers were constructed. The Nazis gassed to death hundreds of Jews all at once – men, women, babies, children, old and young. There was no place to bury all of these people, so the bodies were burned. In some camps, the Nazis built crematoriums – ovens where they could burn hundreds of bodies at one time.

Many artists were shipped to Terezin Many artists were shipped to Terezin. For a time they were allowed to work as draftsmen and in similar jobs. But when they began sketching what they saw around them, they were beaten and tortured. Most of them were imprisoned and then sent on to be murdered at Auschwitz. However, the pictures that these artists produced survived and tell us better than words how horrible life was in Terezin.

The greatest tragedy of Terezin surrounded the children The greatest tragedy of Terezin surrounded the children. Thousands of children were brought there. A few children in this camp lived with their parents, but most were orphans and were housed together in huge barracks, 20-30 children in a room.

Between the years 1942-1944, more than 15,000 children stopped off at Terezin for a short time. Of this number, only about 150 survived. In these poems and pictures drawn by the young inmates of Terezin, we see the daily misery of these uprooted children, as well as their courage and optimism, their hopes and fears.

The children drew the things they saw around them – hunger, starvation, illness and people being murdered. They drew these things into their pictures and wrote about them in their poetry.

"Children were neither just the mute and traumatized witnesses to this war, nor merely its innocent victims; the war invaded their imaginations and the war raged inside them."

Power Point Presentation By Shani Abed Hebrew/Judaic Teacher San Diego Jewish Academy