Butterflies to remember the children of the Shoah

The idea was inspired by a poem written by the poet Pavel Friedman in 1942, and I add it below. I visited the exhibition in the Artists' House in Hadera and this theme deeply touched my heart and I wanted to share the experience with others because of its importance. We must never forget the million and a half children, including those of the Terezin ghetto, we must never forget the darkness that descended on the world, the worst kind of darkness. This darkness hid all the butterflies which these children should have seen. They should have played, rejoiced, been sated and happy and instead these little ones struggled for daily survival in order to live another day in the ghetto.

This exhibition taught me that even after 60 years the subject is alive among our children and it is very touching. This exhibition gives those children what should be theirs.

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

Pavel Friedman, June 4, 1942
Born in Prague on January 7, 1921.
Deported to the Terezin Concentration Camp on April 26, 1942.
Died in Aushchwitz on September 29, 1944.

To visit the website of the project: View and read