In an effort to memorialize the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered during the Holocaust by the Nazis, the Holocaust Museum Houston collected 1.5 million handmade butterflies for a special exhibit. The butterflies were to be no larger than 8.5 by 11 inches in any medium.
The following poem, The Butterfly, was written by Pavel Friedmann on 04 June 1942. He was born on 07 January 1921 and deported to Terezin on 26 April 1942. He died in Auschwitz on 29 September 1944.
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.
I have always studied and read about the Holocaust and World War II history; it is a period of history that strongly fascinates me. When I heard about the Butterfly Project, I knew that I had to participate in this beautiful effort to memorialize the millions of lives lost. My daughters were very touched by the poem as well and desired to participate, so we each made a butterfly and sent them in to the museum. Hope's butterfly is top left, mine top right, and Eva's is lower center.
No comments:
Post a Comment