Holocaust Butterflies
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For seven weeks I’ve lived in here,Penned up inside this ghetto….I never saw another butterfly.That butterfly was the last one.Butterflies don’t live in here, in the ghetto.Pavel Friedman, died at Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944.
Ninth graders at WylieEastHigh School recently made butterflies to memorialize victims of the Holocaust. The museum in Houston, Texas, is seeking 1.5 million handmade butterflies in an effort to remember victims of the Holocaust. According to hmh.org, “The butterflies will eventually comprise a breath-taking exhibition for all to remember.” “Creating butterflies was a privilege. Knowing that they will be displayed at the museum makes me feel honored,” freshman Christina Obasi said.WEHS freshmen spent the last six weeks studying the Holocaust by reading the book Night by Elie Wiesel. This book was written by a survivor who tells of his personal experiences at Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland in the 1940s.“Reading Night made me sad and mad. Sad for knowing what had happened to human beings, and mad that someone can treat another human being like they were nothing. No one deserves what had happened in the Holocaust,” freshman Josh Jaworski said.The book had an emotional impact on students. “Hearing about the babies being killed in the crematorium was very upsetting. At times while reading Night I wanted to cry,” Obasi said.It is estimated that 1.1 to 1.5 million people were killed during the Holocaust under Hitler’s command. The students learned how victims were beaten, hanged, shot and burned in an effort to exterminate an entire race. “Nobody, no matter how bad they are, deserves this; nobody should be treated like an animal,” freshman Mia Maric said.The class took pride in constructing the butterflies. “The butterflies will resemble not only those that were freed at liberation, but those that might have lost their life; they are now free like a butterfly,” freshman Ashlee Shipp said.Mrs. Casi Thedford and Mrs. Megan Maxwell’s English classes made over 200 butterflies to send to the museum.“The butterfly assignment served as a wonderful way to honor those who died in the Holocaust. My students took pride in knowing that their butterflies would represent the innocent people whose lives were taken during that horrific time,” Maxwell said.
