I Never Saw Another Butterfly

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I Never Saw Another Butterfly is a collection of works of art and poetry by Jewish children who lived in the concentration camp Theresienstadt. This book is named after a poem by one of the children, Pavel Friedmann.

I Never Saw Another Butterfly
Cover of I Never Saw Another Butterfly
Author	Hana Volavkova
Country	Czechoslovakia
Language	English originally in Czech
Genre(s)	History
Publisher	Schocken
Publication date	March 15, 1994
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	128
ISBN	ISBN 0-805-21015-6

1 Terezin
2 The Butterfly
3 The Play
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Terezin

Main article: Concentration camp Theresienstadt

During WWII the Gestapo used Terezin, better known by the German named Theresienstadt, as a concentration camp. The majority of the Jews sent were scholars, professionals, artists and musicians. Inmates were encouraged to lead creative lives, and concerts were even held. Within the camp, parks, grassy areas and flower beds, concert venues and statues were installed to hide the truth; that most of the inmates were going to be killed. This was all part of a Nazi plot to deceive International Red Cross inspectors into believing that Jews were being treated humanely. This façade masked the fact that of the 144,000 Jews were sent there, about 33,000 died, mostly because of the appalling conditions (hunger, stress, disease, and an epidemic of typhus at the very end of the war)^{[citation needed]}. About 88,000 were deported to Auschwitz and other extermination camps^{[citation needed]}. At the end of the war there were 17,247 survivors^{[citation needed]}.

Part of the fortification (Small Fortress) served as the largest Gestapo prison in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, separated from the ghetto. Around 90,000 people went through it, and 2,600 of those died there.

It was liberated on May 9th, 1945 by the Soviet Army.

[edit] The Butterfly

"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.

- by Pavel Friedman

Pavel Friedmann was born in Prague on January 7, 1921. He was deported to Terezin on April 26, 1942 and later to Auschwitz on September 29, 1944.

[edit] The Play

I Never Saw Another Butterfly is also the name of a one-act play by Celeste Raspanti. It is a true story about the life of the girl, Raja Englanderova, who survived Terezin. The play is a series of flashbacks in which Raja retells each segment of her life in Terezin, starting from when she first arrived at Terezin as a scared child and ending with a collage of voices in her memory.