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...I Never Saw Another Butterfly...
Fifteen thousand children under the age of fifteen passed through the Terezin Concentration Camp. Fewer than one-hundred survived. In these poems and pictures drawn by the young inmates, we see the daily misery of these uprooted children, as well as their hopes and fears, their courage and optimism. 60 color illustrations.
106 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
29 people are currently reading
4977 people want to read
About the author
Chaim Potok
69 books1,829 followersHerman Harold Potok, or Chaim Tzvi, was born in Buffalo, New York, to Polish immigrants. He received an Orthodox Jewish education. After reading Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited as a teenager, he decided to become a writer. He started writing fiction at the age of 16. At age 17 he made his first submission to the magazine The Atlantic Monthly. Although it wasn't published, he received a note from the editor complimenting his work.
In 1949, at the age of 20, his stories were published in the literary magazine of Yeshiva University, which he also helped edit. In 1950, Potok graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English Literature.
After four years of study at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America he was ordained as a Conservative rabbi. He was appointed director of Leaders Training Fellowship, a youth organization affiliated with Conservative Judaism.
After receiving a master's degree in English literature, Potok enlisted with the U.S. Army as a chaplain. He served in South Korea from 1955 to 1957. He described his time in S. Korea as a transformative experience. Brought up to believe that the Jewish people were central to history and God's plans, he experienced a region where there were almost no Jews and no anti-Semitism, yet whose religious believers prayed with the same fervor that he saw in Orthodox synagogues at home.
Upon his return, he joined the faculty of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and became the director of a Conservative Jewish summer camp affiliated with the Conservative movement, Camp Ramah. A year later he began his graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and was appointed scholar-in-residence at Temple Har Zion in Philadelphia.
In 1963, he spent a year in Israel, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Solomon Maimon and began to write a novel.
In 1964 Potok moved to Brooklyn. He became the managing editor of the magazine Conservative Judaism and joined the faculty of the Teachers’ Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary. The following year, he was appointed editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society in Philadelphia and later, chairman of the publication committee. Potok received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1970, Potok relocated to Jerusalem with his family. He returned to Philadelphia in 1977. After the publication of Old Men at Midnight, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. He died at his home in Merion, Pennsylvania on July 23, 2002, aged 73.
In 1949, at the age of 20, his stories were published in the literary magazine of Yeshiva University, which he also helped edit. In 1950, Potok graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English Literature.
After four years of study at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America he was ordained as a Conservative rabbi. He was appointed director of Leaders Training Fellowship, a youth organization affiliated with Conservative Judaism.
After receiving a master's degree in English literature, Potok enlisted with the U.S. Army as a chaplain. He served in South Korea from 1955 to 1957. He described his time in S. Korea as a transformative experience. Brought up to believe that the Jewish people were central to history and God's plans, he experienced a region where there were almost no Jews and no anti-Semitism, yet whose religious believers prayed with the same fervor that he saw in Orthodox synagogues at home.
Upon his return, he joined the faculty of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and became the director of a Conservative Jewish summer camp affiliated with the Conservative movement, Camp Ramah. A year later he began his graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and was appointed scholar-in-residence at Temple Har Zion in Philadelphia.
In 1963, he spent a year in Israel, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Solomon Maimon and began to write a novel.
In 1964 Potok moved to Brooklyn. He became the managing editor of the magazine Conservative Judaism and joined the faculty of the Teachers’ Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary. The following year, he was appointed editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society in Philadelphia and later, chairman of the publication committee. Potok received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1970, Potok relocated to Jerusalem with his family. He returned to Philadelphia in 1977. After the publication of Old Men at Midnight, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. He died at his home in Merion, Pennsylvania on July 23, 2002, aged 73.
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April 18, 2018This is a heart-breaking and yet sweet book of children's poems, diary entries and artwork from Terezin, a Czech concentration during WWII. These children dream of home, the fleeting presence of butterflies and birds, ponder the loss of friends, and imagine a possible escape from the horror of their situation.
Almost all these artists died at Terezin or were later shipped to Auschwitz where they perished. A very few children survived: only .67% (100 out of 15,000). I love the following poem, most likely written by a child who only lived a few more years at most:
Birdsong
He doesn't know the world at all
Who stays in his nest and doesn't go out.
He doesn't know what birds know best
Nor what I want to sing about,
That the world is full of loveliness.
When dewdrops sparkle in the grass
And earth's aflood with morning light,
A blackbird sings upon a bush
To greet the dawning after night.
Then I know how fine it is to live.
Hey, try to open up your heart
To beauty; go to the woods someday
And weave a wreath of memory there.
Then if the tears obscure your way
You'll know how wonderful it is
To be alive.
-1941 Anonymous
Almost all these artists died at Terezin or were later shipped to Auschwitz where they perished. A very few children survived: only .67% (100 out of 15,000). I love the following poem, most likely written by a child who only lived a few more years at most:
Birdsong
He doesn't know the world at all
Who stays in his nest and doesn't go out.
He doesn't know what birds know best
Nor what I want to sing about,
That the world is full of loveliness.
When dewdrops sparkle in the grass
And earth's aflood with morning light,
A blackbird sings upon a bush
To greet the dawning after night.
Then I know how fine it is to live.
Hey, try to open up your heart
To beauty; go to the woods someday
And weave a wreath of memory there.
Then if the tears obscure your way
You'll know how wonderful it is
To be alive.
-1941 Anonymous
July 1, 2017
A tough book to get through.
Poetry and pictures by little children before they were purposely withdrawn from this earth.
How unneccessarily tragic are many of our actions and words.
Poetry and pictures by little children before they were purposely withdrawn from this earth.
How unneccessarily tragic are many of our actions and words.
Read
March 2, 2021شعرهای کودکانِ ترزین در زمان ِاسارت در اردوگاه نازیها
November 1, 2013
Last month I was lucky to have the opportunity to visit Terezin, a former concentration camp in Czech Republic. On one side of town is the fortress where they kept adult prisoners. In the town itself, every resident was evacuated, and the town was taken over by Nazis. Children lived in a barracks/prison in the town, while the regular housing was used by Nazis.
There were no amenities for the children, of course, but adults arranged secret schooling for them. There they concentrated many lessons on art work: drawing, painting, making of collages, and writing poems and stories. Thousands of these pieces of art were found in a suitcase stuck on a shelf, years after the war, and are now housed in a museum in Prague. This book is a small collection of some of those art pieces.
Terezin (German name: Theresienstadt) is known as the town that was dressed up, fancified for the visit from a commission from the International Red Cross. Some of the children write of the phenomenon of suddenly seeing gardens, pretty signs, and fake coffee houses and shops. The Red Cross group either fell for it, or reported positively because they believed they could do nothing about it. To this day it is still unknown which is true.
The poems are amazing and moving. I was especially touched after having seen the adult fortress and the current (now peaceful and pretty) town of Terezin. To have walked in the shadows of those lost souls is an amazing experience. Over 15,000 children under the age of 15 passed through Terezin. Only 100 survived.
This book honors the lives of the children who passed through Terezin and were given the chance to learn and create, temporarily giving them a glimmer of hope and expression. A lovely, touching book.
There were no amenities for the children, of course, but adults arranged secret schooling for them. There they concentrated many lessons on art work: drawing, painting, making of collages, and writing poems and stories. Thousands of these pieces of art were found in a suitcase stuck on a shelf, years after the war, and are now housed in a museum in Prague. This book is a small collection of some of those art pieces.
Terezin (German name: Theresienstadt) is known as the town that was dressed up, fancified for the visit from a commission from the International Red Cross. Some of the children write of the phenomenon of suddenly seeing gardens, pretty signs, and fake coffee houses and shops. The Red Cross group either fell for it, or reported positively because they believed they could do nothing about it. To this day it is still unknown which is true.
The poems are amazing and moving. I was especially touched after having seen the adult fortress and the current (now peaceful and pretty) town of Terezin. To have walked in the shadows of those lost souls is an amazing experience. Over 15,000 children under the age of 15 passed through Terezin. Only 100 survived.
This book honors the lives of the children who passed through Terezin and were given the chance to learn and create, temporarily giving them a glimmer of hope and expression. A lovely, touching book.
September 17, 2019
“...I never saw another butterfly…” là cuốn sách tập hợp những bức tranh và các bài thơ được sáng tác bởi trẻ em trong trại tập trung Theresienstadt ở Terezin, khu vực ngày nay thuộc Cộng hòa Czech, trong khoảng thời gian 1942 - 1944. Trước đây khi nhắc đến trại tập trung của Đức Quốc xã cùng sự tàn bạo của Holocaust, người ta thường hay nghĩ ngay đến Auschwitz, Buchenwald hay Birkenau. Nhờ cuốn sách này, mình mới biết đến thêm một trại tập trung khét tiếng nữa, được xây dựng nên với mục đích che đậy những tội ác thực sự của Đức Quốc xã.
Nếu Auschwitz được mệnh danh là “Kingdom of Death” - nơi những tù nhân Do Thái bị đẩy vào như là “điểm đến” cuối cùng của cuộc đời họ, thì Terezin là “Kingdom of Deceit”, được Đức Quốc xã dựng nên để tuyên truyền cho thế giới rằng bọn chúng chẳng làm gì sai cả, rằng những người Do Thái bước vào Terezin cũng như bước vào một xã hội thu nhỏ, một dạng cộng đồng nơi họ được đối xử bình thường. Terezin ngoài mặt là một ghetto Do Thái, do người Do Thái đứng đầu, thế nhưng những người đứng đầu này cuối cùng cũng nhận lệnh từ SS. Và sự thật những gì diễn ra đằng sau cánh cổng của Terezin, đằng sau những thước phim tuyên truyền sặc mùi giả tạo và giả dối đến mức trắng trợn mà Đức Quốc xã trưng ra cho thế giới thấy, là điều kiện sống kinh hoàng y như hàng loạt những trại tập trung khác.
Khoảng 15,000 trẻ em Do Thái người Czechslovakia đã bị tống vào trại tập trung Terezin, trong số đó chỉ có 100 em là còn sống sót sau cuộc chiến. Giữa cảnh sống khủng khiếp và bị đày đọa cả về thể chất lẫn tinh thần, các em, dưới sự hướng dẫn của cô giáo dạy vẽ Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, đã sáng tạo nên những bức tranh cùng những vần thơ phản ánh suy nghĩ, tâm lý, cảm xúc và cả ước mơ của những đứa trẻ trước cảnh ngộ khốn cùng. Và một lần nữa nhờ cuốn sách này, mình mới biết thêm tên tuổi của nữ họa sĩ người Áo Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, người đã đi học tại trường mỹ thuật-kiến trúc Bauhaus nổi tiếng của Đức, nhưng rồi dưới sự tàn bạo và khát máu của Đức Quốc xã, bà cùng chồng đã bị đưa vào Terezin.
Vẫn giữ được tình yêu đối với hội họa cùng niềm hy vọng vào sức mạnh của nghệ thuật trước nghịch cảnh và sự tàn ác của con người, bà đã hướng dẫn các trẻ em tại Terezin sáng tạo nên các tác phẩm hội họa của riêng các em, đồng thời giúp các em không bao giờ thôi đánh mất hy vọng vào ngày mai, dẫu cho thực tế của trại tập trung có khắc nghiệt đến như thế nào. Như thể lũ Đức Quốc xã chỉ có thể gông cùm thể xác của các tù nhân tại Terezin, nhưng không bao giờ có thể chạm đến tinh thần và khát vọng sống của họ. Điều đó đã được thể hiện qua những vần thơ mà những trẻ em tại Terezin, không đứa nào trên 15 tuổi, đã sáng tác và được Friedl Dicker-Brandeis thu thập lại. Chính bà sau này cũng đã qua đời tại Auschwitz như rất nhiều học sinh khác của bà, nhưng tinh thần và những gì được phản ánh trong các bức họa cùng những bài thơ là điều sẽ luôn sống mãi.
Chúng sống mãi để gợi nhắc cho cả thế giới thấy tính chất kinh hoàng của chiến tranh, của nạn đại diệt chủng Holocaust dưới đôi mắt trẻ thơ - những người lẽ ra không bao giờ phải chứng kiến cảnh đói rét, chấy rận, bệnh tật, những xác người chết ngay trong đống phân của họ; những chuyến chuyên chở tù nhân đến Auschwitz, đến với cái chết đã chờ đợi sẵn trong các phòng hơi ngạt và lò thiêu; và những cuộc tử hình ngay tại Terezin. Và đó thực sự là những gì đã được thể hiện trong các bài thơ do các em sáng tác, những bài thơ phản ánh sự khủng khiếp trong trại tập trung Terezin, sự khủng khiếp đi song hành cùng nỗi sợ chỉ khiến nhiều em mơ về cuộc sống trước đây, mái nhà trước đây, quê hương trước đây, trước khi bị đẩy vào chốn khốn cùng này, cùng những kỷ niệm đã trở thành quá vãng.
Nhưng trên tất cả, những bài thơ, và cả những tác phẩm hội họa được tạo nên từ bút chì, chì màu, sáp màu, màu nước, có khi là cả xé dán từ giấy văn phòng phẩm… cũng phản ánh cái nhìn thơ trẻ, có gì đó vô cùng trong trẻo, trong cái cách các em vẫn nhìn ra và trân trọng vẻ đẹp của vùng Terezin, nét đẹp của thiên nhiên cùng những điều nhỏ bé vượt lên trên những cảnh tượng u ám, ảm đạm, kinh hoàng bên trong cái hàng rào kẽm gai oan nghiệt. Đó như thể một “phòng tuyến” các em dựng lên trong tâm trí để có thể tiếp tục chịu đựng và đối mặt với thực tế đau lòng hiện tại. Và còn đó khát vọng sống, khát vọng tồn tại, hy vọng đầy ám ảnh muốn bứt ra khỏi những kinh hoàng này, đi cùng với đó là sự bất lực của những đứa trẻ không biết làm gì hơn là trút bỏ những nỗi niềm, cảm xúc và ước mong của mình vào trong những nét vẽ, những vần thơ.
Mình tự cảm thấy bản thân rất may mắn khi làm việc cho trường quốc tế, có cơ hội và điều kiện để tiếp cận với những cuốn sách quan trọng và có chất lượng như thế này. Sách thiết kế và in ấn đẹp lắm cơ, có màu và in trên giấy couché láng o luôn, đọc xong chỉ muốn giữ làm của riêng chứ không muốn đem trả thư viện hu hu... Và thực sự hết sức ám ảnh, những gì mà “...I never saw another butterfly…” đã gợi nên trong lòng mình. Nhiều đoạn thơ, nhiều đoạn văn trong lời dẫn nhập và phần kết sách đã khiến mình chỉ chực òa khóc. Cuối cùng thì, liệu bạn ác độc và vô nhân tính đến mức độ nào mà có thể đẩy những đứa trẻ vô tội vào trại tập trung, nhẫn tâm tước đi mạng sống của chúng như vậy cơ chứ?...
Nếu Auschwitz được mệnh danh là “Kingdom of Death” - nơi những tù nhân Do Thái bị đẩy vào như là “điểm đến” cuối cùng của cuộc đời họ, thì Terezin là “Kingdom of Deceit”, được Đức Quốc xã dựng nên để tuyên truyền cho thế giới rằng bọn chúng chẳng làm gì sai cả, rằng những người Do Thái bước vào Terezin cũng như bước vào một xã hội thu nhỏ, một dạng cộng đồng nơi họ được đối xử bình thường. Terezin ngoài mặt là một ghetto Do Thái, do người Do Thái đứng đầu, thế nhưng những người đứng đầu này cuối cùng cũng nhận lệnh từ SS. Và sự thật những gì diễn ra đằng sau cánh cổng của Terezin, đằng sau những thước phim tuyên truyền sặc mùi giả tạo và giả dối đến mức trắng trợn mà Đức Quốc xã trưng ra cho thế giới thấy, là điều kiện sống kinh hoàng y như hàng loạt những trại tập trung khác.
Khoảng 15,000 trẻ em Do Thái người Czechslovakia đã bị tống vào trại tập trung Terezin, trong số đó chỉ có 100 em là còn sống sót sau cuộc chiến. Giữa cảnh sống khủng khiếp và bị đày đọa cả về thể chất lẫn tinh thần, các em, dưới sự hướng dẫn của cô giáo dạy vẽ Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, đã sáng tạo nên những bức tranh cùng những vần thơ phản ánh suy nghĩ, tâm lý, cảm xúc và cả ước mơ của những đứa trẻ trước cảnh ngộ khốn cùng. Và một lần nữa nhờ cuốn sách này, mình mới biết thêm tên tuổi của nữ họa sĩ người Áo Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, người đã đi học tại trường mỹ thuật-kiến trúc Bauhaus nổi tiếng của Đức, nhưng rồi dưới sự tàn bạo và khát máu của Đức Quốc xã, bà cùng chồng đã bị đưa vào Terezin.
Vẫn giữ được tình yêu đối với hội họa cùng niềm hy vọng vào sức mạnh của nghệ thuật trước nghịch cảnh và sự tàn ác của con người, bà đã hướng dẫn các trẻ em tại Terezin sáng tạo nên các tác phẩm hội họa của riêng các em, đồng thời giúp các em không bao giờ thôi đánh mất hy vọng vào ngày mai, dẫu cho thực tế của trại tập trung có khắc nghiệt đến như thế nào. Như thể lũ Đức Quốc xã chỉ có thể gông cùm thể xác của các tù nhân tại Terezin, nhưng không bao giờ có thể chạm đến tinh thần và khát vọng sống của họ. Điều đó đã được thể hiện qua những vần thơ mà những trẻ em tại Terezin, không đứa nào trên 15 tuổi, đã sáng tác và được Friedl Dicker-Brandeis thu thập lại. Chính bà sau này cũng đã qua đời tại Auschwitz như rất nhiều học sinh khác của bà, nhưng tinh thần và những gì được phản ánh trong các bức họa cùng những bài thơ là điều sẽ luôn sống mãi.
Chúng sống mãi để gợi nhắc cho cả thế giới thấy tính chất kinh hoàng của chiến tranh, của nạn đại diệt chủng Holocaust dưới đôi mắt trẻ thơ - những người lẽ ra không bao giờ phải chứng kiến cảnh đói rét, chấy rận, bệnh tật, những xác người chết ngay trong đống phân của họ; những chuyến chuyên chở tù nhân đến Auschwitz, đến với cái chết đã chờ đợi sẵn trong các phòng hơi ngạt và lò thiêu; và những cuộc tử hình ngay tại Terezin. Và đó thực sự là những gì đã được thể hiện trong các bài thơ do các em sáng tác, những bài thơ phản ánh sự khủng khiếp trong trại tập trung Terezin, sự khủng khiếp đi song hành cùng nỗi sợ chỉ khiến nhiều em mơ về cuộc sống trước đây, mái nhà trước đây, quê hương trước đây, trước khi bị đẩy vào chốn khốn cùng này, cùng những kỷ niệm đã trở thành quá vãng.
Nhưng trên tất cả, những bài thơ, và cả những tác phẩm hội họa được tạo nên từ bút chì, chì màu, sáp màu, màu nước, có khi là cả xé dán từ giấy văn phòng phẩm… cũng phản ánh cái nhìn thơ trẻ, có gì đó vô cùng trong trẻo, trong cái cách các em vẫn nhìn ra và trân trọng vẻ đẹp của vùng Terezin, nét đẹp của thiên nhiên cùng những điều nhỏ bé vượt lên trên những cảnh tượng u ám, ảm đạm, kinh hoàng bên trong cái hàng rào kẽm gai oan nghiệt. Đó như thể một “phòng tuyến” các em dựng lên trong tâm trí để có thể tiếp tục chịu đựng và đối mặt với thực tế đau lòng hiện tại. Và còn đó khát vọng sống, khát vọng tồn tại, hy vọng đầy ám ảnh muốn bứt ra khỏi những kinh hoàng này, đi cùng với đó là sự bất lực của những đứa trẻ không biết làm gì hơn là trút bỏ những nỗi niềm, cảm xúc và ước mong của mình vào trong những nét vẽ, những vần thơ.
Mình tự cảm thấy bản thân rất may mắn khi làm việc cho trường quốc tế, có cơ hội và điều kiện để tiếp cận với những cuốn sách quan trọng và có chất lượng như thế này. Sách thiết kế và in ấn đẹp lắm cơ, có màu và in trên giấy couché láng o luôn, đọc xong chỉ muốn giữ làm của riêng chứ không muốn đem trả thư viện hu hu... Và thực sự hết sức ám ảnh, những gì mà “...I never saw another butterfly…” đã gợi nên trong lòng mình. Nhiều đoạn thơ, nhiều đoạn văn trong lời dẫn nhập và phần kết sách đã khiến mình chỉ chực òa khóc. Cuối cùng thì, liệu bạn ác độc và vô nhân tính đến mức độ nào mà có thể đẩy những đứa trẻ vô tội vào trại tập trung, nhẫn tâm tước đi mạng sống của chúng như vậy cơ chứ?...
March 1, 2018
This book was depressing knowing that most of the kids who wrote these died in the camps... :(
April 10, 2011
Recently reading about the Houston Holocaust Museum's planned 2013 exhibition titled The Butterfly Project, I read for the first time Pavel Friedmann's poem The Butterfly" in which he remarks that he has seen no butterfly in the ghetto though some of the beauty of the natural world insists on itself even there.
The ghetto is the Terezin Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia. Terezin was a bizarre experiment of the Third Reich, which set it up as a place to hold Jewish artists, intellectuals, and German army veterans of World War I. To these Jews and to the world it presented this depraved and dirty ghetto as a gift to these Jews who had greatly to German culture. In face, the Germans even succeeded in fooling the Red Cross into believing the place was OK.
Meanwhile, 15,000 childre passed through Terezin, but fewer than 100 survived.
While they were in that hellish bastion of cruelty, these children were nevertheless blessed by the Vienna-born, Bauhaus-trained artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis. Under her gentle direction and with the few art supplies shemanaged to hoard, many ofhtese childdren found a release for all that they were feeling as they encountered Nazi cruelty and awaited death every day.
I Never Saw Another Butterflyexhibits these children's artwork, poems, and prose in the space of 106 pages. The book includes a catalog of the works that identifies the young artists' birth, deportation, and death dates.
When the book arrived the other day, I decided I would not read the book until I coul read it in one sitting. The book deserves complete, uninterrupted attention. The innocence and honesty, truth and reality captured by these children create beauty where otherwise beauty could not take hold.
Works of art on scraps of paper are the legacy of murdered children to the present. May we learn from them.
Hey, try to open up your heart
To beauty; go to the woods someday
And weave a wreath of memory there.
Then if tears obscure your way
You'll know how wonderful it is
To be alive.
--Anonymous, 1941,
The ghetto is the Terezin Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia. Terezin was a bizarre experiment of the Third Reich, which set it up as a place to hold Jewish artists, intellectuals, and German army veterans of World War I. To these Jews and to the world it presented this depraved and dirty ghetto as a gift to these Jews who had greatly to German culture. In face, the Germans even succeeded in fooling the Red Cross into believing the place was OK.
Meanwhile, 15,000 childre passed through Terezin, but fewer than 100 survived.
While they were in that hellish bastion of cruelty, these children were nevertheless blessed by the Vienna-born, Bauhaus-trained artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis. Under her gentle direction and with the few art supplies shemanaged to hoard, many ofhtese childdren found a release for all that they were feeling as they encountered Nazi cruelty and awaited death every day.
I Never Saw Another Butterflyexhibits these children's artwork, poems, and prose in the space of 106 pages. The book includes a catalog of the works that identifies the young artists' birth, deportation, and death dates.
When the book arrived the other day, I decided I would not read the book until I coul read it in one sitting. The book deserves complete, uninterrupted attention. The innocence and honesty, truth and reality captured by these children create beauty where otherwise beauty could not take hold.
Works of art on scraps of paper are the legacy of murdered children to the present. May we learn from them.
Hey, try to open up your heart
To beauty; go to the woods someday
And weave a wreath of memory there.
Then if tears obscure your way
You'll know how wonderful it is
To be alive.
--Anonymous, 1941,
April 27, 2008
I read this book just after visiting the site of the Dachau concentration camp, and although this book is about Theresienstadt, not Dachau, the two experiences were definitely synergistic for me. The book is really several books in one: a) introductory material and an epilogue; b) a collection of poems written by children in Theresienstadt; c) an interspersed collection of children's drawings from art classes (taught by, among others, a gifted artist who later perished in another camp); d) a section with annotations about each poem; and e) a section with annotations about the individual drawings. You can read the poems and examine the drawings without first reading the backgrounds, or you can read the background of each poem or drawing as you experience the art. Because some of the writers and artists survived, some of them did not, and the fate of others is unknown, the experience reminded me of the Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C., where each visitor can take an identity card at the beginning of the tour and must wait until the end to find out whether that person had survived the war or not. This book is both tragic and also an inspiring memory of the children who viewed the good and bad in their world through the lenses of childhood but with their own individual prescriptions as well. I can't help thinking that the children who produced these poems and drawings were not extraordinary except for the circle of hell in which they produced their work (and the deeper circles of hell where 99 out of a hundred of them ended up); in fact, it's that ordinariness that makes this volume both so poignant and so relevant.
July 10, 2008
the PC thing would probably be for me to give this 5 stars.
The context is tragic and moving-- poems and pictures done by kids in a WWII "model ghetto" (where people died in their own excrement and hundreds were shipped out to concentration camps daily). With a couple of exceptions, the poems themselves weren't as moving for me as I had expected they might be...
The context is tragic and moving-- poems and pictures done by kids in a WWII "model ghetto" (where people died in their own excrement and hundreds were shipped out to concentration camps daily). With a couple of exceptions, the poems themselves weren't as moving for me as I had expected they might be...
December 28, 2007
My friend Ida gave this book to me and it just haunted me - another lie foisted upon the world by the Nazi inner circle. An unforgettable book. I have used this with students and it is so readable.
January 26, 2019
The strength and love of the teachers who guided the children into the comfort of their imaginations was the heartbreaking beauty of this book. The notable absence of a visual representation of the cruel and terrifying captors gave me hope that these children may have been given at least some relief from the relentless suffering, hunger and darkness when led into visions of gardens with flowers and trees laden with fruit.
The catalog for me was unbearable. To end with the reality of so many deaths is so necessary but incomprehensible in its magnitude.
This book brought the reality of the Holocaust into sharp focus through the words and art of children.
The catalog for me was unbearable. To end with the reality of so many deaths is so necessary but incomprehensible in its magnitude.
This book brought the reality of the Holocaust into sharp focus through the words and art of children.
July 8, 2019
Until recently I had never heard of the Terezin Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia. I read "Hana's Suitcase" about a young girl who was sent there and eventually was put to death. But her brother survived and "Hana's Suitcase" is a story about these two children. A GRs friend suggested "I never saw another butterfly." The poetry and pictures in this book are a poignant reminder of what the world lost in the camps. With a forward by Chaim Potok and afterward by Vaclav Havel, the book is quite sobering. "A total of 15,000 children under the age of fifteen passed through the Terezin Concentration Camp between the years of 1942-1944; less than 100 survived."
November 25, 2018
5.0 This reflects the absolute worst of humanity. There are no messages of hope, no silver linings, there is only deep heartache and unimaginable despair. It serves as a constant reminder that evil and the seeds of intolerance must be vigilantly opposed whenever possible. This book documents through art and poems the pain and suffering that created a situation where only 100 out 15,000 children survive. This book was so hard for me to read and yet it is something everyone needs to be aware of.
June 15, 2017
This would have been a lot more meaningful to me if the information catalogued in the back of the book was presented alongside the child's work in the main text. The biographical info is a great accompaniment to the artwork but gets lost the way it's presented.
August 30, 2025
я🫂книги про голокост
June 24, 2024
Poetry and art anthology from children filtered through the Terezin concentration camp during WWII.
Most were then transferred to Auschwitz, where they perished.
This collection has a catalogue of the drawings and poems that relays the biographical information for the children, if available. This really made the book for me. It's more than just images and words, but a mere glimpse of the lives these children lived at the time.
Certainly excellent teaching material.
Most were then transferred to Auschwitz, where they perished.
This collection has a catalogue of the drawings and poems that relays the biographical information for the children, if available. This really made the book for me. It's more than just images and words, but a mere glimpse of the lives these children lived at the time.
Certainly excellent teaching material.
May 4, 2022
Terezín
That bit of filth in dirty walls,
And all around barbed wire,
And 30,000 souls who sleep
Who once will wake
And once will see
Their own blood spilled.
I was once a little child,
Three years ago.
That child who longed for other worlds.
But now I am no more a child
For I have learned to hate.
I am a grown-up person now,
I have known fear.
Bloody words and a dead day then,
That’s something different than bogie men!
But anyway, I still believe I only sleep today,
That I’ll wake up, a child again, and start to laugh and play.
I’ll go back to childhood sweet like a briar rose,
Like a bell which wakes us from a dream,
Like a mother with an ailing child
Loves him with woman’s love.
How tragic, then, is youth which lives
With enemies, with gallows ropes,
How tragic, then, for children on your lap
To say: this for the good, that for the bad.
Somewhere, far away out there, childhood sweetly sleeps,
Along that path among the trees,
There o’er that house
Which was once my pride and joy.
There my mother gave me birth into this world
So I could weep . . .
In the flame of candles by my bed, I sleep
And once perhaps I’ll understand
That I was such a little thing,
As little as this song.
These 30,000 souls who sleep
Among the trees will wake,
Open an eye
And because they see
A lot
They’ll fall asleep again. . .”
by Hanuš Hachenburg
[Prague, 1929- Auschwitz, 1944]
Hanus Hachenberg was born in Prague on 12. 7. 1929, and deported to Terezín on 24. 10. 1942. Deported from Terezín to Auschwitz on 18. 12. 1943. After a half-year stay at the camp B IIb in Birkenau, in the so called family camp, he died between 10.-12. 7. 1944 in a gas chamber, at the age of 15.
A total of 15,000 children under the age of 15 passed through Terezín. Of these, about 100 came back.
March 6, 2022
A headline from the past week that really stuck with me: the Russian bombing of the Babi Yar (Babyn Yar) memorial site in Kyiv.
Over two days, September 29th and 30th, special units of German soldiers and their collaborators carried out the murders of 33,771 Jewish men, women and children. Other shootings took place at this location in the years that followed, but the massacre from September 1941 stands out for its brutality.
A memorial was created at the site after the fall of the Soviet Union. A simple space of remembrance, and a cry of pain towards a world that wanted to ignore.
This book is rather like that memorial. In the pages, children's drawings and poems provide a testament to their brief lives. It is difficult to read at times, especially seeing all the potential that was never fully allowed to bloom. But, as the Holocaust continues to fade into obscure black and white photos in a textbook, it's important to bear witness to the hopes, dreams and fears that these young artists put into existence, to acknowledge that they were truly here.
Babi Yar is important to our collective memory, so is this book. As Chaim Potok mentions in his forward, 15,000 children under the age of 15 entered Terezin, only 100 returned. But perhaps if one reads books like this, if people are able to visit the sacred grounds of Babi Yar, the victims will not be lost to the passing of time.
Over two days, September 29th and 30th, special units of German soldiers and their collaborators carried out the murders of 33,771 Jewish men, women and children. Other shootings took place at this location in the years that followed, but the massacre from September 1941 stands out for its brutality.
A memorial was created at the site after the fall of the Soviet Union. A simple space of remembrance, and a cry of pain towards a world that wanted to ignore.
This book is rather like that memorial. In the pages, children's drawings and poems provide a testament to their brief lives. It is difficult to read at times, especially seeing all the potential that was never fully allowed to bloom. But, as the Holocaust continues to fade into obscure black and white photos in a textbook, it's important to bear witness to the hopes, dreams and fears that these young artists put into existence, to acknowledge that they were truly here.
Babi Yar is important to our collective memory, so is this book. As Chaim Potok mentions in his forward, 15,000 children under the age of 15 entered Terezin, only 100 returned. But perhaps if one reads books like this, if people are able to visit the sacred grounds of Babi Yar, the victims will not be lost to the passing of time.
Read
November 1, 2009Otto Frank recalled that during his arrest, one of the Green Police found his foot locker from his days in the German Army. The Green Policeman asked him why he didn't just turn himself in, and he would have been sent to Terezin. "As if," Otto fumed "Terezin was a country club".
If the Franks HAD been sent to Terezin, the group of children in this book would have included at least Anne Frank, and possibly her sister Margot.
Other people who were sent to Terezin were the true inventor of aspirin, and many other prominent European Jews. Terezin was a 'show ghetto', which was why the children (sometimes) had paper, schoolbooks, etc. When the inmates weren't being shown off to prominent visitors, their lives were much worse--but they still managed to leave some of themselves behind in their art.
If the Franks HAD been sent to Terezin, the group of children in this book would have included at least Anne Frank, and possibly her sister Margot.
Other people who were sent to Terezin were the true inventor of aspirin, and many other prominent European Jews. Terezin was a 'show ghetto', which was why the children (sometimes) had paper, schoolbooks, etc. When the inmates weren't being shown off to prominent visitors, their lives were much worse--but they still managed to leave some of themselves behind in their art.
August 23, 2014
Poems and picture by children in a ghetto in Terezin. They missed their homes, felt dirty and didn't have enough to eat. Even thought they saw death every day,they still had hope. In 1944 they were sent to Auschwitz where most of them died. A few of the Children worked in the camps and were freed at the end of the war. The children had an art teacher at the ghetto that shared her talents and all her art supplies with them. She also died in Auschwitz.
June 17, 2012
How am I supposed to rate this book? It's so pretty but tragic, childish but oh so sad; this is possibly the saddest book I have ever owned. Each page brings tears to my eyes, and I can't bear to open it often, despite the wonderful quality of its paper, the colourful images, the amazing words...
January 5, 2017
It is a shocking and the same time a very touching book that keeps these children alive.
November 11, 2018
This is such a special collection. It collects the drawings and poems of children who passed through the Terezin Concentration Camp between 1942 and 1944. “A total of around 15,000 children under the age of 15 passed through Terezin. Of those, around 100 came back.” Knowing the destruction that came from this place and the beauty the children were able to create within it is awe inspiring. The book does a good job of explaining the history of this ghetto/concentration camp, which is extremely helpful since I had never heard of it before reading.
I originally read a poem from this collection for a class in college. We were studying successful British WW2 poems in my large lecture, and my TA, in recitation, asked the class what war poems should be studied and valued as definitive ‘war poems.’ She gave us ‘Terezin’ by Hanus Hachenburg (who died at the age of 14 in Auschwitz) and explained these poems are arguably more powerful than other poems of the time and should be treated like academic texts.
The poems in this collection are all brilliant. There are moments of optimism, of hopelessness, of youthful longings, and often mature insights, but, in every poem and every line, these children are capturing their lives in ways that no other poet could.
The drawings are also really interesting to analyze and imagine the headspace of their creators. I don’t claim to be the best at analyzing art, but the images and words often convey the same complexities and pair well together.
I would recommend this book to everyone; it is a primary source from young people (who I think are underutilized in recounting major historical moments) and encourages the sharing of the story of Terezin. It is an emotional collection, as it is difficult to imagine the forced maturation and systematic annihilation of these children. It is a hard read but an important one. Read it, y’all.
I originally read a poem from this collection for a class in college. We were studying successful British WW2 poems in my large lecture, and my TA, in recitation, asked the class what war poems should be studied and valued as definitive ‘war poems.’ She gave us ‘Terezin’ by Hanus Hachenburg (who died at the age of 14 in Auschwitz) and explained these poems are arguably more powerful than other poems of the time and should be treated like academic texts.
The poems in this collection are all brilliant. There are moments of optimism, of hopelessness, of youthful longings, and often mature insights, but, in every poem and every line, these children are capturing their lives in ways that no other poet could.
The drawings are also really interesting to analyze and imagine the headspace of their creators. I don’t claim to be the best at analyzing art, but the images and words often convey the same complexities and pair well together.
I would recommend this book to everyone; it is a primary source from young people (who I think are underutilized in recounting major historical moments) and encourages the sharing of the story of Terezin. It is an emotional collection, as it is difficult to imagine the forced maturation and systematic annihilation of these children. It is a hard read but an important one. Read it, y’all.
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June 23, 2018Από τα πιο μαύρα βιβλία που έχω διαβάσει.
Το βιβλίο περιλαμβάνει ποιήματα και ζωγραφιές παιδιών που ήταν κρατούμενα στο στρατόπεδο συγκέντρωσης του Τερεζίν (Theresienstadt ghetto). Οι ναζί ενθάρρυναν τις καλλιτεχνικές δραστηριότητες των κρατούμενων για να δείξουν σε επιθεωρήσεις του Ερυθρού Σταυρού ότι δεν πάει τίποτα στραβά. Μάλιστα είχαν στήσει το στρατόπεδο με τέτοιο τρόπο ώστε να μοιάζει με χωριό. Λίγα μέτρα πιο πέρα , βρίσκονταν οι κάμαρες του θανάτου, φυσικά.
"Another day has gone for keeps
Into the bottomless pit of time.
Again it has wounded a man, held captive\
by his brethren.
After dusk, he longs for bandages,
For soft hands to shield the eyes
From all the horrors that stare by day.
But in the ghetto, darkness, too, is kind
To weary eyes that all day long
have had to watch[...]"
Το βιβλίο περιλαμβάνει ποιήματα και ζωγραφιές παιδιών που ήταν κρατούμενα στο στρατόπεδο συγκέντρωσης του Τερεζίν (Theresienstadt ghetto). Οι ναζί ενθάρρυναν τις καλλιτεχνικές δραστηριότητες των κρατούμενων για να δείξουν σε επιθεωρήσεις του Ερυθρού Σταυρού ότι δεν πάει τίποτα στραβά. Μάλιστα είχαν στήσει το στρατόπεδο με τέτοιο τρόπο ώστε να μοιάζει με χωριό. Λίγα μέτρα πιο πέρα , βρίσκονταν οι κάμαρες του θανάτου, φυσικά.
"Another day has gone for keeps
Into the bottomless pit of time.
Again it has wounded a man, held captive\
by his brethren.
After dusk, he longs for bandages,
For soft hands to shield the eyes
From all the horrors that stare by day.
But in the ghetto, darkness, too, is kind
To weary eyes that all day long
have had to watch[...]"
September 25, 2017
Heartbreaking and haunting. "...I never saw another butterfly..." is a collection of artwork and poetry from the children of the Terezin Concentration Camp. As was stated in the forward, "Culture was a collective means of resisting the deceptions practiced by the Nazis as well as a weapon against despair, a way of warding off the fearful pink slip--the deportation order to the darkness in the East." This is a collection that you should really take your time with to truly absorb the images and words on its pages.
April 25, 2019
The story of Terezín in heartbreaking, even more so when told through the words and pictures of children. One of my students was struggling to comprehend the impact of the Holocaust, and this book really helped him connect with the children and understand what it meant for them. I'm so grateful this book was there for him.
August 14, 2025
The epilogue of this book is amazing, it made me cry. The art and poems are so beautiful, some had an extremely profound impact. These children had so much hope in these absolutely dire circumstances, it made me realize I don't appreciate my life as much as I should. It's worth a read and only took me about 2 hours to finish it.
November 17, 2018
Heartbreaking. A total of 15,000 children under the age of fifteen passed through the Terezin Concentration Camp between the years 1942-1944; less than 100 survived. This book is illustrated with pictures the children drew in camp, along with their poems. This will resonate with you forever.
June 2, 2018
If more people read books like this one maybe there would be less hate and fear in the world. It is quite shocking to see all that remains of all those children.
June 2, 2020
How does a book so simple make me cry so much? One of the most heartbreakingly beautiful books.
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