Butterfly Toy Created in the Terezin Concentraion Camp

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 never saw another butterfly…
Pavel Freidman, April 6, 1942

Children’s Drawings and Poems from
Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944

Grade Level 6-8
Social Studies • Language Arts

Among Jewish organizations are also to be found some whose major aim is to fight anti-Semitism both in this country and abroad, and to protect the rights of Jews everywhere. The chief organizations that carry on these tasks are the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, and the American Jewish Congress. Each organization is independent; each protect the civil rights of Jews, just as the NAACP protects the civil rights of Blacks, and operate by way of research, discussion, and legal action. In the 1920’s, 1930’s, and 1940’s, discrimination against Jews was endemic in many occupations: among major corporations of almost every kind, in which Jews could not get jobs as executives; in colleges and universities, where Jews could not get jobs as teachers. This discrimination began to weaken only after the horrors of World War II, as our society became more liberal and tolerant. Fortunately, this movement to tolerance was aided by the passage of laws forbidding discrimination in employment, education, and housing. In this work, Jews were closely associated with Black and other civil-rights leaders. The Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 1965, and 1968, banning discrimination in public facilities, employment, government programs, voting and housing.

I Will Never See Another Butterfly

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