Godwin Heights — Sixth-grader Jeyden Manzueta pointed to each color in his butterfly drawing.
“Orange is the sun and implies peace, calm and safe,” he explained. “Blue is the sky, meaning hope and love. Yellow is for survival, and green is for recognition.”
Jeyden and his classmates are participating in “The Butterfly Project,” where children and communities around the world create butterfly drawings and sculptures to remember the 1.5 million children who died in the Holocaust and their survivors.
The project is inspired by Paval Friedmann’s poem, “The Butterfly.” While Friedmann died at Auschwitz in 1944, his poem became a symbol of freedom from oppression, intolerance and hatred.
“This was an opportunity for the students to be part of something that was bigger than themselves and have an appreciation of something that is beyond their community,” teacher Betsy Barry said.
From Book to Butterflies
Over several weeks, Barry said, her two sixth-grade English classes read “Letters from Rifka,” by Karen Hesse. It details a Jewish family’s emigration from Russia to the U.S. in 1919.
Sixth-grader Rebekah Hoskins said Hesse’s book was inspiring in that the main character persevered despite all that was happening around her. Rebekah said she could relate to the character, who was close to her own age.
The book resonated with the students, Barry said, and she could see that they wanted to go beyond the story. Barry came across “The Butterfly Project,” at the Holocaust Museum in Houston, Texas.
She said the project added another element to the discussion about challenges other children face, along with giving her students the opportunity to showcase their artistic abilities.
Godwin students included either a poem or reflection with their drawings.
“I think the (butterfly) is freedom,” said sixth-grader Paris Walker. “I see the butterflies as the desire of the children to get out of the situation. That’s all they really wanted is to become butterflies, so as to fly out of the ghetto.”
The students’ butterflies, poems and final reflections will be featured in a school mural titled “Not the Last Butterfly” before being sent to join the other butterfly art at the Holocaust Museum, Barry said. Because of the students’ continued interest, they also will study the life of Anne Frank as a conclusion to the unit, she said.
Letting Creativity Take Flight
Adaline Whittington carefully free-hand drew a butterfly, adding letters that read “For all the children who had died.”
“I think it is so sad that they really do not know the exact number of children who died,” Adaline said. “I wanted my butterfly to be for all those who have been forgotten, because they don’t know who they are.
“For that reason, I am using different colors because every butterfly has different colors, just like every child is different.”
Leela Emanuel decided to celebrate friendship with her butterfly by using the color purple, her friend’s favorite color.
After listening to Friedmann’s poem, Milyn Lawler said she started reflecting on what could have been.
“I wonder if he would have lived, if through his children and grandchildren that I might have known them or been friends,” Milyn said. “I think everyone has the right to live.”
Milyn included the names of the children from the Holocaust on the wings of her blue butterfly. She also added a second butterfly in yellow as a tribute to the one in Friedmann’s poem, she said.
Read more from Godwin Heights:
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• Second-graders learn about community by doing
