I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944

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Summary: Beautiful Memories
Review: ...I never saw another butterfly... is a book which holds a collection of children's drawings and poems that were created at the Terezin concentration camp from 1942-1944. In this moving book several children's works are displayed, taken from a much larger collection. The book begins by telling the background of the Terezin concentration camp and then it lays out numerous beautiful pictures along with many moving poems. At the end of the book a short summary is given in the epilogue and afterword about the works of the children. Also included in the book is a catalog of the poems and drawings, naming the authors if known, their dates of birth, and their dates of death.
...I never saw another butterfly... is a moving illustration of what it was like for a child to live in a concentration camp during WWII. The drawings often depict a life full of beauty and it seemed amazing to me that the children were able to, at this time, see all the beautiful things around them even though they were in the midst of death. The poems on the other hand often portray the longing of wanting to be in a safe place elsewhere, and they also relate more of the harsh reality of what was really going on at the concentration camps. The book is tied together through the contrast of the brightly colored paintings with the dim spirit of the poems. The reader will instantly be amazed at the talents of these young children, most under the age of 14, and at the same time feel a horrible sense of pity for these children, whom most perished in Auschwitz. The book is a wonderful and diverse collection of works, although there could have been a more diverse collection of authors included, instead of multiple works by the same author.
It is amazing to notice that some of the children who drew some of the pictures survived the war and even some have gone on to be artists today. This mere fact leaves the reader with a little bit of hope that the unforgettable memories of these children will forever be painted into the public, so that everyone can remember them in honor.

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Summary: The Children in the Camps
Review: Although many people know that the children suffered just as much in the ghettos as the adults did, I think it is often overlooked. The adults in the ghettos are often focused on because they are the ones who had to make the decisions and deal with the day-to-day life. But, the children suffered too. They were aware of some of the problems around them and were aware of the differences in their lifestyles. They were aware that they had been stripped away from all they had ever known.

In the book "...I never saw another butterfly..." a vision of what the children saw and endured before many of them were killed is portrayed. The drawings show the children were partially aware of the terrible things going on and of their desire to once again be in a happier place. There are pictures of what they see around them at the time and pictures of the homes and families they remember from before they were put in the ghettos.

As for the poems and diary entries, they too showed how the children neglected to see how they were being oppressed. Some showed a strong sense of heritage, such as I am a Jew (57). The lines "I am a Jew and will be a Jew forever. Even if I should die from hunger." show how the children knew it was bad that they were hungry, but still had faith in their religion. The poem A Letter to Daddy (36) shows a child who wants to return to the life he once found to be normal. "You promised to bring me books because, truly, I have nothing to read [...] I will surely be grateful for this." This line shows the naivety of the child, who did not understand why he had no books to read. All of the poems and diary entries in the book show the sadness in the children and the pain they each endured by having all they had known taken away.

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Summary: "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" Review
Review: Hana Valavkova's "I Never Saw Another Butterfly..." although focusing on the ghetto of Terezin through poems, paintings, and drawings made by the children there, does an amazing job of demonstrating just how powerful Hitler and his agenda were; not just in terms of history, or the past, but in terms of emotion, depth, and human life. The works illustrated in this text show the wide range of emotion prevalent in such horrendous circumstances. And, even more touching, the emotion prevalent amongst the children, both survivors and victims of death, forced to endure the very suffering that no one, especially a child, should have to bear.
While one can easily discern fact or history from Valavkova's "I Never Saw Another Butterfly..." the poems and drawings offer much more than just fact. They offer emotion, hope, maturity, and haunting despair. They reveal much more than the conditions of Terezin's ghetto, but also the condition of human life in these circumstances. The whole of this book is one that offers each and every reader the opportunity to not only gain knowledge about the holocaust and the people forced to endure it's conditions, but also the opportunity to experience and attempt to understand the emotion that existed alongside the hunger, disease, and terror in the ghettos of Nazi Germany.
In essence, Valavkova's text offers great insight into the emotion, depth, and life of those that fell victim to Hitler's anti-semitic ideology. Her book presents each reader with the opportunity to open up their hearts and feel what history is all about.

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Summary: A reinactor
Review: I am currently working on the play for "I never Saw AnotherButterfly"through my school. It is startling to reinact the livesof these real children. We are using the art and poetry from this book to highten the awarness for the audience that these are real people.

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Summary: I Never Saw Another Butterfly
Review: I recently was in the play "I Never Saw Another Butterfly". One of my teachers brought in this book for our class to look at. My friend and I played the parts of the Nazis. We saw this book and it brought tears to our eyes. We saw drawings and poems done by the children that were mentioned in the play. This book is very interesting, but I suggest you read it with a box of Kleenex.

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Summary: I never saw another butterfly
Review: I was recently in the play I never saw another butterfly. I played one of the children durning the holocaust. In the play I read a poem that was in the book I never saw another butterfly, and the poem brought me to tears. When our director brought in the actual book, and I read all of the other poems and saw all of the other drawings i was overwhelmed by the pain and struggle that was portrayed in the book. I hope that others are as lucky to read this book as i was.

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Summary: Tales from the children who didn't come back.
Review: Terezin Concentration Camp held, between 1942 and 1944, fifteen thousand children under the age of fifteen years old, for various lengths of time, before the children were carted out to other camps to die. A few teachers came in with sparse quantities of art supplies, and they used art "lessons" as a way of offering art therapy. "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" is a representation of those surviving pictures, which are now housed at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, USA. Illustrating the pictures, as it were, are collections of poetry and prose, and excerpts from a few journals.

I wish I spoke Dutch (?) so that I could read contributor Helga Weissova's "Das Kunstlerische Schaffen" -- I'd like to see what else she has to say. I wish that Soña Spitzovã, who drew my favorite of the drawings ("Starlight In A Dark Room," page 53) hadn't died in Auschwitz before she was even fifteen years old.

The things these children saw! They noticed the trains, the transports. Helga Weissova did a painting of a woman, JUDE star on her clothing, whose hair was searched for lice. They also saw flowers in jelly jars on tables. They remembered their own beds.

I think that art exists, in part, to speak when we are no longer able to.

This book was purchased from my amazon.com wishlist. I think I'll be getting a copy for a friend who's in school to be an art therapist; I think she'll get a lot out of it.

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Summary: I have never felt a book was this important!
Review: The art and poetry contained in this book is sacred. I have never been so moved. Children are the only people in the universe with incredible hope. The voices of the innocent speak out with such power. Please buy this book. Give it to your kids and share with them the poetry of true heroes.

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Summary: I Never Saw Another Butterfly
Review: The drawings and poems of the children of the Terezin Concentration Camp are rather surprising. It is not surprising that the works of the children are sad, yet it is amazing the amount of hope and faith that they hold. Some of the children speak of the day that they will be free and the faith of their religion that helps them through the day.
The children also tell of sunny days and times when they are playing with the friends that they make. I was taken-back by the way the children spoke of cheerful and happy experiences. One would expect that a book of this nature would reflect the dark and ugly side of Nazi concentration camps. Though there are some mentions of starvations and other atrocities that the members of the camp faced in their daily struggle to survive in hope that they will one day see their freedom.
The drawings of flowers, unity and more peaceful and tranquil times show the children's amazing talent. The bright watercolors that are used reinforces the hope and good with that the children still possess, even though confined in a place that has little more to offer than pain and suffering.
Despite the perceived despair the book should offer I found ...I Never Saw Another Butterfly... a bright spot that has emerged from the history of Nazi concentration camps.

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Summary: Looking for Butterflies
Review: Volavkova edits a wonderful compilation of children's art, poetry, and prose in "I never saw another butterfly." The most remarkable fact about this book is that the material was composed by children held in the Terezin concentration camp during World War II. The book presents the children's artistic talents that were fostered in the concentration camp especially by one woman, Freidl Dicker-Brandeis. Only two suitcases of material survived the war.

This book provides a unique glimpse into the lives of Jewish children during World War II. The pictures drawn and the words written by the children speak for themselves in this book. The pictures, poetry, and prose contrast wonderfully among one another. The editor does a good job in the placement of each specific work of art, joining words with pictures. The catalogs near the back of the book are helpful because they provide information about the works of art and the artists. This information would have been nice to have had while reading or examining each work.

The extras added into the book are quite appropriate. The foreword by Chaim Potok gives a superior background on the town of Terezin. In addition, it provides insight into the idea of Terezin being a form of propaganda that the Nazis employed to deceive relief workers. Both the epilogue by Jiri Weil and the afterword by Vaclav Havel are poignant reminders of the horrors these children faced.

This book entertained as much as it educated. It continues to serve as a reminder of consequences due to Nazi actions during World War II, especially on the lives of Jewish children.