Wednesday, May 16, 2001
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Wednesday, May 16, 2001 |
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Butterfly display honors child holocaust victims
A display of a million butterflies memorializing the 1.2 million children who died in the German holocaust adorns the fifth-grade hallway at Burch Elementary School. Last year, fifth-grade teacher Becky Byrd was looking for an activity that would help her teach students about the holocaust, which is part of their World War II history lesson. She had read an article in Time for Kids, a spin-off of Time magazine, about students at a Jewish private school in South Carolina trying to collect enough paper butterflies to represent the more than 1 million children who perished in German concentration camps. The idea for the butterflies came from a poem written by a child, Pavel Friedman, who died in one of the concentration camp ghettos. He wrote "The Butterfly" April 6, 1942. The poem is about the only butterfly he would ever see in the ghetto before his death. Each student at Burch was responsible for making 100 paper butterflies. Byrd supplied the students with the drawings of the butterflies for them to cut out and decorate. Most of the work was done at home and families were encouraged to do the project together. "It's important that parents talk to their children at home about the facts surrounding the holocaust. This project is a great way to get that dialog going," Byrd says. Each butterfly represents 100 children. With the help of parent volunteers, the butterflies were hung on the walls and from the ceiling of the fifth grade hallway. Every class in each grade level at the school has had an opportunity to walk through the hallway and view the butterflies. Although some of the younger students do not fully comprehend what the holocaust was about, Byrd says they do have an understanding of the seriousness of the project and treat it with the proper respect. "You can see the elementary students being very careful when they touch the butterflies or pass through the hallway. Sometimes the older students will get quiet and you can tell they are reflecting on the event and thinking about why it happened," Byrd says. Byrd admits that the project is a lot of work for both the children and their parents, but she says it is something that the students want to do. "Why the holocaust happened is hard for any of us to understand, especially the children. Their biggest question is always 'why?' Byrd comments. "This project not only helps them to see the magnitude of this piece of history but it also gives them a sense that they are doing something special for those children who lost their lives." The butterflies will be on display through the last day of school.
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