The Butterfly Project- Holocaust Museum Houston

The Holocaust Museum in Houston, Texas, is involved in an amazing project entitled, "The Butterfly Project." 1,500,000 innocent children perished during the Holocaust.  In an effort to remember them the Museum is collecting 1,500,000 handmade butterflies, which will then be put on display.

You can learn more about the project here:

http://www.hmh.org/minisite/butterfly/index.html

The inspiration for the project comes from poem, "The Butterfly" written by Pavel Friedman, who died in Auschwitz.

"The Butterfly"

The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing
       against a white stone. . . .

Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly 'way up high.
It went away I'm sure because it wished to
        kiss the world good-bye.

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.

    Pavel Friedman
 June 4, 1942

Born in Prague, Jan 7, 1921
Died in Auschwitz,  September 29, 1944