I Never Saw Another Butterfly
Children’s Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942 – 1944
Edited by Hana Volavková
Expanded Second Edition by the United States Holocaust Museum
Schocken Books, 1993. 106 pages.
Review written July 22, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review
I found this book in good condition, hidden in the children’s nonfiction section of our library. It’s a thin paperback, and not many had noticed it. Besides, it’s a thin book and doesn’t draw the eye. But instead of weeding it from our collection, I was pulled in. I checked it out and read a few poems a day while the library was closed.
This book is a collection of poems and artwork created by children who were incarcerated in the town of Terezin, a ghetto in the Czech Republic during World War II. Jews were sent there supposedly for their safety, but as a stop on the way to extermination camps.
There’s a description of the history of Terezin and what life was like there at the front. At the back, an index tells what happened to the children who created the art and poetry. Most died in the camps, though a few escaped.
Something that made Terezin remarkable, though, was that some teachers decided to encourage the children to write and draw about their experiences. And their work, miraculously, has been preserved.
If you think about the words and pictures in this book much at all, they’re heart-wrenching. Reading it felt like a small way to honor these children, who experienced things no child should ever have to deal with.
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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.
Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.