Analysis Of I Never Saw Another Butterfly By Terezin Concentration Camp

“The Germans and their collaborators killed … over a million Jewish children” (“Children During the Holocaust”). These statistics show just how many innocent children Hitler’s anti-Jew plans caused. Even though many Jews were murdered through Hitler’s anti-Jew assault, Hitler’s attempt to annihilate Jews and their culture failed. Many Jews survived Hitler’s camps, and even though many also did not survive, their values and histories were preserved in their poems and works of art, such as the poems and art created by the children at Terezin Concentration Camp, some of which are compiled in I Never Saw Another Butterfly. Looking at a work of literature through its historical context shows that we can, according to Tim Gillespie, “[U]se literature to learn something about history” (38), and by looking at I Never Saw Another Butterfly through a historical criticism lens, some things about the time period become clearer. The children at Terezin Concentration Camp created art to uphold and preserve their Jewish values, including the
For instance, one poem by Franta Bass describes a house that is now empty and left “rotting in silence” (9, line 7). This poem thus suggests the loss of family and community through the poetic image of a dilapidated, empty house. And the watercolor painting by Hana Erika Karplusová has a house set far in the distance (11), signifying something that cannot be reached, something far away that she longs for but cannot have due to the war. Because community is so important to Jewish culture and their way of life, and because houses are often meeting places for families and friends, it makes sense that so many of the pieces of art and poetry depict houses, especially houses that reveal the loss of and/or longing for a community that is whole and