I Never Saw Another Butterfly
I Never Saw Another Butterfly
The Holocaust was the systematic murder of six million Jews by the Nazis during World War Two. A million and a half children were among those killed including the young prisoners of Terezín concentration camp. One of those children, Pavel Friedmann, wrote this poem while in confinement. He was killed at Auschwitz in 1944.
Read the poem, then watch the short video and answer the questions on the accompanying worksheet.
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 here,
in the ghetto.
Watch the video, then do the accompanying worksheet.
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