BUTTERFLIES AND CENTIPEDES OF CHILDREN'S PAST

TEREZIN CONCENTRATION CAMP

“...those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
-- George Santayana

Why Study the Holocaust?

Holocaust - originally, a religious rite in which an offering was entirely consumed by fire. In current usage, holocaust refers to any widespread human disaster, but when written Holocaust, its special meaning is the almost complete destruction of the Jews in Europe by Nazi Germany

• Silence, apathy, and indifference in the face of others' oppression resulted in millions of Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Communists, perishing in the Holocaust.
• Three years after Germany 's defeat, Israel was established by Allied powers for Jewish survivors.
• In 1993, two museums were opened in the United States to commemorate the Holocaust: the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

By studying the Holocaust, students can better define their own roles as participating citizens because they will have knowledge of how people, nations, actions and interactions have led to today's realities.

Grade level:

5th through 8th grade; reading and writing level = 5th grade

STANDARDS

Fine Arts--Visual Arts 27.B - Students who meet the standard understand how the arts shape and reflect history, society and everyday life.

Analyze the impact of political actions, current events, and natural phenomena (e.g., wars, civil unrest, disasters, economic prosperity, discovery, technology, legislation) on the development and production of art.

Illinois Standards with Technology Integration State Goal 5 – Use the language arts to acquire, assess, and communicate information.

Social Studies State Goal 16 - Understand events, trends, individuals and movements shaping the history of Illinois, the United States and other nations.

Purpose/Goals:

• keep the memory of brave and innocent children alive
• learn of man's inhumanity to man
• realize individual freedom is not absolute
• distinguish between victims, persecutors, and active and passive bystanders

Equipment:

• LCD projector/TV to show introductory videos and completed presentations
• computer(s) with Internet access
• Flash and/or PowerPoint software
• scanner
• printer
• books and videos as listed below

Books/Videos

BOOK:“Hana's Suitcase” – used as introduction to Holocaust and Terezin

The mystery of a suitcase received in Tokyo in 2000 helps uncover the tragic events of family after the Nazis invaded Czech.

ISBN 0-8075-3148-0
Albert Whitman & Company, 6340 N. Oakton , Morton Grove , IL 60053

VIDEO: (art/poetry/history) – “Butterfies Don't Live in Here” VHS 14 minutes

Children's drawings and poems from Terezin dating from 1941-1945

Jewish Museum in Prague stock No. 125.520 ©Kratky Film Prague , 2001
purchased at Terezin Memorial Museum in 2004)

email: manager@pamatnik-terezin.cz

or

VIDEO: (art/poetry/history) – “The Journey of Butterfly” VHS 62 minutes – 30 minutes

Art and poetry of children imprisoned at Terezin concentration camp. Survivors of Terezin share experiences throughout the video.

Vendor; Social Studies School Service http://www.socialstudies.com

BOOK: "…I never saw another butterfly…" edited by Hana Volavkova

Children's drawings and poems from Terezin Concentration Camp 1942-44

ISBN 0-8052-1015-6
Schocken Books Inc., New York

VIDEO: (history) “Terezin Theresienstadt” VHS 30 minutes

©Studio No 1 KF a.s. 1991. Co-production of KF Ltd. and Terezin Memorial
(purchased at Terezin Memorial Museum in 2004) email: manager@pamatnik-terezin.cz

(optional) VIDEO:(rescue) - “Miracle at Midnight ” (88 minutes / Color JHS/VHS)

Nazi authorities attempted to round up and transport more than 7000 Danish Jews to the Terezin concentration camp in 1943. Denmark citizens learned of the plan and helped all but a few hundred flee to Sweden .

Vendor: Social Studies School Service http://www.socialstudies.com

Optional BOOK:
“We Are Children Just the Same” Vedem, the Secret Magazine by the Boys of Terezin

Artwork, stories, essays, and poems secretly produced by a group of 13-15 year old Jewish boys at Terezin from 1942-44.

ISBN 0-8276-0534-x

The poem below was from the above book --
other prose, poems, artwork found in book could further complement unit.

When children all over the world have their own rooms, we have bunks 70 x 30 cm.
They have their freedom; we live like chained dogs .
Truly, then in place of their closet full of toys, you must allow us to have at least half a meter of shelf space behind our heads.
You must realize that we are still only children, like children everywhere else.
We may be mature, thanks to Terezin, but we are children just the same.
--pner Jiri Zappner

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