Historical information

The phrase 'no butterflies in the ghetto' is an adaptation from a poem by the young Czech Jew Pavel Friedman. He was 21 years old when he was deported to the Terezín concentration camp/ghetto (Theresienstadt, in German), a few dozen kilometers north of Prague, in the Czech region of Ústí nad Labem. Here, a few weeks after his entry into the camp, Pavel Friedman wrote this poem on a piece of paper which was later found after the liberation and donated to the Jewish museum of the Czech Republic. In September 1944 Pavel Friedman was deported to the Oświęcim (Auschwitz) extermination camp where he was killed on an unspecified date.
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.‎

Beit Lohamei Haghetaot Museum's archive was contacted for release date details. https://www.gfh.org.il/eng
Please contact [email protected] to request access to this record.

Physical description

A medal commemorating the Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust.

Inscriptions & markings

No Butterflies in the Ghetto, #42