Students & Staff Commemorate the Children of the Holocaust with The Butterfly Project

Through a cross-curricular teaching effort, social studies teacher, Mr. Mysels, and high school art teacher, Mr. Rumble, have joined to commemorate the children whose lives were lost in the Holocaust. In conjunction with The Butterfly Project, PA Distance History of the Holocaust students and staff will create a collaborative display to keep their memories alive. 

The Butterfly Project is a nationwide initiative to interconnect schools across the country to create physical installations to honor and remember the 1.5 million children who lost their lives during the Holocaust. These installations consist of clay butterflies that have been glazed and designed by the students and staff of each given school. So far, hundreds of schools across the nation have participated and 250,000+ butterflies have been painted and installed.

Mr. Mysels has introduced the lesson to his History of the Holocaust students by using excerpts from the “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” book by Hana Volavkov. The book depicts real children's drawings and poems from the Terezin Concentration Camp. Students focused on exploring the different poems and art pieces found in the book. 

“This lesson focused on how to effectively analyze art for a symbol and meaning. We had a chance to compare different students' perspectives and what they take away from it,” Mr. Mysels explained. “This lesson also explained how historical events can be symbolized by art.” 

“Different colors can evoke different emotions within the artist and the viewer,” Mr. Rumble said. 

“We’ve given them all different colors of glazes so they can choose how they want to glaze it, what patterns they want to create, and what colors they want to be more dominant or in the background,” Mr. Mysels added.

“The Butterfly Project organization has sent us a kit with partially fired clay butterflies and glaze,” he explained. “Then, we sent a butterfly and glaze supplies to each of my students along with an identification card, and story, of a real child who did not survive the Holocaust.”

After each student glazes their butterflies as they like, they’ll send them back to Mr. Mysels. With Mr. Rumble’s help the butterflies will be fired in a kiln, making each colorful design permanent.

“The clay butterflies come in different shapes, sizes, and designs which does a great job of showcasing that each child was unique and different,” Mr. Mysels said. 

PA Distance senior and History of the Holocaust student, Samira I., shared her experience with the project and a photo of her butterfly (pictured right). 

“The child I got was named Zygmunt. His location and age at the time of his death during the Holocaust were never documented,” Samira said. 

“I used pink and blue glaze because pink is meant to represent tenderness, which I feel is something each child needs as they grow. The blue represents the power we are able to give back to these kids by honoring their memory through the butterflies,” Samira explained. “I also mixed the pink and blue to make the edges purple and did some purple splatters. Purple is to represent Zygmunt’s dignity, and show that it was never lost, even upon his death. The splatters were meant to show the energy of childhood, but also the chaos he had to experience.”

“History of the Holocaust has been a very impactful class for me,” Samira said. “I cried during almost every lesson, but I felt it was important for me to know all I could about what happened and about what all those people had to go through.” 

Serving as a living memory for each life that was lost, PA Distance plans to create a display here at the Pittsburgh, PA office using each and every butterfly created by our students and staff members.

(Unfired, painted butterflies created by PA Distance staff members, pictured above)

“We are beginning to identify ideal wall spaces within the office for the installation now. Once we find a nice spot, we will place the butterflies when students and staff finish their designs,” Mr. Rumble explained. “We want it to be a display that we can build on year after year.”

(The Butterfly Project Installation examples from other parts of the country)

“It will be a part of a greater project within the entire country,” Mr. Mysels said. “I am excited for PA Distance to join this effort.”