The Butterfly

by Elecia SouthernYou Pick RecitalThe ButterflyThe last, the very last,So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.Perhaps if the sun's tears would singagainst a white stone. . . . Such, such a yellowIs carried lightly 'way up high.It went away I'm sure because it wished tokiss 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 meAnd 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.Pavel Freidmann 6-4-1942

Historical ContextThis poem was written by Pavel Friedmann, at Theresienstadt concentration camp/ghetto. He was later deported to Auschwitz and perished in 1944.Freidmann lived and wrote this poem during the Holocaust, an abject time in our history. The poem is about the Holocaust and living in the ghetto.

Personal ConnectionI had a great grandpa who was a Nazi German, and is now deceased. I also have a living great grandfather who helped in WWII on the American side and is now a US Navy veteran. So it is interesting to have family who helped cause WWII and have another who fought it.

FactGhettos were city districts (often enclosed) in which Nazis concentrated Jews and other prejudiced races and forced them to live in miserable conditions. They often didnt receive the basic necessities such as food, water, and shelter.

OpinionI think what happened to the oppressed people during the holocaust was horrible and shouldve never happened. I also wish Hitler had good intentions and changed Germany and history in a positive way like in The Great Dictator. He had great power, but chose to use it wrongly.