POLK STUDENTS JOIN HOLOCAUST BUTTERFLY PROJECT
By Sarah Stegall

The Ledger
4125021/1338/NEWS08?Title=Students-Join-Butterfly- Project-For-Holocaust
April 13 2009

Decades since Jews who survived the Holocaust were finally released,
students at All Saints’ Academy say that forgetting those who perished
or suffered is never an option.

To keep the memory alive this, 46 sixth-graders in Shelia Reynolds’
English classes are participating in the Holocaust Museum Houston’s
"Butterfly Project."

To remember the children who were lost in the Holocaust, the museum
is collecting 1.5 million handmade butterflies based on a line from
Pavel Friedmann’s Poem, "The Butterfly," to be displayed in 2012.

"I didn’t realize how much they went through and how painful it was,"
said Aislinn Tirney, 11, of Lakeland. "It makes you realize that they
went through all this because of their faith. It’s very sad."

After reading Jerry Spinelli’s book about children of the Holocaust,
"Milkweed," Reynolds had each of her students research the life of a
child who died and decorate the butterflies to reflect the lives of
those children.

The project "made us understand the Holocaust better than any history
book," said 11-year-old Matthew Murphy, of Winter Haven, who suggested
reading "Milkweed" to Reynolds as part of the project.

Reynolds, who found the Butterfly Project on the Internet, said it’s so
important for her students and others to understand what the Holocaust
was about.

After seeing Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor who won the Nobel Peace
Prize winner, and author of the memoir, "Night," Reynolds was changed.

"He says that hate is not the opposite of love, but ignorance
is. That’s what we have to overcome," she said.

Reynolds uses the Holocaust to talk about other situations such as
the Armenian Genocide in the early 20th century and the current war
in Darfur.

"We need to educate as many people as we can about the Holocaust,"
said Evan Budd, 12, of Lakeland.

He said it’s hard to imagine all the terrible things done to the Jews.

For his project, he researched a young Polish boy named Natan Abbe,
who was 15 when Germany invaded.

Evan wrote a poem in the shape of a butterfly about Natan.

As tragic as it was, Evan said, he cannot believe that there are
people who don’t believe the Holocaust took place.

"It was not a hoax," Evan said. "It was inhumane."

Jagger Larson, of Lakeland, decided to make his project a little
different.

Instead of using one butterfly, Jagger cut out many small butterflies
and attached them to a rectangular box.

He then painted two hands on the box, brushing the butterflies away.

"The butterflies symbolize the Jewish people who were trapped in the
camps," said Jagger, 12.

"The hands are shaking them off, setting them free," he said.

On the back, Jagger wrote a letter to Ulrich Wolfgang Arnheim, the
child he researched who was murdered along with his parents in the
Auschwitz death camp.

"Dear friend," Jagger said in his letter. "I know you are one of the
victims of the Holocaust … This is a testament that I will never
forget you."

Holocaust Remembrance Day is April 21.

[ Sarah Stegall can be reached at sarah.stegall@yahoo.com or
863-802-7547.]