1.5 million butterflies

The Holocaust Museum of Houston
is sponsoring a nationwide program to collect 1.5 million butterflies to remember the 1.5 million children who died in the Holocaust. They have developed an educational program to help bring history a bit closer to the students.


Here are two butterfly polymer clay canes from the Israeli Artists Roni Gur and Michal Gubi.
"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.

Pavel Friedman 4.6.1942


The buttefly at the top of the post was created by an Israeli now living in NYC. Guy primarily works in the area of glassbead and lampworking.