This set of activities should demonstrate to children that very few children survived in Terezin. The butterflies were hung in front of the class with such beauty, such hope, only to be cut down for no reason. The butterflies that survived the cutting are usually not the most beautiful, not the biggest, and not the brightest. Just like the children of Terezin, death of the children was random. The most beautiful did not live, nor did the biggest.

Make sure your students understand that many dreams died with the children of Terezin, dreams just like their own. Point out that one of the children (butterfly) could have been a Michael Jordan. One could have been the person that cured AIDS. Ask the students what the butterflies did wrong that caused them to die? Why was their butterfly targeted with death? Ask the students who could have helped their butterfly live?

Explain to children that not only were these children’s rights taken from them, but also their dreams, their lives, and their legacy. Ask students if anyone has ever experienced having their rights taken from them? How do we prevent such occurrences from happening today?

The answer you want your students to have is that the children of Terezin, just like the 1.5 million children that died in the Holocaust, did nothing to be persecuted. They all had dreams, they all had hopes, and they all lost them in Terezin, the place where butterflies don’t live.