03 November 2010

The Butterfly project


1944 my father and his family tried to fled the war. They were captured by the Russians and my father and his older brother were sent to a prison camp in Siberia. He spent one month in a freight train under terrible conditions and many of his fellow prisoners never reached the destination. He was released a year later when the war ended and had then miraculously survived dysentery, starvation and hard labour in an extremely cold climate. He was 15 years old and weighed only 35 kilos.


My father started to tell us about his childhood when we were only young and his history became an important part of my childhood as well. He and I have told my children together and I hope that they will tell their own children one day. Because we can forgive but never forget. By remembering we can try to fight the dangers of hatred, prejudice and apathy that still darken the world. Now more than ever it seams!

Or as Ghandi so brilliantly put it:

Be the change you want to see in the world

Today I read about the Butterfly project.
It is hosted by the Holocaust Museum Houston in Texas, USA. The museum is dedicated to remembering the innocent victims of holocaust and other genocides and honoring the survivors’ legacy.

In the Butterfly project they remember the 1,500 000 innocent children who perished as a result of the Holocaust by collecting 1,5 million handmade butterflies. In spring 2013 these butterflies will become an exhibition and already people all over the world has contributed with 600 000 butterflies.

I am going to make one too. I am going to make it to honor both the victims and my father who survived. Because the surviving children has had to live with their memories ever since.

Do you want to send a Butterfly too?

Read the instructions here and send it to:

Holocaust Museum Houston
c/o Butterfly Project
Education Department
5401 Caroline St.
Houston, TX 77004

The deadline for butterflies to be received at the museum has now been established as June 30, 2012

Take care
Jeanette

1 comment:

LiLi M. said...

This is such a brilliant idea, I will send one too.

That story of your father is beautiful, my my has our world changed, I wish I could say that of everybody's world.