Twenty-second International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Fifteen thousand children under the age of fifteen entered the gates of this ‘model camp’, Hitler’s “gift to the Jews”. Terezin was created to fool outsiders into thinking Jews were being treated humanely. Most adults who entered this camp were artists and scholars, hence culture flourished in this ghetto amidst starvation, disease, and death. After dark, the adults encouraged the children to draw and write to moderate the chaos that surrounded them. These innocent and honest depictions allow us to see through the eyes of a child what life was like in Terezin. Through these artistic expressions their voices reach us across the chasm of a great crime in human history, leaving a remarkable legacy. After coming across this book of poems and drawings created by children of the Holocaust concentration camp, Terezin, I felt compelled, as an artist-scholar, to share their words through movement. This non-verbal format offers a deep understanding and kinetic response to how art transported the victims to a world beyond the horrific crime in which they were living. This paper explores the choreographic research process for Butterfly and analyzes the oral histories and scholarship from those who recall their time spent at Terezin.