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A Butterfly. Children of the Holocaust»
USUE opened an exhibition of posters “A Butterfly. Children of the Holocaust.” It is dedicated to the memory of 1.5 million children who became victims of the Holocaust - the destruction by Nazis of certain ethnic and social groups, in this case, Jews.
“Very little time remains before the significant date - the 78th anniversary of the Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War. Of all the atrocities of the Nazis, the crime against children can be called the most terrible. Their killing was seen as part of the racial struggle. We must not forget the tragedies of the past so that humanity does not repeat its mistakes in the future. For this purpose, USUE opens the exhibition “A Butterfly. Children of the Holocaust,” Yulia Taushkanova, director of the USUE Museum, said.
The exhibition originated in Houston, and then it was prepared by the UN information center in Russia and provided to the Menorah Foundation | Jewish Center.
Today, the exposition is presented by the eleventh-graders at school No. 167 in Yekaterinburg. A 11th-grade school student, Darya Sazonova, explained why a butterfly was chosen as a symbol: “We chose the image of a butterfly as a symbol of the immortal human soul. We must remember the huge number of people who died because of the Holocaust. It was decided that the most painful, in our opinion, the problem of children’s life in the terrible conditions of war should be made public. During the Second World War, they tried to isolate small Jews from the main mass of school students, including expulsion from schools. I don’t understand how this is possible. In modern times, fortunately, there is no division into “ours” and “theirs” - everyone can achieve whatever he wants!”
Elena Shipilova, a teacher of history and social studies at school No. 167 in Yekaterinburg, added that the children not only prepared the exhibition themselves but also presented it. Thus, they explained the difficult topic of the Holocaust to their peers in an accessible and understandable way.
One of the victims of the Holocaust was a little Jewess Anne Frank. She was born in Germany. When the girl was five, her family members tried to hide from the Nazis in different countries. Nevertheless, in 1944, the Frank family was arrested. In her personal diary, the girl wrote her impressions of the brutal extermination of the Jews. Anne died of typhus in March 1945, a couple of months shy of the victory.
Students of the USUE Preparatory Faculty from India, Cameroon, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Egypt, Algeria, and Iraq also took part in the exhibition's opening. They read poems about the Great Patriotic War. A USUE student from Vietnam Diệu Do Hiền says that she was inspired by two works: “Remember” by Robert Rozhdestvensky and “Do not forget about the war” by Stepan Kadashnikov.
“Almost eight decades have passed since the end of World War II. Despite the remoteness of these events, to this day it is important to study them. You can delve into history by reading a poem. The main thing is the memory of people about the terrible, bloody crimes of the Nazis,” Diệu emphasized.
As pupils of school 167 noted, it is generally accepted that the genocide began together with the Second World War. But in fact, the oppression of some nationalities began much earlier. On January 30, 1933, the head of the German Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler, was appointed the chancellor. Already on September 15, 1935, the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor was adopted. For example, it forbade Jews to marry Germans. On September 1, 1939, the Second World War began, and the oppression of the Jews spread throughout Europe.
The opening of the “A Butterfly. Children of the Holocaust” project was attended by Elvira Babich, director of school No. 167 in Yekaterinburg, and representatives of the Menorah Foundation | Jewish Center.
The exhibition aims to involve the younger generation in preserving the memory of the children who died because of the genocide. The exposition not only shows the chronicle of the extermination of Jews but also the biography of six young people who died in the Holocaust.
The exhibition “Butterfly. Children of the Holocaust” will run until May 12. It is located in the hall on the 2nd floor of the USUE main building.
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