Brave Butterflies lesson Plan - Kennesaw State University

Table of Content 

Brave Butterfly Lesson Plan 2 

Anonymous (Homesick) 4 

Franta Bass 6 

Gretel Bergman 7 

Marsha Bruskina 8 

Petr Fischl 9 

Pavel Friedmann 10 

Henry Greenbaum 11 

Hanŭs Hachenburg 12 

Miroslav Kŭsek 13 

Wolfgang Kusserow 14 

Anna Lindtová 15 

Alice Lok 16 

Miriam and Eva Mozes 17 

Jill Berg Pauly and Inge Berg Katzenstein 18 

Eva Picková 19 

Rosa Robota 20 

Eva Schulzovzá 21 

Alena Synková 22 

Moshe Taube 23 

Teddy 24 

Kitty Weichherz 25 

Helga Weissoviá 26 

Elie Wiesel 28 

Vocabulary 29 

Outcome of Victims of the Holocaust 30

Brave Butterflies 

Students will: 

• learn about the fate of many children during the Holocaust 

• discover some of the feelings children experienced during the Holocaust through poetry 

• create a butterfly to represent the life of the person they have an opportunity to explore 

• discuss what happens when innocent children are targeted because of their religion, race, or 

nationality 

• understand the loss of potential from the Holocaust 

• see that there are ways to combat Anti-Semitism, racism, prejudice, and genocide 

Materials: 

• Individual Story Worksheets (there are a couple of worksheets that contain stories of two 

sisters; assign 2 students to those worksheets and assign each student one of the sisters. 

Have them create a butterfly for their sister only.) 

• Outcome of Each Holocaust Victim 

• Vocabulary list 

• Art supplies of your choice: colored paper, glue scissors, glitter, pipe cleaners (see guidelines 

below for selecting materials) 

• Oak Tag cut into strips 18”x 2” wide 

• Markers 

• Stapler 

• Tape 

• String 

• Hole punch 

• Large shoebox covered in black construction paper (big enough to fit the largest butterfly) 

Activity: 

• Before you start, place all the art materials on a work table 

• Place the vocabulary list on the board and have the class help to define the terms. Write 

their answers on the board. 

• Hand out the Individual Story Worksheets and remember there are a couple of worksheets 

that contain stories of two sisters; assign 2 students to those worksheets and assign each student 

one of the sisters. Have students read silently their worksheet. DO NOT have students 

share their stories until later. 

• Butterfly guidelines: make butterflies 9”x12” or smaller, if 2-dimensional they must be cut 

out in the shape of a butterfly, make them durable, double sided if possible, can have a message 

or meaningful symbolism on the wings or body. Please have student avoid using the 

Nazi Swastika. 

• Allow students to select the materials they want to use to create their butterfly and set aside 

time for them to complete the art work. 

• After they have finished their butterfly pass out the 18”x2” oak tag strips, a piece of string 

about 20’ long, and markers. Have them write the name of their person on both sides of the 

oak tag strip and punch a hole in the bottom of the strip (you should be able to read the 

name above the hole.) Tie the string through the hole and then staple or tie the string to the

middle of the butterfly so it will hang like it’s flying. 

• Now staple or tape all of the butterflies to the ceiling of the classroom. 

• Allow the butterflies to hang for at least a day so the students can admire them. 

• Next, each student will present the brief biography along with any poems or diary excerpts. 

Have them point out the butterfly that represents their person and then tell them that person’s 

fate. If the person died during the Holocaust have them cut the butterfly down and 

place it in the shoebox. Be sure the name strip remains hanging from the ceiling as a memorial 

to that lost soul. If the person survived the butterfly will remain hanging from the ceiling. 

If their person perished have students calculate their age at the time of death. 

• After all students have presented lead a discussion with the following objectives in mind: 

1.5 million Jewish children died 

The tremendous loss of hope, dreams, potential (what could these children have 

contributed to society) 

What was their crime? Why were they targeted for death? 

Who could have helped? 

Loss of their human dignity, civil rights, legacy 

Is there genocide going on today? 

How do we prevent genocide from happening? 

• What are the signs of Genocide? 

Killing members of a group of people 

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of a group of people 

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within a group of people 

Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group of people 

• What can we do to prevent genocide? 

Paying attention to how countries are treating their people 

Respecting differences in ideas, beliefs, religion, culture 

Believing in the positive power of diversity 

Being vocal about our governments role in stopping genocide 

Homework or follow up assignment: 

• At the bottom of each biography there is a word or phrase, which can be researched by the student. 

It can be an assignment that ranges from a few paragraphs to an extensive research paper. 

This lesson has been adapted from the Holocaust Museum Houston’s I Never Saw Another Butterfly 

teaching activity (http://www.hmh.org/minisite/butterfly/activity5.html) 

Connections to GPS: 

SSWH18 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the global political, economic, and 

social impact of World War II. 

b. Identify Nazi ideology, policies, and consequences that led to the Holocaust. 

ELA9RL2 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in literary 

works from various genres and provides evidence from the works to support 

understanding. (a,b) 

ELA9RL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to

contemporary context or historical background. (a) 

ELA9RL4 The student employs a variety of writing genres to demonstrate a 

comprehensive grasp of significant ideas in sophisticated literary works. The 

student composes essays, narratives, poems, or technical documents. (a,b) 

ELA9RL5 The student understands and acquires new vocabulary and uses it correctly 

in reading and writing. (a,c) 

QCC: World History: 

Topic 18: Impact of ideas, Individuals, and History 

Topic 23: Human Rights 

This lesson plan was adapted from educational materials Holocaust Museum Houston. 

____________________________________________________________________________________________ 

This lesson plan was created to complement Kennesaw State University’s Holocaust Education Butterfly 

Exhibition. For more information please go to our website 

www.kennesaw.edu or call 678-797-2083

Alena Synková was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in September 24, 1926. She was sent 

to Terezin on December 22, 1942. Terezin camp was designed by Nazis as a model 

Jewish settlement, but in reality it was a concentration camp. Terezin was also used as a 

transit camp for Jews en route to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. 

I’d Like To Go Alone 

I’d like to go away alone 

Where there are other, nicer people, 

Somewhere into the far unknown. 

Maybe more of us, 

A thousand strong, 

Will reach this goal 

Before too long. 

Theme: 

Terezin Camp 

This lesson plan was created to complement Kennesaw State University’s Holocaust Education 

Butterfly Exhibition. For more information please go to our website 


Alice Lok 

Alice Lok lost her entire family by age seventeen. One day, it was her turn to go to the “showers,” too. 

She was told to undress; the Nazis had decided that she was on longer of use to them. She entered the 

gas chambers on October 7, 1944, on the same day as the Sonderkommando uprising. Along with other 

women, the Nazis ordered her out, and she survived. However, Alice was forced on a death march to 

Bergen-Belsen. 

“Six people slept on a plank of wood, on top of us another layer, and if one of us turned, all the others 

had to turn because it was so narrow. One cover, no pillow, no mattress.” —Alice Lok 

Theme: 

Sonderkommando 




Anna Lindtová was born on March 19, 1930. She was sent to Terezin from Prague, 

Czechoslovakia on May 12, 1942 at the age of 12. While in Terezin she wrote poems. Terezin 

was created by the Nazis as a model Jewish settlement, but in reality it was a concentration 

camp. Terezin was also used as a transit camp for Jews en route to Auschwitz and other 

extermination camps. 

Theme: 

Auschwitz 

Campfire 

Here I sit on a rock 

in front of the campfire. 

One branch after another 

is snatched by the fire. 

Into the darkness 

the forest recedes. 

Fire makes one reflect… 

Terezin is all I think about. 

But now memories gather ‘round me 

like the falling leaves. 

Fall is here. 

The leaves turn yellow on the trees, 

the campfire dies out. 

My thoughts are far from here, 

somewhere far, 

where integrity lives. 

It lives in my friend. 

Now I think of her. 

Memories gather ‘round me 

like the falling leaves. 




Elie Wiesel 

Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in Sighet, Transylvania (now Romania), in a community centered on 

religious study. His hometown of Sighet was annexed into Hungary in 1940 and all the Jewish residents 

were placed into one of two the ghettos in the city. The Wiesel family lived in the larger ghetto on 

Serpent Street. On April 19, 1944, at the age of fifteen, the Nazis deported the Jewish inhabitants of his 

town to Auschwitz in Poland. Elie, like all concentration camp prisoners, was tattooed with a number on 

their left arm. His number was A-7713. Elie Wiesel was separated from his mother and sisters and later 

was sent with his father to Buchenwald work camp in Germany. 

“Never shall I forget that first night, the first night in the camp, which turned my life into one long 

night.” –Elie Wiesel, Night 

Theme: 

Night 




Eva Picková was born in Nymburk, Czechoslovakia on May 15, 1929 and was sent to Terezin on 

April 16, 1942. Eva wrote poems while living in the camp. Terezin was presented by the Nazis 

as a model Jewish settlement, but in reality it was a concentration camp. Terezin was also used 

as a transit camp for European Jews en route to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. 

Fear 

Today the ghetto knows a different fear, 

Close in its grip, Death wields au icy scythe. 

An evil sickness spreads a terror in its wake, 

The victims of its shadow weep and writhe. 

Today a father’s heartbeat tells his fright 

and mothers bend their heads into their hands. 

Now children choke and die with typhus here, 

A bitter tax is taken from their bands. 

My heart still beats inside my breast 

while friends depart for other worlds. 

Perhaps it’s better – who can say? 

Than watching this, to die today? 

Theme: 

Rise of Fascism 

No, no, my God, we want to live! 

Not watch our numbers melt away. 

We want to have a better world, 

We want to work – we must not die! 




Eva Schulzovzá was born on July 20, 1931. While living at Terezin she wrote poems. 

Terezin was designed by the Nazis as a model Jewish settlement, but in reality it was a 

concentration camp. Terezin was also used as a transit camp for Jews en route to 

Auschwitz and other extermination camps. 

Theme: 

Aryan Race 

An Evening In Terezin 

The sun goes down 

and everything is silent, 

only at the guard’s post 

are heavy footfalls heard. 

That’s the guard who watches his Jews 

to make sure they don’t run away from the ghetto, 

or that an Aryan aunt or uncle doesn’t try to get in. 

Ten o’clock strikes suddenly, 

and the windows of Dresden’s barracks darken. 

The women have a lot to talk about; 

they remember their homes, 

and dinners they made. 

Then some of them argue. 

Others try to quiet them down. 

Finally, one by one, they grow silent; 

they toss and turn, and in the end, 

they fall asleep. 

How many more evenings 

will we have to live like this? 

We do not know, 

only God knows. 




Franta Bass was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia on September 4, 1930 and he was sent to 

Terezin concentration camp on December 2, 1941. This camp was created by the Nazis as 

a model Jewish settlement, but in reality it was a concentration camp. Terezin was also 

used as a transit camp for Jews en route to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. 

I Am A Jew 

I am a Jew and will be a Jew forever. 

Even if I should die from hunger, 

Never will I submit. 

I will always fight for my people, 

On my honor. 

I will never be ashamed of them. 

I give my word. 

I am proud of my people, 

how dignified they are. 

Even though I am suppressed, 

I will always come back to life. 

Theme: 

Judaism 




Gretel Bergman 

Gretel Bergman had become the 4 th ranked German high jumper at age 16 in 1930. Shortly after 

Hitler took over the German government in 1933, Gretel and other Jewish athletes were barred from 

local sports clubs. Jewish athletes were no longer allowed to set foot in the stadium, even as a 

spectator and there were signs that stated No Jews or Dogs Allowed. When she was denied entry into 

the University of Berlin, she fled to London. The United States threatened a boycott of the Olympic 

Games, scheduled for Berlin in 1936, unless Jewish athletes were allowed to participate. The Nazis 

urged Gretel to return in 1935 with the promise that she would compete. Gretel returned and trained 

for the 1936 Olympics, however after America’s Olympians set sail for German she was told she had 

not made the German team. 

“100,000 spectators seeing a Jew win would’ve been heaven.” —Gretel Bergman 

Theme: 

1936 Olympics 




Hanŭs Hachenburg was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia on July 12, 1929. He wrote this poem 

while in a concentration camp. Hanŭs was sent to Terezin on October 24, 1942. Terezin was 

designed by the Nazis as a model Jewish settlement, but in reality it was a concentration 

camp. Terezin was also used as a transit camp for Jews being sent to Auschwitz and other 

extermination camps. 

Theme: 

Life in the ghetto 

Terezin 

That bit of filth in dirty walls, 

and all around barbed wire. 

and 30,000 souls who sleep 

who once will wake 

and once will see 

their own blood spilled. 

I was once a little child, 

Three years ago, 

that child who longed for other worlds. 

But now I am no more a child 

For I have learned to hate. 

I am a grown-up person now, 

I have known fear. 

Bloody words and a dead day then, 

That’s something different than the bogeyman! 

But anyway, I still believe I only sleep today, 

That I’ll wake up, a child again, and start to laugh and play. 

I’ll go back to childhood sweet like a briar rose, 

Like a bell that wakes us from a dream. 

Like a mother with an ailing child 

Loves him with aching woman’s love. 

How tragic, then is youth that lives 

With enemies, with gallows rope, 

How tragic, then, for children on your lap 

To say: this for the good, that for the bad. 




Helga Weissoviá was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia on November 10, 1929. At the age 

of 12 she was already a gifted artist. Helga was sent to Terezin along with her parents on 

December 17, 1941. She kept a diary for the 2 ½ years she spent in Terezin. Terezin camp 

was created by the Nazis as a model Jewish settlement, but in reality it was a concentration 

camp. It was designed to cover up the acts of genocide performed by the Nazis. In 1944, 

the American Red Cross, during an inspection, was tricked into believing Nazi treatment of 

Jews was not cruel or brutal. Terezin was made to appear as beautiful and serene, thus 

preventing the truth about treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany. An excerpt from Helga’s 

diary details how the camp was suddenly improved in an attempt to “fool” the commission 

inspecting the camp. 

Preparing For The Commission’s Visit 

…The camp command issued new orders about the “beautifying campaign” that must be 

finished in two months. 

It’s ridiculous, but it seems that Terezin is to be changed into to a sort of spa. 

…all of the sudden the Germans had an idea, and overnight signs had to be put on every 

corner house with the name of the street, and at crossroads arrows pointed: To the Park, To 

the Bath, etc…. 

The school building that had served as a hospital up to today was cleared out overnight 

and the patients put elsewhere while the whole building was repainted, scrubbed up, school 

benches brought in, and in the morning a sign could be seen afar: “Boys’ and “Girls’ 

School.” It really looked fine, like a real school, only the pupils and teachers are missing. 

The short coming is adjusted by a small note on the door: “Holidays.” On the square the 

newly sown grass is coming up, the center is adorned by a big rose plot, and paths, covered 

with clean, yellow sand…

…..They have already got quite far in painting the houses….In two of the barracks some 

bunks and shelves were painted yellow and they got blue curtains. In the park in front of 

the Infant’s Home they put a luxury pavilion with cribs and light blue, quilted covers. In 

one room there are toys, a carved rocking horse, and so on. None of us can explain why 

they are doing all this. Are they so concerned about the commission? 

Theme: 

Red Cross Inspection of Terezin on June 23, 1944 




Henry Greenbaum 

The youngest of nine children, Henry Greenbaum was born in Starachowice, Poland, in 1928. At the age 

of twelve, Henry and his family were sent to the town’s ghetto. They remained there until late 1942 

when he and three of his sisters were chosen to work in a slave labor camp. There, Henry worked in a 

munition factory. In 1943, Henry and one of his three sisters, Faiga, tried to escape. Henry was wounded 

when he was shot in the head, and Faiga was killed. Henry was first sent to Auschwitz and forced to 

work for I. G. Farben Company. He was then relocated to the Flossenburg concentration camp in 

Germany in early 1945 and then forced to take a three-month death march deeper into Germany. 

"Your bravery allowed me to live again. Your courage gave me my freedom." —Henry Greenbaum, 

speaking at age 76 to a group of World War II veterans 

Theme: 

Death Marches 




Terezin was created by the Nazis as a model Jewish settlement, but in reality it was a 

concentration camp. Many artist and intellectuals were sent to Terezin and they took 

every opportunity to nurture a cultural environment. Drawing and Poetry were a means 

for expressing these dark times in the young lives of these Jewish captives. The 

children’s art of Terezin are among the most moving documents of the Holocaust. 15,000 

children under the age of fifteen were sent to Terezin and less than 100 survived. Many 

of the children’s poems were signed, but others were not. The author of the poem below 

is unknown. 

Homesick 

I’ve lived in the ghetto here for more than year. 

in Terezin, in the black town now, 

and when I remember my home so clear, 

I can love it more than I did, somehow. 

Ah, home, home, 

Why did they tear me away? 

Here the weak die easy as a feather 

and when they die, they die forever. 

I’d like to go back home again, 

It makes me think of sweet flowers. 

Before, when I used to live at home, 

it never seemed so dear and fair. 

I remember now those golden days… 

But maybe I’ll be going there soon again.

People walk along the street, 

You see at once on each you meet 

That there’s ghetto here, 

a place of evil and fear. 

There’s little to eat and much to want, 

where bit by bit, it’s horror to live. 

But no one must give in! 

The world turns and times change. 

Yet we all hope the time will come 

when we’ll go home again. 

Now I know how dear it is 

and often I remember it. 

9/3/1943 Anonymous 

Theme: 

Lodz Ghetto 




Jill Berg Pauly and Inge Berg Katzenstein 

Giesella (Jill) and Inge Berg lived in a rural area outside of Cologne, Germany, where their father was a 

cattle dealer. Observant Jews, the Bergs conducted business with both Jewish and non-Jewish families in 

the area. Because of these relationships, the Bergs were warned of impending danger in November 1938. 

They fled to the city of Cologne before the violence of Kristallnacht destroyed their home. Jill’s father, 

uncle, and a male cousin fled to Holland only to be arrested upon arrival. A distant relative made 

arrangements for the Berg family to move to Kenya in 1939. After a nine-month internment, Jill’s male 

relatives were released from prison in Holland and allowed to make the trip to Africa. In June 1939, 6- 

year-old Jill, 10-year-old Inga, and 17 of their family members moved to a farm in Limuru. The Bergs 

were considered “enemy aliens” in Africa. 

“I could not speak, I could not call attention to myself, I could not fight with my sister, I could not ask 

for a drink of water. I just had to sit in the compartment and be quiet.” —Jill Pauly upon leaving 

Cologne for Genoa, June 1939 

Themes: 

Escaped Jews In Africa 

World Response to Fleeing Jews 




Kitty Weichherz 

Béla Weichherz began a diary when his wife Esti gave birth to the couple's only daughter Kitty in 

December 1929, the same year as Anne Frank. In it, this adoring father recorded his daughter's 

development in minute detail. The Weichherz's did not actively embrace a Jewish identity or life. 

Like many acculturated middle-class Jewish families in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, they spoke 

German at home, although Kitty also learned Slovak, Czech, and Hungarian. Soon after Germany 

annexed the Sudetenland in October 1938, Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. Slovakia gained 

independence and became a Nazi puppet state that harshly persecuted its Jews. Béla lost his job as a 

traveling salesman and Kitty was forced to attend a Jewish school. The Weichherz's were evicted 

from their apartment and moved in with relatives in the northern town of Čadca. In March 1942, 

deportations of Slovak Jews to Auschwitz began. 

“I only wish that we can go together. . . . Kitty is strong for her age but one would like to help a child 

in a situation like this.” –Bela Weincherz’s final diary entry, 1942 

Theme: 

Anti-Semitism 




Masha Bruskina 

Born in 1924, Masha lived in the Minsk ghetto in 1941 and worked as a medical assistant in a hospital 

for Soviet prisoners of war. To aide the underground resistance in Minsk, which had been established in 

August 1941, Buskina supplied civilian clothes and false documents to escaping Soviet officers. Nearly 

10,000 people escaped the ghetto to form partisan units aiming to sabotage the Nazi war effort. Sadly, 

the Germans killed most of the escapees. After a few months at the hospital, Masha and other members 

of her group were denounced and arrested in the summer of 1941. Imprisoned and tortured for days by 

the Nazis, she never gave up any secrets of the resistance movement. 

“If you can, please send me my dress, my green blouse, and white socks. I want to be dressed decently 

when I leave here.” —Masha Bruskina in an October 20, 1941 letter to her mother after being arrested 

by the Nazis 

Theme: 

Underground Resistance 


Butterfly Exhibition. For more information please go to our website

Miriam and Eva Mozes 

Twins Miriam and Eva Mozes were born in 1934 in a small Romanian village, Portz, and were the only 

Jewish family in the small town. Early in 1944, their family was sent to a ghetto in Simleul Silvanieni 

and finally sent to Auschwitz. Once the girls were identified as twins, they became subjects of Dr. 

Joseph Mengele’s cruel and inhumane medical experiments. Eva was given five injections, which gave 

her a high fever and caused her arms and legs to swell. During their ordeal Eva and Miriam were put 

through many extremely brutal surgeries and experiments by Dr. Mengele. All twins at Auschwitz were 

examined from head to toe and measurements of every inch were taken. Some were given injections in 

an attempt to change their eye color others were received lethal doses of germs to see how they would 

react and what medications might save them. 

“I often say that we, the Mengele twins, are the children without a childhood.” —Eva Mozes Kor 

Themes: 

Medical Experiments 

Eugenics 




Miroslav Kŭsek was born on March 30, 1932 in the city of Hořelice in Bohemia. He was 

sent to Terezin ghetto on February 15, 1942. Terezin was created by the Nazis as a model 

Jewish settlement, but in reality it was a concentration camp. Terezin was also used as a 

transit camp for Jews en route to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. Miroslav 

was deported to Auschwitz. 

It All Depends On How You Look At It 

I. 

Terezin is full of Beauty. 

It’s in your eyes now clear 

And through the street the tramp 

of many marching feet. 

In the ghetto at Terezin, 

It looks that way to me, 

is a square kilometer of earth 

cut off from the world that’s free. 

Theme: 

II. 

Death, after all, claims everyone, 

you find it everywhere. 

It catches up with even those 

Who wear their noses in the air. 

The whole, wide world is ruled 

with a certain justice, so 

that helps perhaps to sweeten 

the poor man’s pain and woe. 

Nuremberg Trials 




Moshe Taube 

Moshe, growing up in Poland, lived the life of any other child. His father had a profitable company and 

he had no worries in his life. In 1939, his life began to change. His father was worried about the rise of 

Hitler and sent Moshe along with the rest of the family to the east to escape the impending German 

invasion. However, they had to turn around and go west to further escape the Nazis. Moshe’s father 

finally realized that it was of no use to keep moving his family; they were bound to be caught soon. And 

they were. Moshe’s mother and sister were sent to Belzec and killed. He and his father were forced to 

work in a labor camp. 

Theme: 

Belzec Camp 




Pavel Friedmann was born January 7, 1921 in the city of Prague, Czechoslovakia. He was 

deported to Terezin a concentration camp in 1942 at the age of 21. This camp was 

created by the Nazis as a model Jewish settlement, but in reality it was a concentration 

camp. Terezin was also used as a transit camp for Jews en route to Auschwitz and other 

extermination camps. While living in at Terezin he wrote the poem I Never Saw Another 

Butterfly. 

Theme: 

Final Solution 

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 me 

and the white chestnut branches in the court. 

Only I never saw another butterfly. 

The butterfly was the last one. 

Butterflies don’t live in here, 

in the ghetto. 




Petr Fischl was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia on September 9, 1929. He was sent to 

Terezin on December 8, 1943 at the age of 14. Terezin was created by the Nazis as a 

model Jewish settlement, but in reality it was a concentration camp. Terezin was also 

used as a transit camp for Jews being sent to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. 

Petr kept a diary while in Terezin. 

Excerpts from Petr’s Diary 

We got use to standing in line at seven o’clock in the morning, at twelve noon, and again 

at seven o’clock in the evening. We stood in a long queue with a plate in our hand, into 

which they ladled a little warmed-up water with a salty or coffee flavor. Or else they gave 

us a few potatoes. We got use to sleeping without a bed, to saluting every uniform, not to 

walk on the sidewalks and then to walk on the sidewalks. We got use to undeserved 

slaps, blows, and executions… We got use to it that from time to time one thousand 

unhappy souls would come here and that, from time to time, another unhappy souls 

would go away… 

Theme: 

Diet and Concentration Camp life 




Rosa Robota 

When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, Rosa Robota and her sisters, who had been born into a 

wealthy family, were forced to clean houses for the former head of the Polish government. Rosa had 

been a member of the Hashomer Hatzair Zionist underground in Poland and remained politically 

active even after her family was deported to Auschwitz in 1942. In 1944, Rosa and twenty other 

women, who worked Union Munitions Plant in the concentration camp, smuggled black powder in 

their dresses to members of the Birkenau Somderkommando(the prisoners whose job it was to 

remove the dead from the gas chambers) who destroyed Crematoria IV on October 7, 1944. Arrested 

by the Nazis for her role in the revolt, Rosa refused to reveal information about the uprising. 

“Hazak V’ Amaz (Be strong and brave).” —A message that Rosa Robata left in her cell before her 

execution 

Theme: 

Somderkommando 




All that is known about Teddy is that he lived in the children’s home at Terezin in 1943. 

Terezin was created by the Nazis as a model Jewish settlement, but in reality it was a 

concentration camp. Terezin was also used as a transit camp for Jews being sent to 

Auschwitz and other extermination camps. 

At Terezin 

When a new child comes 

everything seems strange to him. 

What, on the ground I have to lie? 

Eat black potatoes? No! Not I! 

I’ve got to stay? It’s dirty here! 

The floor – why, look, it’s dirt, I fear! 

And I’m supposed to sleep on it? 

I’ll get all dirty! 

Here the sound of shouting, cries, 

And oh, so many flies. 

Everyone knows flies carry disease. 

Oooh, something bit me! Wasn’t that a bedbug? 

Here in Terezin, life is hell 

And when I’ll go home again, I can’t yet tell. 

Theme: 

Kristallnacht 




Wolfgang Kusserow 

Wolfgag Kusserow’s story demonstrates that Nazi Germany targeted a large number of 

groups in their attempt to conquer Europe. Natives of Germany, the Kusserow family 

became Jehovah’s Witnesses when Wolfgang was an infant. At age 9, Wolfgang and his 

family moved to the small town of Bad Lippspringe, where their home became a 

headquarters for a congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In 1933, Hitler banned 

Jehovah’s Witnesses from worshiping in Germany. However, the Kusserow family, 

including 11-year-old Wolfgang, continued to hold secret Bible studies in their home, 

even after Wolfgang’s father and older brother were arrested by the Nazis. In 1941, 

Wolfgang refused to enter the German military on religious grounds. He was arrested. 

“Thus we are all separated, but everybody is steady. Yes we shall be rewarded for all of this.” — 

Wolfgang Kusserow in his last letter to his family, 1942 

Theme: 

All Groups Persecuted by Hitler 

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Brave Butterflies Vocabulary 

• Aryan: a term used by Nazis to mean white, non-Jewish, Nordic Europeans 

• Auschwitz: the largest of the Nazi concentration and extermination camps, which 

was located in southern Poland. 

• Concentration Camp: A prison with barracks rather than cells, used by the Nazis 

to house thousands of inmates en masse under intolerably inhuman conditions. 

• Extermination Camp: a group of camps set up by Nazi Germany during World 

War II for the express purpose of killing the Jews and others they deemed as 

“enemies”. 

• Ghetto: the poorest sections of a city and often surrounded by barbed wire or 

walls. 

• Labor Camps: camps that used prisoners as slave labor, such as Buchenwald 

camp where prisoners worked in the armament factories. 

• Transit Camp: temporary camps designed to keep prisoners until they were 

moved to concentration, extermination or labor camps. 

• Zionist: a Jewish person that supports the political movement that Jewish people 

are entitled to a national homeland 




Outcome of Each Holocaust Victim 

The biographies and poetry for this project were selected from two sources. The children’s 

writings are from …I never saw another butterfly…Children’s drawings and Poems from 

Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944 edited by Haná Volavkova. The childrens 

biographies are from Parallel Journeys: World War II and Holocaust through the Eyes of 

Teens, an exhibit at Kennesaw State University. The Parallel Journeys biographies are 

denoted by an *. 

* Rosa Robota: She was hung with three other young women on January 6, 1945. Her story demonstrates 

that resistance was possible even in the most desperate circumstances. She died at the age of 23. 

Alena Synková: Alena returned home after the liberation of Germany. 

*Elie Wiesel: Upon liberation in April 1945, Wiesel was sent to France with other orphaned children and 

teenagers, where he reunited with his sisters. In Paris, he studied philosophy and journalism, and in order 

to make sense of his wartime experience published his most famous book, La Nuit (Night) in 1958. 

Wiesel has received numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the U.S. 

Congressional Gold Medal and the Medal of Liberty Award, and the rank of Grand-Croix in the French 

Legion of Honor. In 1986, he won the Nobel Prize for Peace. A widely known lecturer and author, Wiesel 

has authored more than 40 books on Judaism, the Holocaust, and Genocide. 

Franta Bass: Wrote poems while in Terezin before being taken to Auschwitz where he 

died on October 28, 1944 at the age of 14. 

Anonymous: The butterfly can be cut down to represent all the unknown children that lost 

their lives. 

*Gretel Bergman: On the eve of the 1936 Olympic Games, she was notified that she would not be 

allowed to compete. Rather than risk having a Jew win the gold medal, the Germans left the third spot on 

the high jump team unfilled. Gretel fled to the United States in 1937, where she continued to compete in 

track and field events. She married another German Jewish athlete and changed her name to Margaret 

Lambert. Today, a track and field complex in Berlin bears her name. 

Teddy: The butterfly can remain because we do not know the fate of Teddy.

Anna Lindtová: Died in Auschwitz on October 28, 1944 at the age of 14. 

Eva Picková: Died in Auschwitz on December 18, 1943. 

*Henry Greenbaum: Henry was liberated on April 25, 1945. Henry lived for a time in Zeilsheim bei 

Frankfurt (Displaced Persons Camp) before immigrating to the United States in 1946. Only Henry and 

three of his siblings (Diana, David, and Zachary) survived. Henry came to the United States and he ran a 

dry cleaning business for 44 years. He became a volunteer for the United States Holocaust Memorial 

Museum in the mid-1990s. 

Helga Weissoviá: She was sent to Auschwitz on October 4, 1944 and survived. She returned to Prague 

and is an artist. 

*Jill Berg Pauly and Inge Berg Katzenstein: The Bergs escaped the fate of many European Jews. The 

family eventually purchased a large farm to raise cattle. In 1947, Jill and Inge, now 13 years and 17 years 

old, came to America with their family where they established a chicken farm and dairy in New Jersey. 

After completing business college in Philadelphia, Jill married fellow German refugee, Kurt Pauly. Inge 

went to business school, became a stenographer, and married another German refugee, Werner 

Katzenstein. 

*Miriam and Eva Mozes: Miraculously, the Mozes twins survived the experiments. They were liberated 

in 1945 along with the other remaining inmates of Auschwitz. However, they continued to suffer the 

physical and mental effects of the experiments conducted upon themselves by Mengele and his crew. 

Pavel Friedmann: Died in Auschwitz on September 29, 1944 at the age of 23. 

*Masha Bruskina: Before she would turn 18, Masha Bruskina was murdered for her brave stand against 

the Nazis. On October 26, 1941, she was paraded, along with two other Belorussian men, through the 

streets of Minsk wearing a sign that read: “We are partisans who shot German soldiers.” All three were 

hung, and the Germans left her body on the gallows to deter others from opposing the Third Reich. 

Eva Schulzovzá: Eva died in Auschwitz on December 18, 1943 at the age of 12. 

*Kitty Weichherz: Neither Kitty nor her parents survived. Kitty died at the age of 13. After the war, 

Béla's (Kitty’s father) diary came into the possession of Kitty's aunt, Malvine Pollak. Malvine's 

granddaughter, Judit Sternlichtova, donated this family heirloom to the United States Holocaust Memorial 

Museum in 2004. It remains a powerful and poignant document of daily life in Europe on the eve of 

Hitler’s Final Solution. 

Petr Fischl: Died in Auschwitz on October 8, 1944 at the age of 15.

Hanŭs Hachenburg: Died in Auschwitz on December 18, 1943 at the age of 14. 

*Wolfgang Kusserow: He was a Jehovah’s Witness and because he refused to swear allegiance to 

Hitler’s Germany he was condemned to death. In March 1942, Wolfgang was beheaded by guillotine at 

Brandenburg Prison at the age of 20. 

Miroslav Kŭsek: Died in Auschwitz on October 19, 1944 at the age of 12. 

*Moshe Taube: After the war, he returned with his father to Krakow. Moshe was sent into war again, 

this time against the Arabs. He eventually immigrated to Pittsburg and became a rabbi. 

*Alice Lok: She is an artist living in Houston, Texas. She devotes her life to forgiveness and honoring the 

memory of those who did not survive the gas chambers of Auschwitz. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________ 

This lesson plan was created to complement Kennesaw State University’s Holocaust 

Education Butterfly Exhibition. For more information please go to our website

Brave Butterflies lesson Plan - Kennesaw State University

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