The Butterfly by Pavel Friedmann

The poem, The Butterfly, was written my a boy named Pavel Friedmann while living in the ghetto. Many of the children in the ghettos wrote poems to keep themselves busy. This boy died in Auschwitz on September 29th, 1944. He was kept in the ghetto for seven weeks before being sent to Auschwitz. I found this poem to be very touching. He says that once he entered the ghetto he never saw another butterfly. I think that the butterfly in general just represents a happy, beautiful life. Pavel says, "That butterfly was the last one. Butterflies don't live in here, in the ghetto. I feel like the boy is really trying to say once he entered the ghetto life became unhappy and miserable for everyone. I think this because in the beginning of the poem he mentions pretty things such as the sun and how it is dazzlingly yellow. Then towards the middle when he mentions the ghetto, the poem becomes much darker and more upsetting. This also shows us how conditions in the ghettos were very bad. Pavel says, "That butterfly was the last one. Butterflies don't live in here, in the ghetto. This was one of the many poems we saw during global, but this one stood out. His use of something so simple as a butterfly just seemed to really relay the message of how when life goes bad, we begin to appreciate the really little things more.