A VIEWER'S GUIDE by Steven M. Brown

Steven M Brown, Ed. D. served as Headmaster of the Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Philadelphia and now is Director of the Melton Research Center and Assistant Dean of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

The Film

The Journey of Butterfly is a film which humanizes and personalizes history. Executive Producer/ Director Robert E. Frye has written: "The creative mind provides our world with a rich legacy of sights and sounds. Over the course of human history individuals have created art, music, and writings under the most adverse of circumstances. One of the most moving examples of this occurred fifty years ago in Terezin, , a small walled fortress where Nazi forces established a 'model' Jewish ghetto.

"In October 1991, during the weeks commemorating the fiftieth year of Terezin establishment as a ghetto by the Nazis, the producers, with the members of the American Boychoir, from Princeton, supported by a production film team from Czechoslovakia traveled to Terezin to film. We filmed over twenty hours of footage, including performances of pieces unique to Terezin artists, who were prisoners in Terezin, such as Czech opera star Karel Berman and concert pianist Edith Kraus. Each memory, every feeling, as expressed by survivors, bridges the distance of five decades. History comes alive through their testimony.

"Of the 15,000 children who were held prisoner in Terezin, only a handful survived. The Journey of Butterfly weaves the story into a rich tapestry through the performance of "I Never Saw Another Butterfly," a concert composed by Charles Davidson, with words written by the children held prisoner in Terezin fifty years ago, and sung by the American Boychoir combined with paintings and drawings created by adults and children imprisoned in Terezin, overlaid with musical performances, and interviews with those who survived Terezin.

"On their journey the members of the American Boychoir hear through the witness of survivors the dramatic stories and powerful motivations behind the creative, often secret life inside the ghetto, the uncanny optimism and will to survive, the excruciating reality, and underlying sense of hope. This film explores the past while speaking of our future. The Journey of Butterfly speaks to everyone of the human spirit and the hope to survive the adversity which life can present, and the need for tolerance towards all humankind "

General Overview and History

Terezin is a microcosm of the most powerful evil committed by human kind and the miraculous ability of the human spirit to overcome even the most devastating aspects of the universe.

As told in the film, "This is the story of a legacy left by a group of children. They told of life through their creativity, their writing and art. Terezin is a small walled fortress town in the now north of the capital city of . Two hundred years ago Terezin was built to house units of the Austro-Hungarian army. In March of 1939 Czechoslovakia fell under the domination of Nazi Germany. By the fall of 1941 Terezin, or Theresienstadt as it was called, had been earmarked for a new role. Within its walls barrack blocks were to imprison many thousands of Jewish citizens, adults and children taken from their homes and livelihoods not only from Czechoslovakia, but eventually from all over Nazi occupied Europe.

"Terezin was a ghetto, a concentration camp for those who survived, and a transit camp, a stop on the way east, to the gas chambers in other concentration camps. Between November 1941 and May 1945 140,000 adults and children were imprisoned in Terezin (ghetto Theresienstadt) by the Nazis. Nearly 34,000 died there. 88,000 people were transported to the east, of which 15,000 were children. Most were killed in the Nazi concentration camps. 17,000 adults and children were liberated from Terezin in May 1945."

The Music

The song cycle "I Never I Saw Another Butterfly" was composed by Charles Davidson in 1968 and first performed by the Columbus Boychoir, the precursor of the American Boychoir of Princeton, New Jersey. Composer Davidson desired to "establish a living memorial for the young poets and the millions they represent." The music and poems have been performed by hundreds of choirs in the , Canada, Europe and Israel in thousands of performances. Reflecting on the music's first performance in Prague and then in Terezin, Davidson comments: "I had lived with the music and the poetry for many years and have always believed that it expresses my deepest feelings of sorrow at the destruction wrought upon Jewish people and other peoples by the inhumanity of the Nazis and abetted by the apparent disinterest of the world."

Davidson's eloquent and simple music makes use of clear and pure melodies, boy soprano and alto voices angelic in their quality, contrasted at times with dissonant, harsh harmony. There is constant movement in the accompaniment and vocal lines towards an end which is never quite reached, though perhaps subconsciously understood.

Childlike Iyricism is juxta posed musically to the underlying disharmony of ugliness and death surrounding life in the ghetto. A disruptive irregularity in changes of rhythm as in "Man Proposes God Disposes" reflects the tenuousness and fragility of all situations in Terezin and the impermanence of life. Rhythmic martial sounds of tramping soldiers'feet as interpreted by the Boychoir are a terror of tone painting The strong use of strings as basic orchestration are appropriate to the themes longing, sadness, tenuousness, and sustained torment. Unexpected harmonies in "when the blossom comes to bloom the little boy will be no more," reflect the hesitant tension between growth and death, hope and despair. Perhaps most dramatically, the soaring tones of "Butterfly" and "On A Sunny Evening" lift us to a transcendent realm, beyond time and space signifying eternity, hope, beauty, and renewal. "Birdsong," reprising many of the musical in the song cycle, concludes the piece in the unrestrained joy of a child's indomitable hope for a better future.

The Art

The incredible artistic productivity of the transient prisoners of Terezin is a spiritual miracle which has impelled those who have labored to set The Journey of Butterfly to music and bring it to the screen. This is a story about how art can transform - about the power of art to give meaning to life, to reshape the ugliness of reality, and find some beauty or purpose lending human beings a sense of control over otherwise chaotic circumstances. If art is the product of the desire of human beings to represent their most profound moralities and concepts of beauty in a form which is both tangible and eternal, the artistic products and spirit of Terezin represent the ultimate power of art to transform and turn evil against itself. In the surviving artistic artifacts of Terezin combined with the hauntingly reflective music of the composer, we see how art can unite human beings in love and give them the sense of empowerment and control.

Why is it that people need to leave an artistic legacy? Why did the oppressed inhabitants of Terezin need to document their horrible truth in poetry and art? Is it the result of our inherent desire for immortality? Anyone who publishes a book or a song, or exhibits a work of art for others to admire, knows the feeling of expanded self and implied immortality the artifacts of our thought and creativity reflect.

Art itself can be a force for moral good. The need of the citizens of Terezin to be so productive was generated by the fact that some knew their lives would be unnaturally shortened, and others, perhaps unconsciously, desperately wanted to reassert a moral order in the universe. Art was a vehicle for the expression of ideals, values, emotions, as well as a means of escape, helping to transport the human soul or spirit from the here and now to a valued other place of peace and tranquility.

Frederick Terna, a survivor imprisoned in 1943-44 and now an artist living in the United States, mentions that the camp years for him were as a "bass [line] played by a crazy bassoonist, and I've learned to play the fiddle above it so that it makes for some harmony." Art can free the enslaved of body and spirit. The concerts, cabarets, children's opera that were staged despite the overwhelming despair, point to the best in the human spirit.

Problematic, of course, is the consideration that the Nazis loved art as well. Music, literature, architecture were all at their most revered during the height of the Nazi regime. Art in itself is not necessarily ethical. Art in itself does not necessarily promote the supreme value of human life and can be manipulated for evil purposes. The very fact that the Nazis used Terezin as a propaganda mechanism to show the Red Cross, and ultimately the world, the supposed benign nature of Nazi rule is a powerful symbol of how art can be turned into a tool of evil.

Contrasts

The legacy of Terezin--its history, poetry, art, and music is a study in the struggle for life and the contrasts that struggle poses: good-evil; light-dark; art- degradation; poetry--dehumanization; spirituality--decadence; hope-despair; freedom-imprisonment; life-death.

Yet among stark contrasts are the shades of gray which colored the prisoners' existence. In the ambiguity of poetry and prose they searched for balance and wholeness: "The whole wide world is ruled with a certain justice, so that helps perhaps to sweeten the poor man's pain and woe"; "...that sweet darkness that falls upon the soul and heals those wounds illumined by the day..."; "For seven weeks I've lived in here, penned up inside this ghetto, but I have found my people here"; and "But anyway, I still believe I only sleep today, that I'll wake up a child again and start to laugh and play." Each of these writers seeks to find a living and self sustaining bridge between the extreme contrasts generated by life in Terezin.

Viewers should watch for the light and dark clad Boychoir performers contrasted with the reality of life in Terezin; listen for the perfection in Charles Davidson's music compared to people who "got used to undeserved slaps, blows and executions." Savor the beauty serenity, and agitation of pictures and poems produced by camp captives responding to their daily struggle to survive. *

Italicized text is for personal response and contemplation.

Symbolism

Terezin's experiences and lessons are perhaps best symbolized in the title to Miroslav Kosek's poem "It all depends on how you look at it." Two human beings may look at the same act or event and see totally different meanings, draw vastly different conclusions, derive benefit or despair from a common experience. Recurring throughout the film are the notions of coping with life at its worst, gaining control, finding meaning, seeing beauty amidst rubble. In the face of unspeakable evil, the human spirit tries to transcend. When a loved one dies we can wallow in our pain and grief, close off the outside world, avoid contact and be paralyzed emotionally. Or, we can use our loved one's legacy to impel us to acts of kindness and caring for others that would reflect well on the life that was lived and the love that was given.

Think about examples in your own life when you or someone close to you turned a problematic situation into an opportunity for growth and life, or despairingly accepted reality only as a source of pain and emptiness.

Viewers should pay special attention to some of the following symbols which are dramatically or subtly part of the overall cinematic experience: Notice the choir's choreography; controlled performance; exquisite desire for perfection and beauty. Look at their movements to see how they reflect the emotions of the words; the fear and terror which pervaded the life of the camp, as well as the quest for beauty and sense making.

Examine your feelings when you hear the tramping feet coming irrevocably towards you; ponder the expression, "Death, after all, claims everyone, You find it everywhere. It catches up with even those who wear their noses in the air." A painting of a house shown without doors or windows is highlighted for viewers. Many of the other paintings shown reflect common everyday objects, rather then fantasy. By such means did Terezin's artists seek to endow their drab reality with meaning and beauty.

Consider the painting of a house without windows or doors: how might you visualize hopelessness, or the lack of a future? Look around your own home. What do the articles of daily existence symbolize for you? What would your life be like without them? What if all you knew and cared about was stripped away?

The rhythmic force of "the heaviest wheel goes across our head," echoes the constant grinding of mind and body into the "bottomless pit of time." The mental picture of "a river flowing another way not letting you die, not letting you live;" parallels those "cut off from the world that's free," unable to control their own destiny.

The butterfly is the film's central symbol encapsulating all the elements of the experience at Terezin then and now.

During a rehearsal at Terezin for the filming of The Journey of Butterfly, a live, brilliantly blue butterfly flew into the rehearsal hall at end of October on a cold and wet Czechoslovakian fall afternoon. But what did this strange phenomenon of the butterfly fluttering into the rehearsal hall mean? For those present it was a transcendent experience. Composer Davidson recalls: "It was as if something or someone had visited us to bestow a blessing. We accepted it as such." Boychoir member, Brian Nash, wrote "I recall during a rehearsal in Terezin, a butterfly, entirely foreign to the season and occasion, flew into the rehearsal hall, an eerie and beautiful symbol of the music's power and message. " A butterfly's fragility, beauty, metamorphosis and change symbolize the fragility of life, the attempt to find beauty and meaning in the midst of ugliness and despair, the hope of freedom from bondage, and the prayer for positive change and growth. Its life cycle emphasizes the briefness of existence; its beauty reminds us of the ability to transcend death through artistic images and creative expression; its appearance at Terezin a sign, perhaps, of blessing and renewal.

Prisoners' struggle to live creatively is beautifully articulated by Frederick Terna; "I am master of the paper, I can do what I want." What a succinct and powerful symbol of the ability of human beings to gain control even when they are helpless; to make beauty in the midst of "dirt and filth" and a "thousand unhappy souls."

The poem "Homesick" is recited in front of an altarpiece graced with a vase of multi-colored roses. These are powerful symbols of love and warmth, beauty and transcendence set against frightening, degrading, frigid imprisonment.

Preserved art and poetry bequeathed to us by children and adults of Terezin stand as the ultimate symbols of triumph. Pictures of the garden and the dying sunflower just after the children's joyous opera are juxtaposed with their impending deportation to the gas chamber. A chestnut tree stands as a symbol of rootedness, growth, permanence and beauty, while surrounding blossoms suggest the fragility of life. As the garden wall seeks to protect the fragile growth within, the Boychoir forms walls in an attempt to symbolize hope and comfort in a world of despair. Intertwined music and images of the "veil of gold" suffused with barbed wire remind us how upsetting it is that so many barbed wire barriers still prevent children from blooming in our world. But lest we despair, the young Terezin poet reminds us: "If in barbed wire things can bloom, why can't I; I will not die!"

Concluding the film is the prayerful symbol of a boy with hands raised heavenward while the choir closes with the Jewish declaration of faith: "Shema yisrael adonai eloheynu adonai ehad-Hear O Israel, Adonai is our God, Adonai alone." This statement of faith said by religious Jews several times a day and as the final utterance before death is perhaps the greatest symbol of the power of salvation and transcendence to overcome the most impossible of situations. Adonai, the Hebrew pseudonym for God, written consonantally is YHWH. Pronounced without vowel sounds, the letters sound like breathing. The power that makes for salvation is symbolized here by the breath of life, the breath of artistic creativity and spirit felt in music and movement, pictures and poetry.

Some After Thoughts

The Journey of Butterfly is an experience of the best and worst of human energy and self definition. Perhaps the following suggested activities will help you process and analyze your own personal journey with The Buttefly.

1. How must it feel to leave everything you know and love behind? Alone or with family members imagine you are asked because of prejudice or bias to leave your home, city, even country behind, and are allowed to take only one small suitcase. What would you take and why?

2. Since the creation and preservation of art, music and poetry helped the ghetto prisoners to gain some measure of immortality, and bequeath to us a sense of their spirit and values, viewers might try writing an epitaph or short obituary for themselves, either in words or in some other artistic medium. How do you want to be remembered, and what are you doing in your life to ensure that's the way people will indeed remember you?

3. Read the selected poems printed in this viewers guide and interpolate them through your own painting, music, commentary, or verse.

4. The problem of evil in the world has vexed humankind, religious traditions, and ethical theorists during all recorded history. If to some extent human beings have free choice over how they will act, if we don't have an adequate answer to why the righteous suffer, and if all life affirming human beings must confront the problem, how can each of us cope with evil? What can each of us do within the limits of our own time, space, and resources, to make the world a better place, to repair the fractured reality we face, to bring peace and fellowship between people so as to prevent a future Holocaust? What coping methods exist within your own religious tradition or ethical world view to assist you in the task of world repair and betterment?

5. The film ends with the reactions of some of the members of the Boychoir several years after their trip. Some additional comments include: "No one should ever be forced to go through an ordeal such as the Holocaust, and it is everyone's responsibility to insure that it never happens again." (Mitch Beeler) "We were surrounded by a beautiful city with beautiful people" and could only think of death. Then, the music began to really hit home; and we began to understand, and even see, what the young poets did. They too were surrounded by a beautiful city, and even some beautiful people. But unlike our original view, they looked past death. They saw the city and people and saw beauty! This is a very special view and, like our experience, could even be looked upon as a miracle! (Chris Brammer) "Our trip to Terezin gave me a new insight to the horror of human nature, the actual brutality of the Holocaust, and the pain it brought to its victims. Although, to my childish mind, they just seemed to be crenelated walls of brick, laced with barbed wire, cemented together, now being educated and mature, the gates of Terezin represent the barrier between life and death, hatred and tolerance, and heaven and hell. This trip was a turning point in my life. It gave me a love for the life which I was given, and the peace which surrounds it. My time in Terezin has become a basis for my love towards others, and in no way, shape or form do I feel I could live the same way without its presence in my heart." (W. Alan Brown)

How should events of the Holocaust be conveyed to young people today? What is our responsibility for using the lessons of the past to prevent tragic repetitions in the future?

6. To personally experience some of the aspects of transcendence, growth, spirituality, and the beauty of nature so eloquently portrayed in the film, plant a butterfly garden or order a butterfly kit with pupae and habitat from an educational science company. Feed and nurture the developing butterfly until it is ready for release. Enjoy its flight to freedom!

For Further Reading

I never saw another butterfly... Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944. Volavkova, ed.. Schocken Books, 1993

Hitler's Gift: The Story of Theresienstadt Publishing Co., Inc., 1993

We Are Children Just the Same. Vedem,, the Secret Magazine of the Boys of Terezin. Paul Wilson, ed.. Jewish Publication Society, 1995

The Living Witness: Art in the Concentration Camps and Ghettos, by Mary S. Costanza.. Free Press, 1982

Music in Terezin 1941-1945, by Joza Karas.. Beaufort Books,

For Further Viewing

The Journey of Butterfly is available for home viewing from Think Media, 515 Madison Avenue, 36th Fl., New York, NY, 10022 or 1-800-655-1998.

Theresienstadt:: Gateway to Auschwitz, P. Tyras and producers; Color, 58 mini Cinema Guild, N.Y., 1987

For Further Listening

For information about I Never Saw Another Butterfly on CD/audio cassette, please contact The (609) 924-5858 extension 10. Sheet music is available from Ashbourne Music Publications, Inc., Elkins Park, PA 19027.

Composers from Theresienstadt,, 1941-45. Channel Classics 1991. CCS 3191. Music of and Karel Berman.

Terezin: The Music 1941-44. Romantic- Robot, 1191. RR1941. Includes works by Haas, Klein, Krasa, and Ullmann.

The Journey of Butterfly and the Journey of Butterfly: The Legacy 2-part DVD available from Music in Motion . Product number: 3790. Order on our website: www.musicmotion.com or Toll Free: 800 445-0649