A Ripple Effect for Remembrance and Hope

By Cheryl Rattner Price
Cheryl Rattner Price prepares ceramic butterflies (The Butterfly Project photo)

SAN DIEGO — Next week I am an invited guest representing The Butterfly Project attending Jewish Remembrance Week in Görlitz, Germany. I am honored, humbled and appropriately uncomfortable as I navigate between recognizing the grief associated with this remembrance, while also considering the creative act this global gathering of the families and descendants actually represents. The enormous research by one amazing Görlitz resident, American born Lauren Leiderman, galvanized a global community of relatives to return to Görlitz to participate.

This initial research was no small feat and a second research project was born a year ago as Lauren in Gorlitz and Ulla Hadar in Israel jointly embarked upon creating 330+ biography cards of children for The Butterfly Project. These biographies include the families that lived in these regions and would have attended these schools.

In recent weeks, the time came and multiple schools participated in The Butterfly Project. The impact of the 330+ students in the region personally connecting with the story of a child that was killed and subsequently painting a butterfly in their memory can never be adequately measured and is an unforgettable tribute.

The ceramic butterflies were designed after the butterfly etchings found on Jewish tombstones in the region. These butterflies on display in the schools represent the actual children that would have attended these very same schools in the region.
Görlitz, Germany is a community whose buildings were completely untouched by the ravages of the war and remains virtually intact and idyllic. Of course, the same cannot be said for the Jewish residents. The lucky ones escaped and fled somehow to all parts of the world. Those that remained were abducted and killed by Hitler’s army and accomplices.

How is it even possible that 85 years later, after that terrible turning point for Jews in Europe, that there could be any notion of future relatives of those that were murdered, would someday come back? But indeed they are coming back to proudly occupy the spaces and places where their ancestors had lived, and declare… WE ARE HERE.

When you consider these two photographs, the juxtaposition of the destruction during Kristallnacht in November of 1938 and the creation of Jewish Remembrance Week in June 2023, there is a continuing swirl of unsettled emotions that include considering this evidence of what a better world looks like. This storefront in color is of the pottery studio of artists Sybille and Ali Warnatsch who created the butterflies. In an unimaginable new reality, the biographies of the families and the butterflies are on display in the center of the town. The actual name of the store “Lebenskunst” literally means “The Art of Living”.

We desperately need good news stories like this one to give us strength as we strive to actively create a better world.

The fact that in places we might not even know about, humanity can actually change for the better, brings hope in the face of rising antisemitism all over the world. We must continue to educate and raise awareness about the good work happening to give us the strength to address the challenges in today’s world.

I am incredibly grateful to Lauren and her remarkable team that have taken it upon themselves to bring dignity back to the families that suffered such losses and to elevate the good name of The Butterfly Project with their dedicated efforts.

I am thrilled that I will get to see not only these incredible women, but also get to connect again with the woman who started it all in 2018 for The Butterfly Project in Germany, researcher, journalist, activist and GenerationE cofounder, Nicole Nocon from Cottbus, Germany which sparked all of the activity all over Germany prior to Görlitz and also partners in research with Lauren and Ulla. Also joining us is my fellow San Diegan Steven Schindler, cofounder of GenerationE who really started the ball rolling for all of this after he forged a remarkable friendship with Nicole, connecting after her research about his family in Cottbus.

So I keep this front of mind as I approach my journey, knowing that there’s something much larger at work here. The Görlitz community is an outstanding example and model for the rest of the world. Let’s pray that the ripple effect for remembrance and hope will be far and wide.

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Cheryl Rattner Price is the cofounder and executive director of The Butterfly Project.