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"I Never Saw Another Butterfly" is an imaginative creation of the story of Raja Englanderova, a child survivor of the Holocaust. From 1942 to 1945 more than 15,000 Jewish children passed through Terezin, a former military garrison set up as a ghetto. It soon became a transition station for hundreds of thousands of Jews on their way to the gas chambers of Auschwitz. While most of the children imprisoned at Terezin perished at Auschwitz, some of their stories of life during the Holocaust are preserved in drawings and poems, published in the book, I Never Saw Another Butterfly. When Terezin was liberated in 1945, only about 100 children were alive to return to what was left of their lives. One of those children was Englanderova, who returned to her home in Prague after the liberation, and this is her story.
While the story was created from the many documentary materials on Englanderova's life, including poems, diaries, letters, journals, drawings and pictures, playwright Raspanti also credits Karel Lagus, Curator of the Jewish Museum in Prague; Robert G. Pitman, Creator and Director of the first production; and Walter J. Johannsen, a personal friend, for their valuable contributions to her adaptation of the play |
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