Stained Glass Exhibit

This exhibition is housed in the Memorial Hall that serves as an introduction and entrance to the main exhibit: “The Jewish Child During the Holocaust”. The domed hall features 17 stained glass windows whose designs are based on the drawings of children in the Theresienstadt (Terezin) ghetto.

Roman Halter, creator of the panels, was a 12-year-old in Poland when the war broke out. Not one of his brothers and sisters, cousins and childhood friends, survived the Holocaust

The artist drew his inspiration for this window from a poem, “The Last Butterfly,” written by a boy named Pavel Friedman in the Theresienstadt ghetto. This poem, together with other poems and drawings, has been published in the book, There are No Butterflies Around Here.

In the ceiling of the hall, a circular window of stained glass, 3.5 m in diameter, colorfully depicts the sun, flowers, and a butterfly as viewed through a barred grid.

The light pouring through the windows fills the hall with color, radiating optimism and hope.

“From the start,” says Halter, “I intended to transmit the light of the children’s creativity, rather than focus on the murderous ways in which the lives of a million and a half Jewish children were cut short. “My hope is that these windows will serve as a bridge between the memory of those children and the children of future generations.”

In the quiet of the Memorial Hall, sounds drift in from the main exhibit whose route opens nearby, where a continuous narration of excerpts from children’s diaries tells of their world before the war.