The Butterfly Project & Germany’s Evangelisches Gymnasium
A Taste of Jewish Life
The Evangelisches Gymnasium in Cottbus was one of the first German schools to join the Butterfly Project. The Butterfly Project’s European Coordinator Nicole Nocon worked together with Steven Schindler, the son of Cottbus Holocaust Survivor Max Schindler, to bring the Butterfly Project to Germany in 2018.
Nicole established the connection with her children’s then-school, the Evangelisches Gymnasium, in 2019. Since then, every eighth grade class has participated in The Butterfly Project and adds to the school’s installation every year.
This past August, 56 students from the Evangelisches Gymnasium took part in the Butterfly Project as Nicole Nocon guided them through a workshop exploring the topics of antisemitism and the history of the Holocaust. However, she chose a new approach this year:
“In previous years, I had noticed how little the students knew about Jewish life. Hardly any of them knew Jewish people personally, although Cottbus has a Jewish community. That is why I wanted to start there. Even though the Butterfly Project is about remembering Jewish children murdered in the Holocaust, the students need to understand that Jews are not merely victims of the Holocaust. Jews are their neighbors, their classmates, their friends in sports clubs—just ordinary people living among them. Standing up against the growing antisemitism these people face today is also what the Butterfly Project is about,” Nicole emphasizes.
A friend once told Nicole, “If you want to reach people, feed them.” This was the inspiration for the new approach to the workshop. Nicole baked Rugelach–so the first thing the students discovered was just how delicious Jewish life can taste. Afterward, they were open and listened with great interest to the story of the Schindler family from Cottbus, who was persecuted during the Holocaust. Through this personal story—which had its beginnings in their own city—they were able to grasp the meaning of antisemitism and understand the consequences of arbitrarily denying a group of people their human rights and humanity.
This year’s 56 butterflies, painted to commemorate child Holocaust victims from Berlin, will be mounted on the school’s façade in January in commemoration of this upcoming International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The installation is already spreading across the building’s exterior, and will continue to grow in the years to come.
