The Wings of Memory Society recognizes donors of $5,000 and above to the Museum’s Annual Fund. Gifts provide vital support for the Museum’s educational and outreach programs.
The Society's name was inspired by the poem “The Butterfly,” which Pavel Friedmann wrote in April 1942 as a young man imprisoned in the Terezin concentration camp.
The Butterfly
The last, the very last,
So richly brightly, dazzling yellow.
Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing
against a white stone.…
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly ’way up high.
It went away I’m sure because it wished to
kiss the world good-bye.
For seven weeks I’ve lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don’t live in here,
in the ghetto.
Pavel Friedmann was later deported to Auschwitz, where he died.
Join Us
To learn more about the Wings of Memory Society, please contact Celeste Maier at 202.488.2634 or cmaier@ushmm.org.
To join today, make your gift of $5,000 or more.
Your Wings of Memory Society membership gift to the Museum is fully tax-deductible to the extent provided by law.
