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by Shiryn Ghermezian
Fans of German soccer club Borussia Dortmund serenade their team. Photo: Reuters/Wolfgang Rattay.
The German soccer club Borussia Dortmund (BVB) participated in a project at the San Diego Jewish Academy in late July that uses ceramic butterflies to commemorate the 1.5 million children murdered in the Holocaust.
Borussia Dortmund team manager Edin Terzic, and soccer players Mats Hummels, Julian Brandt, Niklas Süle and Marco Reus joined students from the academy on July 28 to paint ceramic butterflies as part of The Butterfly Project, which is a “call to action through education, the arts and memorial making.” They painting ceramic butterflies in honor of children originally from Westphalia, the German region where Dortmund is located. Participants also received a biography of each child they memorialized in the project and Leopoldo Kahn, former head of the Peru Jewish community and grandson of the former Jewish Mayor of Dortmund Paul Hirsch, spoke at the event about his family history.
The Butterfly Project partners with schools and communities around the world to have participants paint ceramic butterflies that will then be permanently displayed as symbols of resilience and hope. Since 2006, 350,000 ceramic butterflies have been painted and now hang worldwide.
“BVB supports the work of remembrance so that what happened is never forgotten,” said Carsten Cramer, Dortmund’s chief marketing officer. “We will continue to fight against antisemitism. The butterflies are given a special place at the training ground in Dortmund as a symbol of support.“
Cheryl Rattner Price, founder of The Butterfly Project, added: “When the players take their butterflies, they carry the message. It is a message for peace. They help us amplify our message.”
Borussia Dortmund trained at the San Diego Jewish Academy in late July as part of its US tour.
The team adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism in 2021. In March, it joined leaders from international soccer clubs for an event on the sidelines of a United Nations Human Rights Council session in Geneva where they discussed efforts to combat antisemitism in sports.
