Abstrakt
Jiří Weil's name is associated mainly with literary and journalistic work. Few people know that he was also a researcher at the Jewish Museum in Prague.
The scientific work of this prominent person involved in cultural events is closely connected with world famous children's drawings from Terezín (Theresienstadt). It was Jiří Weil who initiated the first exhibitions of children's drawings from Terezín in the 1950s in Prague and then abroad.
He was significantly involved in the creation of a book entitled Dětské kresby na zastávce k smrti (Children's Drawings and Poems: Terezín 1942-1944) and a film called Motýli tady nežijí (Butterflies Do Not Live Here) as well. This study is focused on genesis of the exhibition idea, the film, and the book, whose roots date back to 1946 and which reach far beyond the 1950s, when the film was created and the Czech version of the book first published, and when the exhibition with the drawings travelled abroad, as well as beyond the 1960s, when the book was published in other languages; in the early 1960s, shortly after Weil's death, the idea of a new artistic rendering of the theme came about - performances with music and recitation.