Paper Clips

[Behind the Aegis]

This inspiring 82-minute documentary film shows how a group of Tennessee students responded to their education about the Holocaust with a unique idea in 1998 that involved a simple promise - to collect one paper clip for each person exterminated by the Nazis during WWII. Despite the fact that there are virtually no Jews in the Appalachian town of Whitwell, TN, and despite being previously unfamiliar with the Holocaust, the dedication of the students was absolute. By the end of the project in 2001, the students not only collected over 27 million paper clips, but were able to house 11 million of them (each one representing a life lost) in a donated WWII rail car that was shipped to Whitwell from Germany. The memorial stands today just outside of the Whitwell Middle School, touching the lives not only of those in this small community, but of those around the world who consider the project a symbol of tolerance and rebirth - and a permanent memory of the time that one small school in Tennessee changed the world, one classroom at a time.

For more information about the Children's Holocaust Memorial & Paper Clip Project at Whitwell Middle School, visit their Web site at http://www.marionschools.org/holocaust/index.htm.


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This was showing on HBO. My partner taped it. However, there are no more showings on HBO. But, you can get more information here...Paper Clips movie. I haven't seen this movie yet, so I can't give a review, but I thought it might be of interest.

[PsychoDad]

1. Wow....

And just the sight of the large number of paper clips helps to drive home the reality of the numbers involved. It's so hard to imagine just a million much less the numbers involved here.

The Rail Car combined with the Huge number of paper clips will make for a excellent graphical and hopefully awakening allegory.

Never again can we allow anything like this to happen again.
Peace.

[Debbi801]

2. My son and I watched this as one of his Bar Mitzvah projects.....

It moved us (especially him) tremendously.

I highly recommend seeing it if you can manage to rent a copy.

[nedbal]

3. just rented it, tears flowed here while watching it

[Meshuga]

4. Hard to watch without going to tears

It's a beautiful project!

[Lurking Dem]

5. I keep thinking about driving down there.

It's only 2 or so hours away.