Whitwell, TN: The Paper Clip Project began in 1998 in a small, rural town in Tennessee when the students of Whitwell Middle School took an after school class on diversity and historical awareness. During a discussion about the Holocaust, the teachers perceived that the sheer volume of lives lost was incomprehensible to the students. As a group, they decided to visually represent each victim by collecting paper clips until they had 11 million, one for each life taken by the Nazis. Several years later, a rail car used to transport prisoners was donated to the school, where it is now the centerpiece of the Children’ Holocaust Memorial. It is filled with paper clips. The project has attracted national and international attention, resulting in the release of a documentary film, “Paper Clips.” The memorial is located on the school grounds and is open to the public.
