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Grasping history with paper clips By D.F. Weyermann, Globe Correspondent, 4/12/2001
Whitwell Middle School in the rural hills of Tennessee seems an improbable place to assemble a monument to the Holocaust. But that's what a group of eighth-grade students is doing, as they strive to collect 6 million paper clips, representing the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust. Along the way, the students have attracted the attention of presidents, movie stars, and writers. And they've had their eyes opened to a world far beyond their self-contained town. In this town of shirt and steel factories, mobile homes and fundamentalist churches are common, while finishing high school is often a challenge. Among the 1,600 residents are just four black children and one Hispanic child. As far as anyone knows, there have never been any Jewish children here, and there are no Jewish adults within 20 miles. The paper clip project was thought up by Whitwell Principal Linda Hooper after a rash of school shootings three years ago. ''She came to me and said she was concerned with the growing hate in this country,'' says Assistant Principal David Smith. ''She said she was worried that cliques and teasing and intolerance might even be appearing here. She wanted a project to erase it.'' Smith, who also teaches history and helps with the project, says his students were flabbergasted when he began teaching World War II in more graphic detail than many history books provide. ''It was impossible,'' Drew Shadrick, 14, who helps count the incoming paper clips daily, says of the Holocaust. ''I couldn't comprehend it. I had to know what 6 million looked like.'' Sandra Roberts, one of the teachers in charge of the paper clip project, says students did not believe that ashes ''fell like snow'' from the crematoriums while nobody stopped it. ''They'd say, `How could they not know?''' Roberts says. ''They'd say, `This can't have happened. Somebody would have done something.''' This growing awareness makes the project worthwhile, says Felicia Anchor, chairwoman of the Tennessee Holocaust Commission. ''If you know southeast Tennessee in general and Whitwell in particular, you know there is not much diversity there,'' she says. ''I don't say this project should be done everywhere, but for Whitwell and southeast Tennessee it was the right thing. The teachers could say, `Even if you don't know diversity or prejudice, you should know what could happen without sensitivity.''' The paper clip collections began two years ago. The students went door-to-door in their own community first, then began a letter-writing effort. These days, the clips are counted in Roberts's classroom, which looks like a well-oiled small business. The room is remarkably quiet as the 13- and 14-year-olds, their faces the picture of concentration, go about their tasks. Some groups of students log in mail, while others answer letters. Some count paper clips, as peers with clipboards and sharp pencils make sure the numbers are written down accurately. Others write letters to potential donors - letters that must be cosigned by Roberts or Smith. About 20 of the school's 80 eighth-graders take part in the project. The clips are kept in 4-foot-high plastic containers. Three are full, and another is three-quarters full. Nearby, library tables wobble while supporting stacks of 6-inch-thick, three-ring notebooks containing thousands of letters and e-mails - almost half from Germany. Steve Edelstein, chairman of the Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, contributed 6,500 clips, representing the Jewish population of middle Tennessee. Director Steven Spielberg sent one gold-plated paper clip. Actor Tom Hanks sent a handful of clips. Another, Henry Winkler, sent some with a personal note about his parents' escape from Germany in 1939. His father, a confectioner, hid his mother's jewelry inside chocolates to get them out. Winkler closed with his blessings and the salutation: ''The world is yours.'' Former presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush sent clips. And thousands, some carved out of unusual materials, flooded in from Germany and other European countries. Europeans may have weighed in so heavily because of German news correspondents Peter Schroeder and Dagmar Schroeder-Hildebrand, who cover Washington, D.C., for German and Austrian newspapers. The couple wrote a book about the Whitwell students called ''Das Projekt.'' Now, they are trying to help the school obtain a railroad car used to transport Jews to the death camps. If they can raise the financing, the students hope to bring the car to Whitwell. No one knows precisely how much space 6 million paper clips will occupy, but they hope to encase each wall of the car in plexiglass, fill it with paper clips, and put it on display. ''The first children on this project are now sophomores in high school,'' says Smith. ''We hope to collect 6 million by the time they are seniors.'' Students also have participated in an activity in which they are asked to pack 10 items they would take with them if they had to leave home forever. Teachers pretend to be Nazis, take them on a bus to a nearby campground, and confiscate the items. Some parents have participated in this exercise, says Smith, who adds that he has been surprised by some of the items selected. One girl brought a hair-ribbon collection started by her grandmother. A mother brought her marriage certificate. Another girl carried a packet of sympathy cards received after her mother's recent death. ''Her father told us it was the first time this student had acknowledged her mother was dead,'' says Smith. ''She'd been in denial.'' Twice a week, students meet after school to discuss books they're reading about the Holocaust or read letters aloud from survivors and descendants. One hallway in the school is covered with the students' Holocaust art. ''I dread leaving this,'' says Talena Cooksville, 14, who next year will be attending a different high school from her project mates. ''I've learned so much. I've gotten so close to the world.'' Principal Hooper adds: ''We try to protect them here, but sooner or later we'll have to send them into a hard world. We want them to realize they can live in that world with tolerance and understanding, and have a richer life for it.'' This |
HITWELL,
Tenn. - A classroom floor is straining under the weight of 2,297,622 paper
clips, but there are still more than 3 million to collect.