Middle School Students in Tennessee Are Collecting 6 Million Paper Clips for a Memorial to Jewish Victims of the Nazi Holocaust–Truth! but Discontinued!
Summary of eRumor:
This email says it’s an article from the Washington Post about a group of students in Whitwell, Tennessee. They are from the Whitwell middle school and as a part of a course on the Nazi holocaust during World War II, an idea got started to construct a memorial to the 6 million Jewish victims of the holocaust: to collect 6 million paper clips and use them for the memorial. The idea has gained international attention, partly because of a book published in Germany about the project.
The Truth:
This article and story are true and have resulted in an interesting story.
The children at Whitwell school discovered that the Norwegians, who invented the paper clip, wore paper clips during World War II to protest Nazism. It was decided to try to collect 6 million paper clips to represent the number of Jews killed during the holocaust and to erect some kind of memorial for them. The collection project mushroomed and the children received paper clip contributions from people like President Bill Clinton and director Steven Spielberg. By 2001 the school had received more than 30 million paperclips.
One thing led to another and the school was able to secure an actual railroad car from Germany that was used to transport holocaust victims. It is the heart of a memorial that contains 11 million paper clips, representing all the victims of the holocaust, not just Jews.
Updated 1/12/07