Paperclips

Students in Whitwell Middle School learn about the Holocaust. They were told that 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust. Someone asked exactly how many 6 million was. So, they of what to collect to show how many 6 million were. They chose paperclips. And, so for four years they collected paperclips. People loved that they were doing this, and so wrote letters, with a paperclip or more enclosed. Each paperclip represented 1 person. They got over 6 million paperclips. Many people donated to this cause. They had millions of paperclips in broom closets, storage rooms, and other rooms. Then they were thinking of a place to store these paperclips. They thought of a cattle car, once used to transport people to concentration camps. A hundred people were stuffed into this stinking box to go to a camp where they’d work, be tortured, or die.  They found one in Germany, and had it transported to Whitwell, Tennessee. Once the car was in their grasp, they built a memorial to the millions who died in the Holocaust. An artist painted butterflies on the cement, they represented freedom. They put 6 million paperclips for the Jews who were murdered and an additional 5 million for the Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, and other groups. They placed a suitcase, full of apology letters to Anne Frank in the car. They also put pictures of people in the Holocaust. Once they had finished, many people came to visit the “museum”. It was a place of new life, where every person murdered was laid there, next to the school.

I thought this story was a very good, touching story, of how the student worked and counted each paperclip. I’ll never look at a paperclip the same way again! It represents 1 person, 1 soul, 1 spirit who died in the holocaust. It is a very special thing to me now. It makes me think back to this film and it is a very good thing to think about. These children changed the world! They made every clip count.  The paperclip is something that makes me think of all the people who died in the Holocaust and of these courageous, loving children.  The atrocities that the Nazis inflicted on others made me want to cry. The way that these children somewhat brought these people to life made me smile. It was such a mixed emotion. I was very thoughtful after this film, I thought of the way that the Nazis treated other people, the way that these children treated other people. It was a very interesting site seeing these children hug, kiss, and cry with the WW2 survivors. It was hard to hear the stories of these survivors but it had hope.

This story of Paperclips was about new life, freedom, and surviving. It was a great story of how children in Whitwell Middle School gathered paperclips and placed it in a cattle car. It was about the freedom you can find, even in death. It was about the way that these children helped and comforted the hurting. It was about not stereotyping a person just because he’s black, or just because the way that they believe, or just because the way they look, or how they think. It was about treating others the way you would like to be treated even if you don’t want to.  I shall wear a paper clip in honor of these children, in honor of those who died and because the things it was about.