A Summary of Joe Fab's Paper Clips, a Documentary About Whitwell, Tennessee

This story takes place at Whitwell, Tennessee which is located approximately twenty-four miles northwest of Chattanooga, Tennessee and once was a coal mining community that went bust thirty years ago and is now considered a depressed community. The community of Whitwell consists of 1600 people and virtually has no diversity within their community. At the time of the documentary there were five black children and one Hispanic in the school system.

The leadership at the high school in Whitwell, Tennessee can be described as constructivist. Meaning they do everything hands-on. In 1998, Linda Hooper, the principal of nine years, and some other teachers initiated tolerance classes in Whitwell to teach diversity and tolerance. The teachers wanted to teach the facts about the murder of six million Jewish people during the Holocaust. The teachers at Whitwell wanted their students to know how important it was not to stereotype people just because they were different. One of the teachers' main goals was to teach the children what happens when prejudice goes unchecked. They also wanted the children to learn how important it is to treat everyone exactly the way they wanted to be treated.

The classes occurred after school for eighth graders. At this point around nine classes have completed the program. The idea of collecting paperclips was to make realistic the concept of the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust. They chose paperclips because they were invented in Norway and in the 1940's Norwegians wore paperclips on their collars to represent the wrong doings during the Holocaust.

The children started to receive paperclips from everyone including Tom Hanks, Tom Bosly, former presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton and President George Bush. Every year the eighth grade class would pick up where the previous class left off. The children in the fall of 1999 added the Paperclip Project to their weekly meetings.

Despite their efforts to collect paperclips, they had only received around 150,000 by the end of 1999. In October of 1999, German Journalist Peter and Dagmar Schroeder heard about the project through a friend who had seen it online and decided they wanted to help.

The Schroeder's came to Whitwell and seen what efforts the children were making and then went to Washington and sent Deta Smith from the Washington Post to Whitwell. Smith thought that it was ironic that the KKK had originated about 100 miles from Whitwell.

Smith wrote a story about the Whitwell community and the Paperclips Project and later broadcast about the project aired on the NBC Nightly News. With this new publicity, the paperclips started pouring in. Over a period of six weeks the school ended up with twenty-four million paperclips and twenty-five thousand pieces of mail.

The students hand recorded every address and every piece of paper was kept. They filled up a three inch binder every two-three days. They received a suit case filled with messages to Ann Frank all written in German. When translated, the messages where all asking Ann Frank for forgiveness for what Hitler had done.

Some of the paperclips received were in remembrance of people that had lost loved ones during the Holocaust. The letters affected the children like an "ice water bath". The letters made the Holocaust real to the children when they realized that some kids did not even get to know their grandparents due to the Holocaust.

The whole point of this project was to teach the children so they can teach their children and grandchildren and to carry on the lesson for generations to come. In the spring of 2001, a group of Holocaust survivors from New York heard about Whitwell and wanted to come and talk to the children. In the words of one of the Holocaust survivors, "We teach love and tolerance so that it (being the tragic events that took place during the Holocaust) does not happen again.

The visit from the Holocaust survivors was very emotional to the community of Whitwell. The survivors shared their personal experiences making even more real the tragedy of the Holocaust. The community could actually put a face on what once was thought to be the inferior race of mankind.

Ms. Hooper decided that to finalize their project they would create a memorial for their collection. She amongst others decided that an original "Death Car" used to transport Jews would be perfect to house their memorial.

The Schroeder's began to write to everyone they knew to find a rail car. They finally went to Germany themselves to find a "Death Car". On September 9, 2001, two days before the Nine Eleven attacks, the rail car was delivered to the United States. The car was previously used to transport over one hundred people at a time to the Conservation Camps. Some people would die during the transports of suffocation. Now this car was going to be used as a symbol to represent the lives lost during the Holocaust. Symbols make us remember, can change the world and sometimes all we have even on our darkest and most tragic days.

On October 3, 2001, the rail car was delivered to Chattanooga, Tennessee. On November 9, 2001 was the memorial presentation for the "Death Car". Not only did the memorial represent the mourning of the loss of peoples' lives but celebrating their lives as well. The rail car represented the history of a death car being erased and now a car of new life evolving. Reminding people that there is some good left in this world.

The whole community was involved in setting up the memorial which was decorated by a beautiful butterfly walkway. With the words, "I may never live to see another butterfly," being a symbol of freedom honoring the lives lost with wings so they can fly.

In total, over twenty-nine million paperclips were collected. The memorial housed eleven million paperclips. Six million were to represent the Jewish people murdered. Five million represented the homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Gypsy murdered by Hitler's regime.

"The job of collecting paperclips is over, but the job of educating the others will never stop." I feel like the most significant part of the story was the community getting to see and listen to the Holocaust survivors first hand. It is one thing to study about the Holocaust in a history book but to actually meet someone who lived through it is putting a name on so many who still remain nameless.

Reference:

Fab, Joe. (2004). Paper Clips. One Clip at a Time HMA and Slowhand Cinema, Ergo Entertainment. New York, New York.