You might have heard about this, sometimes known as the Paper Clip project, which then led to the Paper Clips film. A middle school principal, teacher, and assistant principal joined with their students beginning in 1998 to study the Holocaust and create a memorial to the 6 million Jews who died at the Nazis' hands. Of course more than Jews suffered this fate, and by the time the project concluded in 2001, 30 million paper clips had been collected, enough to include the other victims and millions who were displaced and had lost loved ones. (Go to the Paper Clip project to find out why paper clips.)
Whitwell, TN, is small town about 40 minutes northwest of Chattanooga. It’s a pleasant drive through hilly, lovely East Tennessee,
crossing the Tennessee River, which you do a lot if you drive through this part of the state.
Whitwell is in the Sequatchie Valley, part of the Cumberland Plateau region of the Appalachian Mountains.
It’s a small rural town, not unlike its many neighbors and peers in Tennessee and beyond. To state the obvious, not an obvious place you’d think to find such a memorial.
The middle school is just outside of town, on Butterfly Lane. Right out in front, to the right of the main entrance as you face the school, enclosed in a fence with a gate that is open and accessible during school hours, is the memorial.
It’s a startling sight... the hulking World War II-era wood and metal German railroad car parked there. Silent and impassive, it just carried the loads.
Surrounding it are sculptures and installations testifying, simultaneously, to the cruelty and the humanity being memorialized.
Inside the car there are millions of the paper clips the students collected, along with photos, artifacts, and memorabilia.
And messages of hope.
After the visit, I went into town to grab lunch before driving back to Chattanooga. I found one of those great local places you hope to find on a road trip, Johnny’s Hook & Grill (with a COVID twist out in front).
This lady, the server who brought me the catfish po’ boy and gator bites I ordered, turned out to be the mother one of the students in the original class that started the Paper Clip Project. She asked what brought me to Whitwell. Her eyes lit up when I told her.
She told me the experience had been transformative for her son and the other students in the class. “They learned what really went on there,” she said, indignant and proud at the same time. “You know the history books sorta sugar coat it. But it wasn’t anything like what they let on. It was eye opening for those students to find out what actually happened, what people are capable of doing to others."
After I had paid and was boxing up next day's lunch, she came back to the table, looked into my eyes, and in a voice that communicated a connection was being made, said, “I noticed your name on your card. Are you of Jewish descent?” I told her that yes, I was Jewish. She looked at me with such warmth, put her hand on my shoulder, smiled, and nodded slightly before returning to the kitchen.
You can find more pictures (along with those above) and a very brief opening portion of the audio narration here.