I just watched an amazing documentary about a middle school in Tennessee. The kids and their teachers–the whole town really created a project that resulted in a permanent memorial to Holocaust victims.
They collected paper clips to represent the 6 million Jews and 5 million homosexuals and other groups deemed unworthy of life during Hitler’s tenure.
People sent paper clips from all over the world representing people they knew or knew of who were killed. Some donations included stories and artifacts, and managed to convey an enormous amount of emotion through such tiny objects.
In the end they had collected twenty-five million paper clips and secured a cattle car straight from Germany (one that was used to transport many victims) to serve as the vessel that would contain the paperclips. It is a truly moving tribute…one that has life breathed into it each year as the students at the school conduct field trips for other students, teaching about the horrifying loss that came to be through intolerance, fear, and ignorance.
I am impressed.
Saw it- incredible.