Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published May 18, 2005

The paperclip means more than you may know

Such a commonplace little thing is a paperclip. And yet that tiny device whose main job is to hold papers together has played a role in history. In the May 3 issue of the Chronicle the headline over John W. Whitehead's column read "Project Paperclip: Nazis in America." My first thought when I saw Project Paperclip was of the Whitwell (TN) Middle School's Children's Holocaust Memorial and Paper Clip Project. Both projects involved Nazis even though they were separated by 52 years.

Before I continue these two stories of paperclips, you will note that one uses paperclips as a single word and the other separates paper clips into two words. My huge dictionary was no help and gave not even a definition of paper clip. So on with the stories.

Whitehead's story explained that in 1946 President Truman authorized Project Paperclip which enabled selected German scientists to work for the United States during the Cold War. The key word was "selected" because he forbade admitting Nazis or any Germans remotely associated with that party.

Project Paperclip was chosen as the name because the personnel files of the scientists brought here were clipped together with an ordinary paperclip as identification.

As time passed, Truman's words of warning were ignored and many of those files containing information which connected them to the Nazis were scrubbed clean. Eventually many who had been given spotless backgrounds were revealed as something else and this Paperclip Project's' place in history is tarnished.

In 1998, two teachers at the Whitwell Middle School were preparing lesson plans for teaching WWII. They wrestled with how to handle the Holocaust. How could youngsters comprehend how large 11 million was. They settled on a unique answer. Students were asked to collect 6 million paper clips, one for each Jew sacrificed.

The project was picked up on the news and paper clips arrived from across the country. When 6 million was reached, the project expanded to cover the 5 million people of other backgrounds who met the same fate as the Jews. Over 28 million paper clips were collected.
A German couple, Dagmar and Peter Schroeder, both professional journalists, saw the story on the Internet and were so moved they went in search of one of the "cattle cars" that had been used to transport victims to the concentration camps. Five weeks and 3,000 miles later, they found one and paid $6,000 for it.

Then they persuaded the German military to transport it to a German port where it was shipped to Baltimore. There CSX Transportation, Inc. donated their services to take it to Whitwell. A Chattanooga crane company and a Dunlap firm donated their expertise to get the car in place on tracks in front of the school.

The memorial was formally dedicated in 2001 and the generous Schroeder couple was there. A number of Holocaust survivors from around the country also attended.

Another chapter has been added this year when Miramax released their documentary "Paper Clips." Since its appearance in theaters more than 1,000 visitors have come to the memorial in the past three months.

The stark reality of the glass display case holding 11 million paper clips inside an authentic car which carried the occupants to death camps has become an example of "a little child shall lead them." Unlike the tarnished Paperclip Project, this Paper Clip Project shines ever brighter.

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday.