Paper Clips (2004)

Paper Clips: A must see film for all who care about not only educating children, but changing their lives forever

PaperClips is a true story about the Principal of a middle school in a small, rural, farming community in Tennessee. Fully aware that most of the children have had little exposure to world history, and in particular, the Holocaust, her dream is to find a teacher who would be willing to devote the year to the study of this subject. When a teacher steps forth, both she and the Principal discover that the children are sensitive, responsive, eager to reach out to survivors, and to create a memorial to all who lost their lives because they were Jewish. The story is spellbinding and uplifting, reflecting teaching at its' very best. July 7, 2008

Paper Clips

An outstanding documentary. I recommend this inspiring story to anyone seeking to enhance a study of the Holocaust. July 6, 2008

Never Forget!

I had heard of this documentary through a colleague. Without previewing it, I immediately ordered it and waited approximately 6 weeks to receive it. Over the past two years, I have shown this film to both 11th & 12th graders in my US History as well as to teachers in my graduate course. The reactions are always the same...shock and resolve. You see, my students are learning disabled and, if they had lived during this very dark time in history, probably would not have survived this horrific experience. They could identify with those, who through no fault of their own, were persecuted because of the very fact that they were different from the majority.
If you are looking for a film that brings home the fact that this terrible occurrence needs to be remembered by all, this is the one! It reaches across ethnic, cultural and educational boundaries in order to bring home the message that we must never, never forget the injustice done and that we must make absolutely certain that this will never be allowed to happen again!!! July 4, 2008

The Power of an Idea

My daughter came home charged from watching PAPER CLIPS at her school. She begged for her own copy, so our family settled in to humor her by watching it. Oh, my! What inspiration! We were moved at the sensitivity of the producers in creating a documentary that could have been sappy and sentimental but that is, instead, powerful and moving in its simplicity. As a mom, I'm thrilled to have this documentary in our home collection. As a teacher, I'm excited beyond words to return to my classroom to move our students toward tolerance within our school community and beyond and to demonstrate the power of an idea! June 14, 2008

Too good to be true?

The video was especially touching to me, a Jew, and (now former) teacher of children this age. I was born and have lived in Tennessee over half my life in small town similar to Whitwell. It hurt me deeply because I lamented how great it would be if my own community could become so enlightened. It is not. The few Jews here suffer from the same ignorant undercurrent they experience as a non-Christian minority in many places. I no longer teach because of that two-faced gentile hate for Judaism including from those who teach. So when I saw the film it seemed almost too good to be true.

I made contact with the principal featured in the film. I am sure that a few teachers may have been greatly effected by what they learned and then initiated as an exercise against intolerance, and I am sure that most if not all the children were greatly effected for the good. Not all schools would have taken on such a difficult and perhaps controversial project. But I also know that most principals are opportunists (and expected to be) who will do almost anything to promote their school to get money and news/media coverage. That is the feeling I got here also.

But I went to Whitwell, which is close to Chattanooga (you can get on 26 to Jasper, TN and up 127 north to Whitwell), to reconnoiter this area. And of course I wanted to see the boxcar full of paper clips representing the number of victims of systematic murder under the Nazis in Europe and objects from holocaust victims.

It was on a Sunday and finding the little school and a notice that a tape recorder could be picked up at the local police station we went back down the hill to the main road. The guys were nice enough and I can speak Tennessean. ;-) Whitwell is a small place and very typical of small roadside towns in Tennessee. I had a rather long conversation at the cop shop. They gave me the tape recorder with a nearly worn out tape about the Shoa and the project. I hoped this did not indicate a nice effort in the beginning that had petered out since.

By the conversation (I am sorry to be honest here because I do appreciate what those kids did), I don't think it was a community changing experience as portrayed in the movie. Yet I hope the experiment and experience will serve as a inspiration to the children who truly involved themselves and who will hopefully see the world in a better way and pass that on. I hope they do not change as they get older and take on other 'teachers.'

As someone who lived in a town where a few anti-semitic people who did not want a 'Jew teaching their kids' orchestrated a conspiracy to get rid of him, I fear that PaperClips is just a fluke recording a few weeks and months when such bigoted people were pushed aside in order to allow some decency to prevail. PaperClips shows how something that happened to Jews in Europe could strongly effect the hearts of children. Now if only they could be effected continually to resist the hate that infects many small Christian towns in Tennessee and around the world. Maybe they will come to understand why we Jews (and others) have died so many times for being Jews and at whose hands; and finally search their souls why this is so.

Use this movie to consider how people can be, but not to fantasize how people are. That is too good to be true, and it's just not so. It inspires hope for change, not truly proof of it. Hey, but that's a huge, huge step in the right direction. I cried watching it because I realized how cheated I was in my own community. If my town did something similar, I would not believe it to be genuine at all. (To my understanding there are no Jews living in Whitwell. Is it easier to sympathize for Jews dead for 50 years than one living next door, perhaps, as I have found in my own town.) But this community at least tried and went to great lengths to establish their monument to the millions of Jews who were murdered. This makes small town Whitwell, TN an exception and PaperClips exceptional as a film document of its children's efforts.

The documentary itself is very well done although can be a little hectic. To me, this made it feel like everyday school life. Whatever my opinion and personal take on the actual situation of Jews and Tennessee, it is a film worth watching.

But kids should be given more actual background on the subject of the Shoa (Holocaust) and Christian anti-judaism in Europe over the centuries beforehand (as the students of Whitwell Elementary were) before viewing PaperClips. And if you can drive up or down the beautiful Sequatchie Valley (US 127) stop by and see the boxcar sitting in front of the old school.
June 9, 2008

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