Never Knew vs Never Forget

Very few people have not heard about the Holocaust. We watch movies and read books. The museums keep the stories in our sights. But what about our children. The line, or paragraph, or chapter, talk about Hitler, the Holocaust, and the second World War. But what do our children really understand? What can they comprehend? Columbine? 9-11? They were sudden and violent and real. The numbers are manageable. Most of us have been in a crowd of 100 or 1000 or 5,000. In a sports stadium, crowds can mean 75,000. But what is 6 million? Who can comprehend that number, child OR adult?

That is why what happened in a small town in Tennessee is so special. A new documentary tells the story of how the students of that small town responded to what had been to them a completely unfamiliar chapter in human history, with a promise to honor every single soul lost in that horrible event by collecting paper clips to represent each individual exterminated by the Nazis. Their dedication was absolute. Their plan was simple but profound. The amazing result, a memorial railcar filled with paper clips which stands permanently in their schoolyard, is an unforgettable lesson of how a committed group of children and educators can change the world one classroom at a time.

Take a look at the trailer for PaperClips. Go and see the documentary, and never forget.