Six Million Paper Clips: The Making of a Children's Holocaust Memorial [Paperback]

Peter W. Schroeder (Author), Dagmar Schroeder-Hildebrand (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2004 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. To understand the enormity of the Holocaust, students in Whitwell, Tennessee, a town without Jews, began collecting paper clips, one for each victim of the Nazis.

--This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8 -With clear and concise language, color photographs, and an attractive layout, this book tells the inspiring and touching story of the teachers, students, and community of Whitwell Middle School in Tennessee, and their quest to understand and teach about the Holocaust. The authors, White House correspondents for a group of German newspapers, helped the school publicize the project to collect six million paper clips to show just how many people were murdered and obtained a German railcar to house them. The book includes a lot of quotes and behind-the-scenes information. Footnotes help to define unfamiliar terms. While the book mentions The Diary of Anne Frank, Livia Bitton-Jackson's I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust (S & S, 1997), and Hana Volavkova's I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp 1942-1944 (Schocken, 1993), there is no list for further reading. Regardless, Schroeder and Schroeder-Hildebrand's title will be a helpful and accessible resource for Holocaust educators and students, as well as independent readers. It is also a wonderful companion to the documentary film Paper Clips.-Rachel Kamin, Temple Israel Libraries & Media Center, West Bloomfield, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 5-8. In rural Whitwell, Tennessee, all 1,600 residents are alike, "white, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant." When the community middle school decided to teach diversity by focusing on the Holocaust, the students did not believe that the Nazis had killed six million Jews and five million others. To help them grasp the numbers, they collected 11 million paper clips, which they placed in a memorial made from a German World War II railcar. The paper clip image may seem trivial to some, and the authors don't deal with present-day racism and intolerance, with the exception of one student talking about being inspired to stop bullying. But the story of the memorial project, which reached out across the world, is interwoven with facts about the genocide, and the book's open design, with lots of color photos of contemporary kids and adults involved in building the memorial, will introduce the Holocaust to those who know nothing about it. This may also get students talking. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Kar-Ben Publishing (November 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158013176X
• ISBN-13: 978-1580131766
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 8.3 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Teens > History & Historical Fiction > Holocaust
  • #6 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > History > World > Jewish > Holocaust
  • #7 in Books > Children's Books > History > Holocaust

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Six Million Paper Clips, December 17, 2004

By 

Peer Herrmannsson (Reykjavik, Iceland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Six Million Paper Clips: The Making of a Children's Holocaust Memorial (Library Binding)

I recently bought "Six Million Paper Clips" during a business trip to the US and wish I had taken more copies home to give away. Because it is a very powerful book on the Holocaust. But reading it you'll realize that is covers this monstrous atrocity only on the surface. In reality it shows that seemingly innocent behaviour ("I don't like this or that") is only the first stepping-stone to xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism and what have you.

Normally my children have trouble reading English (except for the lyrics of rap songs) but this book they didn't put away. They read it in a single session one evening until deep in the night. And the next day they read it again.

Because this book has all the ingredients young readers look for: It tells (lovingly and never condescending) a compelling story, it has its cliff-hanger moments, even humour, and a happy ending that is asking for tears of joy. And guess what: The adults I gave the book to read loved it for the same reasons. And none of them were Jewish. This book is marketed as a children's book. But in reality it is much more, a book for all ages and for everyone. And we all can learn - and change.

My kids did. Reading the book it dawned on them that all their squabbles and sibling-infighting can go out of hand - as it did in Nazi-Germany and some other places and even right now. My kids ("I can't stand him and her") now want to sleep in the same room - to make up for times lost.

I have only one complaint: Is wish Six Million Paper Clips had been published when I was a kid. And this book deserves more than five stars.

Peer Herrmannsson

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very important book - Please release the DVD, May 1, 2005

By 

Eli B. Perlman "Lover of Life" - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Six Million Paper Clips: The Making of a Children's Holocaust Memorial (Library Binding)

My wife and I went to see the film. After we saw it, I ordered the book from Amazon. I have read and read it several times since. It is extremely well done and the photographs are excellent and used appropriately. This is a story that, had it not been released as a witnessed based documentary, would never have been believed. It is a wonderful story that restores faith in the good that humans have within them. I want to thank all those who took part in the project and look forward to the release of the DVD.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting Story of Diversity, May 1, 2006

By 

Tamela Mccann "taminator40" (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Six Million Paper Clips: The Making of a Children's Holocaust Memorial (Paperback)

This is a companion book to the documentary about the Paper Clip project started at Whitwell Middle School outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the late 1990s. What began as a class to teach diversity to a mostly white southern group of schoolchildren evolved into a project of collecting 6 million paper clips (the clips are historically tied to the Holocaust) to represent the Jews who perished during that dark period. This book is a wonderful story that shows what can be accomplished when children are determined and how a relatively small idea can grow into something significant that can affect millions of people. This one is highly recommended for children of all ages.