JARRETT GOODMAN
Staff Writer
Whitwell Middle School is home to a one-of-a kind and special program dedicated to the history and preservation of the Holocaust during World War Two. First created back in 1998 as a means to help broaden and expand upon curricular teachings of the wider world to students, what is now known as the Paper Clips Project, has quickly expanded and garnered much attention across the globe, known for its growing collection of Holocaust memorabilia, including a rail car that was used during the Holocaust to transport victims of the tragic event to concentration camps.
Former principal of WMS and member of the Marion County Board of Education, Linda Hooper shared more insight into the reasoning behind the creation of the program itself. “I looked at our community and I thought, ‘You know, our kids don’t have a clue about the bigger world.’ These mountains that surround us, this valley kind of isolates us, and it concerned me that our kids would go off to college and they meet different kinds of people, very diverse people. Whitwell is, I’d say, 99.9% white Anglo-Saxon and Protestant. Within a mile of this school there are 12 churches. So, our kids just go off to school and they weren’t prepared, and they wouldn’t stay in school for very long. I started looking around for something that we could do that would introduce our kids to a broader world,” said Hooper.
Whitwell Middle School is also home to the largest collection of Holocaust based literature within the southeastern United States, housing many books and documentaries regarding the history of the tragic event, including having a collection of over 30,000 letters from those who have experienced or are in relation to the event itself. “We have the largest collection of Holocaust literature in the Southeast and most of it was donated to us by one gentleman, Dr. Benjamin Nottman. He spent his lifetime collecting these books.” explained Hooper.
The middle school also houses the Children’s Holocaust Memorial, which is where the rail car is situated just outside of the entrance to the school. The memorial also contains 18 different butterfly themed stone works, and a monument all dedicated and based off a poem by Pavel Friedmann titled, “I Never Saw Another Butterfly”. As the name suggests, the Paper Clip Project was inspired by Norwegians during the war that wore paper clips as a means to express resistance against Nazi occupation. The school itself houses a vast collection of over 30 million 
paperclips, each one representing 1 victim of the Holocaust.
The memorial and museum are opened to the public for tours, albeit limited through set schedules. All tours can be scheduled and booked via the middle school’s website. The middle school grounds are also to be the future site of the Whitwell Education and Heritage Center. An institution to house several of the community’s historical and local public programs and museums, including the Children’s Holocaust Memorial. All funds for the construction of the facility are provided via donations. All donations can be sent through and accepted via the official website at https://www.whitwellcenter.org/.
