A Comprehensive Study Guide for Teachers SIX MILLION PAPER CLIPS: THE MAKING OF A CHILDREN’S HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL This study guide is designed to help students, teachers, and families prepare for and discuss Six Million Paper Clips: The Making of a Children’s Holocaust Memorial. It contains background information, lessons and activities for students in grades 6-12. Tolerance Minnesota Dear Educator, Table of Contents Six Million Paper Clips: The Making of a Children’s Introduction to Six Million Paper Clips.......Page 3 Holocaust Memorial is an excellent classroom resource Why Study the Holocaust?......................... Page 3 for teaching students the themes of the Holocaust and its historical context and perspective. Who Were the Six Million?..........................Page 4 Other Victims of the Nazis...........................Page 4 Providing students with background information about the history of Europe in the 1930s, Hitler’s rise About the Paper Clip Project.......................Page 5 to power, and the ramifications of the Holocaust enhances understanding of the Paper Clips project. Norway and the Holocaust..........................Page 5 The Memorial in Whitwell, Tennessee..........Page 6 When teaching about the Holocaust, educators should consider the age appropriateness of the mate- Rescue and Resistance Profile rial. The book Six Million Paper Clips: The Making of a of Survivor Reidar Dittman.........................Page 6 Children’s Holocaust Memorial and the accompanying film is a positive way to introduce students ages 12-18 Holocaust History Timeline.........................Page 7 to the stsudy of the Holocaust. Activity: Utilize Symbols to This complementary study guide, available through Memorialize the Holocaust......................... Page 8 Tolerance Minnesota, a program of the Jewish Holocaust Memorials...................................Page 8 Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, is a tool to help educators and administrators Holocaust Vocabulary Terms.........................Page 9 better comprehend the historical context of Activity: Build a Holocauust Holocaust and the themes and motivations behind Six Million Paper Clips. Memorial for Grades 9-12...........................Page 9 Tips for Educators.......................................Page 9 The guide offers a history of the Whitwell Holocaust project, a description of the importance of teaching Liberation and Aftermath...........................Page 10 the Holocaust and helpful tips for educators for utiliz- ing the book in grades 6-12. Survivors of the Holocaust.........................Page 10 Activity: Plan a Memorial For a more in depth guide to the Holocaust or edu- cator workshop opportunities, please contact Day for Grades 6-12..................................Page 11 Tolerance Minnesota at 612-338-7816 or on the web About the Authors of The Making at www.ToleranceMinnesota.org. of a Children’s Holocaust Memorial.................Page 12 Resources for Further Study.......................Page 12 The German railcar is pictured at left. The railcar, which was donated by Peter and Dagmar Schroeder, authors of The Making of a Children’s Holocuast Memorial, is a featured part of the Holocaust Memorial in Whitwell,Tennessee. Six Million Paper Clips: The Making of a Children’s Holocaust Memorial Study Guide Prepared by Tolerance Minnesota©, a program of the Jewish Community Relations Council 2 Holocaust; it was a culmination of several different factors that the Nazis capitalized on and manipulated Six Million to achieve their goals of ridding Jews from Germany and throughout Europe. Paper Clips Factors that contributed to the Holocaust included: Introduction to Six Million Paper Clips • The long history of Anti-Semitism in Europe • World War I Six Million Paper Clips: The Making of a Children’s World economic depression Holocaust Memorial is an inspiring story of how a • group of students created a project that resulted in • Rise of Nationalism international awareness about the Holocaust. The study of the Holocaust provides one of the most In 1998, the children of Whitwell Middle School in effective tools to discuss prejudice and cultivate appre- Whitwell, Tennessee began a moving journey. ciation of diversity. A structured study of the Students and educators chose to study the Holocaust Holocaust provides lessons for an investigation of to help students understand the diversity of the world basic morals and human behavior. beyond Whitwell, Tennessee. It was the hope of the staff at Whitwell that by study- The students’ introduction to the horrors of the ing the Holocaust the students would understand Holocaust resulted in a community-wide project that that: captivated the imagination of parents and citizens of Whitwell, and individuals and organizations through- • Democratic institutions and values should not be out the world. taken for granted, but need to be appreciated and protected; Overwhelmed by and unable to grasp the number “six million” – which represents the six million Jews • Silence and indifference to the suffering of others who were murdered in the Holocaust – students and or the limitation of civil rights in any society can lead teachers devised a way to visualize the number. The to the development and/or perpetuation of oppres- group set a goal of collecting six million paper clips sion, and can also escalate hostilities; to represent each person killed in the Holocaust. • There were people who risked their lives to help Why Study the Holocaust? Jews escape and confront the Nazis. People felt it was their moral duty to fight for what was just and right. The Holocaust was the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis in Europe between the years 1933-1945. Other individuals and groups were persecuted and “The Paper Clips project has been an suffered grievously during this period, but only the affirmation of my beliefs that education is Jews were marked for complete annihilation. absolutely essential to change; everyone The Holocaust was not an isolated incident in history. must study the past so that we do not for- It occurred because individuals, organizations and governments made choices that allowed prejudice, get or repeat our mistakes.” hatred and ultimately mass murder to occur. Linda Hooper, There was no singular event that led to the Whitwell Middle School Principal Six Million Paper Clips: The Making of a Children’s Holocaust Memorial Study Guide Prepared by Tolerance Minnesota©, a program of the Jewish Community Relations Council 3 Discussion Suggestions: “It is our duty as teachers to educate our The students of Whitwell Middle School learned that the Holocaust still plays an important role in world students about the evils of hatred, bigotry, politics. It continues to be an emotional subject for racism and intolerance. Holocaust survivors and their families. The Holocaust can also be utilized to encourage discussions and And we must show our students that they awareness of world events. can make a difference in this ever-changing world.” • Consider the similarities and differences of govern- ment policies during the Holocaust and contempo- David Alan Smith, rary policies. Can governmental policies create the Vice Principal of Whitwell Middle School potential for ethnic cleansing and genocide, such as those in Rwanda, Bosnia and the Sudan? invaded Poland in 1939, more than 9.5 million Jews lived throughout Europe. The victims of the Compare and contrast world responses to the • Holocaust were regular people who played, worked, Holocaust and mass killings that have taken place sang and laughed. Hitler and his followers convinced post-Holocaust and currently. Germany that the murder of the Jews was necessary to form a better world. • Study and discuss the topic of civil liberties and why it is important that they be maintained. If one As Hitler and his army spread through Europe they group’s civil liberties are in jeopardy, will others soon instituted anti-Jewish laws and began the process of follow? mass murder. They were able to do this because many governments cooperated with the Nazis in their plans • Explore documentary evidence to support the fact to annihilate the Jewish people or were overtaken by that the Holocaust occurred. the Nazis and forced to institute their policies. Who Were the Six Million? Other Victims of Nazi Persecution By the end of World War II, most of Europe’s Jewish Considered “enemies of the state” and the German population was destroyed. Before Adolph Hitler people, Jews were marked for complete annihilation. However, they were not the only group persecuted by the Nazi regime. What is ‘Genocide’? Genocide refers to massive crimes committed Hitler and the Nazis feared anyone who would ques- against specific groups. The word was first coined in tion their authority and challenge the laws of 1944 by a Polish-Jewish laywer named Rapheal Germany and the Reich. Such groups of people or Lemkin to describe Nazi policies of systematic mur- individuals were immediately rounded up and sent to der, including the destruction of European Jewry. concentration camps or killed. Lemkin formed the word “genocide” by combining “geno” from the Greek word for race or tribe, with The Nazis instituted this type of authoritarian regime “cide” from the Latin word for killing. The term in every country they occupied during World War II. was adapted by the International Military Tribunal Groups who were targeted for special persecution to describe the events of World War II and today is were homosexuals,