Paper Clips Project
The Paper Clips Project is celebrated in the 2004 documentary, "Paper Clips" (film), Paper Clips Project
Johan Vaaler's fame as the paper clip inventor has spread worldwide, especially in the United States. When eighth-graders at Whitwell Middle School in Tennessee were to learn about the murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust, one teacher had the idea of illustrating that mind-boggling number by collecting as many small and cheap objects—this was called the Paper Clips Project. According to one website, the paper clip was chosen "after they learned (that) Norwegians wore them on their clothes to show support for Jews during World War II". Another site elaborates this story even further: "That symbol of resistance originally honored Johann Vaaler, the Norwegian Jew who invented the paper clip". Both of these statements are false. Vaaler was not a Jew, he did not invent the common paper clip, and Norwegians who wore them did not do so to protest the tragic fate of the Jews, but to show national concord and solidarity, and opposition to the German occupation and local Nazi authorities. But the project was a success — far more than the required 6 million clips were collected.
During promotion of the film that documents the middle school project, the film's promoters contacted and partnered with Baumgarten's Office Products in Atlanta, Georgia. Baumgarten's is the company that manufactures Plastiklips and other fastening devices; they constructed displays made of green plastic paper clips shaped into the Star of David to assist with the film's promotion at theaters around the United States. Hans Baumgarten, Baumgarten's treasurer and his family of Jewish descent, left Nazi Germany, avoiding death camps.
Baumgarten's Plastiklip was invented by the German Kurt Lorber, who has been a partner with Baumgarten's since World War II.
Paper Clip Project was expanded by Wayne McIntyre in Canada and by Miljenko Hajdarovic in Croatia.
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Famous quotes containing the words paper and/or project:
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