Page "Paper clip" Paragraph 23

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.