To Whitwell (the Children's Holocaust Memorial) and on to Nashville

 

Inside the library Holcaust resource room memorial.

The volumes of correspondence from around the globe about the children's project.

Shayna at the vintage railcar memorial.

The suitcase from Germany with student's letters of apology to Anne Frank, and some of the millions of paperclips the children received.

The documentary made about the project.

Tuesday, March 19th. 

We were up early and had the included breakfast before heading out. We left at 8 and drove all day. It was a beautiful cool sunny day and we didn't see a cloud all day. We drove out of Georgia and into Tennessee. Our destination was Nashville. But I had decided to surprise Shayna with a visit to the Holocaust Memoria at Whitwell, but she got annoyed when I turned off the highway an hour short of our destination and wouldn't tell her where I was taking her. She was tired of being in the car. She was amazed when we pulled into the school. This is the memorial created by teachers and students and made famous by the PaperClips documentary. Unfortunately the memorial was closed because of the ongoing uncertainty in the Middle East and the recent anti-Semitism. So I went in and introduced myself and told them I had just brought my Jewish girlfriend to see it and asked if we could go in. The principal agreed but asked us to wait a half hour until the kids were dismissed. So we did. Then he let us into an incredible room in the library that housed all of the resources they had collected about the Holocaust and their project including all of the mail they had received. There were lots of artifacts, books, pictures and artwork students had created. I had been to this site twice before, both times when the school was closed, so I had never had the privilege to see this room. Then we went outside to the railcar which the principal had unlocked for us. We listened to the recording of the former principal Linda Hooper explaining the history of the project. Shayna was very emotional and grateful for the visit. We spent over two hours at the school. Then we drove the last 2 hours to the hotel I had booked in Nashville. We changed into some warmer clothes and asked for directions to Broadway where all the honkey tonk bars are and walked the 15 minutes to the area. We had gained an hour and it was about 8 when we walked around exploring. We finally settled on a restaurant bar with a live band on the second floor. We shared a sandwich and salad over wine and beer while listening to country music played by a male and female singer and guitarist and a male drummer. Shayna loved it, I didn't hate it. We stayed until 10 when they finished their set and then walked back over the footbridge across the river back to our hotel.