Do you know what the Holocaust was? In the 1930s and early 1940s, a political party called the Nazis ruled Germany. During World War II, the Germans tried to exterminate -- or kill -- every single Jewish person in Germany. This terrible event is called the Holocaust, and it is believed that at least 6 MILLION Jews died during the Holocaust.

A few years ago, teachers at the Whitwell Middle School in Marion County were looking for a way to help students understand the magnitude of this event, and they started trying to collect 6 million paperclips from around the world to demonstrate this. Next thing you know, they had drawn national attention to what they were doing, and they were getting mail from all over the world. Today there is a small museum at Whitwell Middle School of the Holocaust. It is housed in a German cattle car that was used to transport Jews to concentration camps during World War II.

For more on this incredible exhibit, and how it was created by a middle school in Marion County, Tennessee, click here. By the way, there is a wonderful documentary about what the school did; it is called Paper Clips. You should be able to obtain a copy.

Another Story: South Pittsburg, in Marion County, was first created in 1873 by a group of investors from England. They hoped that it would become the iron and steel center of the South, and they picked the name South Pittsburg because Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had many iron and steel factories.

For many years South Pittsburg’s largest company was a stove factory called the Wetter Manufacturing Co. Like many large factories, workers there sometimes went on strike, demanding higher pay and better working conditions. On Christmas Day 1927 a strike indirectly led to a fight between the county sheriff’s department and the South Pittsburg police. Five people were killed, including the Marion County sheriff and his deputy.

The Wetter plant later became known as U. S. Stove. It remained in operation in South Pittsburg until 2004.

By the way, there is a long article (written on a college level) about this event in the Winter 2004 edition of the Tennessee Historical Quarterly, written by Barbara Haskew and Robert Jones. You can’t find it on the Internet, but your local library should be able to get a copy.