5 May 2005 (Thursday)
lest we forget
Today is Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day). I have neither the time nor the mental energy to blog at length about it, but since I nearly forgot myself, I thought I'd toss up the reminder for my readers. If you do nothing else, grab a paperclip and put it on for the rest of the day. I just did.
A paperclip?
As I understand it, during the German occupation, Norwegians wore paperclips on their collars as a sign of opposition to the Nazis and solidarity with Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, and political prisoners in concentration camps. I can't remember the exact history of why a paperclip was chosen (it had something to do with a Norwegian inventor and not being able to get a patent on the clip in Germany, or maybe only being able to get the patent there). It's entirely possible that the whole thing is a combination of urban legend and retro-reasoning, but wearing a paperclip on Yom HaShoah has been a "thing" for years.
