Holocaust Stamps Project
Some books make you laugh.
Some books make you cry.
Some books make you think…and ask questions.
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How did it begin?
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Charlotte Sheer was reading Number the Stars by Lois Lowry with her fifth-grade class when students raised questions that showed how deeply they were thinking. The historical fiction novel is set in Nazi-occupied Denmark in 1942. World War II was raging in Europe. For 10-and-11-year-old readers, the book provides a soft introduction to the hateful actions of Germany’s leader, Adolf Hitler.
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Charlotte explained that Hitler’s cruel treatment of Jews was part of his plan to create a ‘perfect Aryan race’. He intended to eliminate all Jewish people from the continent. During six years of war (1939-1945), Hitler killed six million Jewish men, women, and children and five million other people whom he considered to be ‘not good enough’.
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The students asked, “How many is eleven million?” Charlotte answered by agreeing to help the class try to gather eleven million of ‘something’. They chose to collect cancelled postage stamps.
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Why stamps?
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Stamps are small, lightweight, and (in 2009 when the collection began) were easy to find. Symbolically, each stamp would represent one person who died during the terrible time that became known as the Holocaust.
Because every stamp has a value until it’s used, being thrown away as worthless trash made each stamp a metaphor for how Hitler treated human beings. Also, the different designs on stamps would represent the world’s diversity which Hitler despised and sought to destroy.
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Who else participated?
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The activity became known as the Holocaust Stamps Project. It grew to involve the whole kindergarten to grade 12 school where it started, as well as people all across Massachusetts. Hundreds of volunteers and stamps donors throughout America and around the world got involved. After nine years, the goal was reached!
While the collection was underway, Charlotte Sheer added a visual learning component to the Project.
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Students enthusiastically worked in teams to create artistic collage pictures using thousands of the donated stamps. Each of the 18 artworks served as a teaching tool for children to learn something important about the events and effects of the Holocaust.
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The Holocaust Stamps Project was completed between 2009 and 2018. When Charlotte Sheer retired from her fulltime teaching position, her colleague, Jamie Droste, took over leadership of the Project at the school. In 2017, both teachers were recognized in a ceremony at historic Fanueil Hall, with the Leadership in Holocaust Education Award from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston.
Where is the Holocaust Stamps Project today ?
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In 2019, the entire collection of eleven million stamps and eighteen artworks was transferred to the American Philatelic Center in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, to be developed into permanent, public display.
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Then came the pandemic
of 2020-2022.
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It wasn’t until May 31, 2023 that Charlotte had the honor of cutting the ribbon to dedicate A Philatelic Memorial of the Holocaust. In addition to featuring the Holocaust Stamps Project, this remarkable museum exhibit, developed by the American Philatelic Society, provides important primary source material that visually documents the history of Hitler’s impact on humanity.
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Eight months later, on January 26, 2024, the day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Foxborough Regional Charter School, where the Project began, held a public event to celebrate installation of “the Cube” in the middle school lobby. The 3-foot-by-5-foot acrylic structure houses one-and-a-half million stamps. Each one honors the life of a child who perished in the Holocaust.
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The two displays serve as constant reminders of why it’s important for all people to be kind, tolerant, and respectful of one another.
To read more about the HOLOCAUST STAMPS PROJECT, click this link:
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Charlotte Sheer’s current work-in-progress
is a photo-illustrated, narrative nonfiction book
about the Holocaust Stamps Project
and how it may inspire new visual learning initiatives
based on historical events and social justice issues.
