Holocaust Stamps Project
Welcome to the FRCS Holocaust Stamps Project (HSP)
One Postage Stamp – For Each Victim of the Holocaust
Update: January 2024 - The Final Piece
Friday, January 26, 2024 was an incredible day at Foxborough Regional Charter School, as the final piece of the Holocaust Stamps Project (HSP) was unveiled. A beautiful lucite cube, filled with 1.5 million stamps, representing the child victims of the Holocaust.
The Holocaust Stamps Project began in 2009, and it was woven into the fabric of our community service learning (CSL) initiative at FRCS. For years, students and staff members counted and cut stamps donated from around the world, and created incredible collages.
The goal to collect 11 million stamps, one for each victim of the Holocaust, was achieved in 2017, and in 2019, the HSP found a new home at the American Philatelic Society in Pennsylvania. The artistic creations of our students, alongside the stamps, are now part of an exhibit at the American Philatelic Center. But there was one piece of the project left to complete!
The exhibit, unveiled on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day was part of the original vision of the project. It will remain on campus in the Middle School Lobby. The project will continue to empower our students to cultivate a profound understanding of the importance of embracing acceptance, tolerance, and respect for diversity in their daily lives.
For 15 years, this project has profoundly impacted the lives of so many current and former staff members and students - many who were on hand today! HSP founder, retired FRCS 5th grade ELA teacher Charlotte Sheer and former Student Life Advisor Jamie Droste unveiled the exhibit. Former FRCS teacher Laura Whelan came back to campus, as did FRCS grad Sarah DeFanti (FRCS Class of 2018).
 Sarah DeFanti, FRCS Class of 2018 |
 Jamie Droste, Charlotte Sheer, & Laura Whelan |
5th grade students from Ms. Goldberg's ELA class were invited to the celebration! The students learned about the HSP, and had a chance to ask some really great questions about the project.
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Update August 2023: After a long delay caused by the 2 1/2 year pandemic, the FRCS Holocaust Stamps Project exhibit opened to the public on June 11, 2023 as the central display of A PHILATELIC MEMORIAL OF THE HOLOCAUST at the American Philatelic Center, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. A dedication ceremony was held earlier, on May 31, 2023.
The HSP founder, retired FRCS fifth grade teacher, Charlotte Sheer, spoke at the dedication, while former FRCS Leadership and Service Coordinator, Mrs. Jamie Droste, who facilitated the Project's completion in 2018, gave a presentation at the Open House event in June.
The dedication:
"A Philatelic Memorial of the Holocaust" Exhibit Dedicated (stamps.org)
The Centre Daily Times:
(248) A Philatelic Memorial of the Holocaust, a New Exhibit in Bellefonte - YouTube
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in October of 2019, the stamps, and collages created by our students over the past decade were donated to the American Philatelic Society in Bellafonte, Pennsylvania. The APS is creating an exhibit to display the stamps for the world to see! Representatives from the APS made the trek to FRCS to transfer the 18 original artworks and dozens of plastic tote boxes filled to the brim with donated stamps to the museum where they will soon be on display. We had so many stamps, that they had to make two trips to FRCS to collect them all!
Why did Foxborough Regional Charter School collect 11 Million STAMPS?
Each stamp that was collected symbolized one wasted life, “thrown away” as having no value, much the same way as an envelope bearing a cancelled stamp postage stamp is tossed in the trash.
Begun in 2009, the Holocaust Stamps Project is a component of community service learning (CSL), at FRCS. It is a unique educational initiative that provides opportunities for students to gain a deeper understanding of how important it is to demonstrate acceptance, tolerance, and respect for diversity in their own daily lives.
The goal was to collect 11,000,000 postage stamps as a way to symbolically honor every victim of the Holocaust. Students and community volunteers trimmed and counted thousands of stamps that arrived daily from across the country and the world. The wide range of themes depicte – people, world history, places, flora and fauna, inventions, ideas, and values – leading to discussions about what makes our diverse world so special.
Eleven million is an unfathomable number. One and a half million were children. Six million were European Jews. An additional five million people were killed for being “different” or resisting the seemingly endless acts of disrespect, prejudice, discrimination, and cruelty by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime during World War II.
Students at the Kindergarten to grade 12 Foxborough Regional Charter School in Foxboro, Massachusetts collected cancelled postage stamps. To help them gain an understanding of the significance of that many people having had their lives taken. They collected and counted one stamp, one life, at a time.
Participants in the project learned about how one man’s intolerance and prejudice resulted in the annihilation of so many innocent victims from 21 European countries. Their study of this period in world history has revealed that the dangers of discrimination and bullying are self-evident.
The Project received donations from 48 states, plus Washington D.C. and 24 countries.
Watch the wonderful video below and see the Holocaust Stamps Project in action.
Holocaust Stamps Project from Charlotte Sheer on Vimeo.
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To view the entire collage collection on the Views and Voices page click HERE.
CLICK below to read newspaper articles and watch news segments about the Holocaust Stamps Project.
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A Walk-through of ‘A Philatelic Memorial of the Holocaust’ Exhibit - June 4, 2022
- New Exhibit Will Bring Holocaust Stamps Project to a Wider Audience - Jewish Rhode Island - August 7, 2020
- Holocaust Stamps Project in its New Home - The Sun Chronicle - July 20, 2020
- Remembrance, Connection, Witness: The Making of a Holocaust Exhibit - Stamps.org - May 14, 2020
- Foxboro School's Holocaust Stamps Project Will Get Permanent Home in Pennsylvania - The Sun Chronicle - November 10, 2019
- Stamp Collecting for a Special Purpose, Clever Magazine, Madonna Dries Christensen
- WHDH-7 News: Urban Update – Foxborough Holocaust Stamp Project – 04-29-18
- School’s 10-year project to collect 11 million stamps honors Holocaust victims, The Boston Globe, April 27, 2018
- Wicked Local- Medway, April 20, 2018
- Sharon TV – Stamp Project Update
- I am the Last Witness is Newest Collage From the HSP, The Jewish Voice, Kessler, February 15, 2018
- School Project to Remember Holocaust Victims Surpasses 11 Million, Heritage Florida Jewish News, Schwartz, October 13, 2017
- NBC Boston News Story – Foxboro School Represents Lives Lost During the Holocaust
- Putting His Stamp on a Holocaust Stamps Project, Jewish Journal, Robinson, June 15, 2017
- The American Philatelic Society Donates 500,000 Stamps to HSP, May 18, 2017
- Holocaust Stamps Project Closing in on 11 Million, Sun Chronicle, Dunau, May 18, 2017
- Stamp Project Helps to Keep Holocaust Relevant, Sun Chronicle, Kessler, May 17, 2017
- 500K stamps Donated to Holocaust Stamps Project, Wicked Local – Foxborough, Gillis, May 9, 2017
- Holocaust Stamps Project made of 9.2-million Canceled Stamps, Mintage World, April 29, 2017
- Foxborough Educators Honored for Holocaust Stamps Project, Wicked Local – Foxborough, April 25, 2017
- More Than 9.2 Million Canceled Stamps…, The Times of Israel, April 24, 2017
- HSP Holding a Raffle to Preserve Artwork, Gillis, Wicked Local – Foxborough, February 21, 2017
- Elie Wiesel Would Have Been Proud of Foxboro School’s Holocaust Stamps Project, Sun Chronicle, Kessler, July 20, 2016
- New Stamp Collage Celebrates Diversity, The Jewish Voice, June 24, 2016
- Collages Stamp Out Hate, Sun Chronicle, Kessler, May 12, 2016
- Foxborough Kids Honor Lives Lost in the Holocaust, Jewish Boston, May 6, 2016
- Millions of Stamps Delivering More Than Just Mail -Winter, 2016 journal of The Israel Philatelist
- Holocaust Stamp Project Inspires Students – The Jewish Advocate, April 17, 2015
- Why the Lessons of the Holocaust Ring True Today – The Sun Chronicle
- Stamps Project Grows Again – RI Jewish Voice
- Modern Day Angels Help Keep Memory of Holocaust Alive – The Sun Chronicle
- Foxboro Students are Putting Their Stamp on History – The Sun Chronicle
- Every Stamp Counts – The Foxboro Reporter
- Volunteers Needed for The Holocaust Stamps Project, Letter to the Editor – The Foxboro Reporter
- Millions of Stamps Teaching “Countless Lessons In Tolerance” – The Isreal Philatelist
- Students and Stamps Tackle a Dark Era – The Sun Chronicle
- Holocaust Project; Sharon Family Donates Stamps – Sharon Advocate
- Holocaust Stamps Project Reaches 3.3 Million – The Boston Globe
- Stamping Out Hatred, FRCS remembers the 1.5 million children killed in the Holocaust – The Sun Chronicle
- A Stamp for Every Child Lost – The Foxboro Reporter
- The Holocaust Stamps Project Requests Stamps from Your Holiday Mail-Foxborough Patch
- School Holocaust Project now at 1.5m stamp mark – The Boston Globe
- Trying to grasp the unfathomable: The Holocaust Stamps Project at FRCS – Germany.info
- These Butterflies off to Texas – The Foxboro Reporter
- Foxborough Charter School Stamp Project Honors Holocaust Victims – Foxboro Patch
- One Stamp at a time: Foxborough Students remember Holocaust Victims with Stamp Drive & Hard Work – The Country Gazette
- Foxborough Students Remember Holocaust Victims – The Milford Daily News
- The Charter Advocate
- Student’s Count Stamps, Lives Lost in Holocaust – The Foxboro Reporter
- Project Teaches Holocaust History Lesson – The Boston Globe
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The Holocaust Stamp Project by the Numbers:
- 11, 011,079 stamps collected as of September 29, 2017
- 18 – Postage stamp collages to be created with the stamps
- 48 – Number of states and 24 countries, including Andorra, Australia, Belgium, Belarus, Canada, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan and the United Kingdom .
- 11,000,000 – Goal to collect in stamps, honoring the lives of six million Jews and five million other victims on intolerance who perished during the Holocaust
Holocaust Stamp Project
Foxborough Regional Charter School
131 Central Street, Foxboro, MA 02035