World War II was a horrible time for the world but there is one symbol of resistance that I found to be rather surprising. What was this symbol? The unassuming paperclip.

When the Nazi's started to occupy Norway, many Norwegians despised them and would not stand for what the Nazis wanted, such as their antisemitic views. They had also exiled the Norwegian Royalty and outlawed anything that was symbolic of the Norwegian Royalty. So as a peaceful symbol of resistance, people started to wear paperclips on their clothing and even as bracelets or other pieces of jewelry. Since the paperclip holds things together, it was a sign of unity of all the Norwegian people to their royalty and to their Jewish population. The paperclip was thought to be invented by a Norwegian by the name of Johan Vaaler, which made it a particularly strong symbol in the country.

Sources can be found here, here, and here.