Jewish student told to play Hitler, pretend to commit suicide at end of reenactment.
By World Israel News Staff
A group of third-graders at a school in Washington D.C. were instructed to reenact the Holocaust, including pretending to dig mass graves and shoot victims, according to a report from the Washington Post.
In an email to concerned parents, the principal of Peabody Watkins Elementary School, Mscott Berkowitz, said that a staff member had assigned various roles to students during the reenactment.
The students had been in a library class, during which they were supposed to work on their own projects, when the instructor announced the reenactment would take place.
One Jewish student was told to play Adolf Hitler, and simulate committing suicide at the end of the scene.
When a student asked why the Germans targeted the Jews for annihilation, the staff member reportedly replied that it was “because the Jews ruined Christmas.”
The Post reported that a student told his parents he was instructed to pretend to be on a train bound for a concentration camp, then later act out dying in a gas chamber.
The instructor appeared to know that the exercise was problematic, instructing the students not to tell anyone about it.
News of the reenactment came to light after students ignored her wishes and told their homeroom teacher.
“I want to acknowledge the gravity of this poor instructional decision, as students should never be asked to act out or portray any atrocity, especially genocide, war, or murder,” the principal wrote.
Berkowitz added that the teacher is now on leave.
“This was not an approved lesson plan, and we sincerely apologize to our students and families who were subjected to this incident,” a spokesperson for the D.C. public school district said in a statement.
In October 2021, a Texas school district administrator was secretly recorded advising teachers to provide an “opposing” perspective on the Holocaust.