NEW YORK (VINnews) — A staff member at a school in Washington D.C. was suspended after he made a group of third graders reenact scenes from the Holocaust, including pretending to dig mass graves and shoot victims. The teacher also allegedly told the children that the Germans were angry “because the Jews ruined Christmas,” parents and officials said Sunday.
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The incident occurred last Friday at the Watkins Elementary school, according to a report by the Washington Post. The children had been working on a self-directed project when the teacher intervened and made them reenact Holocaust scenes.
In a letter provided to the community on Friday, Watkins Elementary Principal MScott Berkowitz said he was made aware of a lesson that included students “portraying different perspectives of the Holocaust.”
“Students should never be tasked with acting out any atrocity, especially genocide and war,” Berkowitz said.
The statement included allegations that a staff member “used hate speech during the lesson.” While the letter did not elaborate on these claims, or the language used, DCPS did issue an apology. The school said that psychologists were assisting the children who participated in the reenactments.
“There was a lot of sobbing and crying and distress and then momentarily we got an email to say that the children had reenacted the Holocaust,” one parent told the Fox5DC TV station. “This included the trains, dying in gas chambers, playing Hitler and mass graves.”
Some children were given specific roles, including one Jewish child who was told to portray Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and then to pretend to commit suicide at the end of the exercise, as Hitler did, the parent of the child told the Washington Post.
Others were told to dig their classmates’ mass graves and simulate shooting the victims.
The instructor also allegedly made antisemitic comments during the reenactment. A parent said that when the children asked why the Germans did this, the staff member said it was “because the Jews ruined Christmas.”
Another student was also allegedly told to pretend to be on a train to a death camp and act as if he was dying in a gas chamber, the child’s parent told the Post, declining to identify themselves or the child. In another scene, he was told to simulate shooting his classmates.
The staff member reportedly told the children not to tell anyone about the activity, but they told their homeroom teacher.
“I think it’s traumatic, this is a terrible corruption of a historical trauma that was inappropriate for eight and nine-year-olds to learn about in this way and I am outraged,” the mother told Fox5DC.
The Anti-Defamation League’s Washington Chapter condemned the incident and said it would be offering “resources and support to help promote healing and education.”
“We’re horrified 3rd-grade students were instructed to re-enact scenes from the Holocaust. Simulation activities trivialize the experience of victims and often reinforce stereotypes,” the ADL said.
Whenever children are told not to tell their parents its a red flag. Children should be taught this.
Unfortunately, there are some in the teaching profession, who have mental health problems, or worse, and should not be teaching our kids.
No one had a problem with Principal M. Scott Berkowitz (Jewish?) saying he was made aware of a lesson that included students “portraying different perspectives of the Holocaust.”
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE OF THE HOLOCAUST? SERIOUSLY???
Everything and anything go’s today as long as you hate jews and are a leftist and then say I have friends that are Jewish and they are sorry they didn’t know people would be offended and upset I meant no harm
I wonder what happens when schools will learn about how Derek Chauvin was innocent when killing George Floyd. Won’t that be an exciting lesson!
Unfortunately the ADL has no credibility.
“The children had been working on a self-directed project when the teacher intervened and made them reenact Holocaust scenes.”
What were the children actually working on? Whats a “self directed project” for 8 year olds? and why weren’t they actually being taught about these things instead made to act it out?
Seems like it was some anti-semitic fetish by the teacher, getting the kids to act out genocide, in order to spew hate under the guise of “teaching”.
Sick world we live in.
Where was the Principal?? THis should have been halted immediately. The fact that it was allowed to get as far as it did, says it was supported. Even by just “looking the other way”.
This is what you get from leftist democrats.
Pure and simple: This article, if accurate, presents a documentation of a new type of Child Abuse now in a public school setting. This is disgusting and further illustrates why parents must be aware of their children’s activities and lessons in all public and private schools in the U.S.