Fifth-grader dressed as Hitler, lauded dictator’s ‘accomplishments’

School administrators have begun an investigation, as parents and community members in Bergen County demand answers about the assignment

A student’s essay lauding Hitler’s so-called accomplishments was a result of poor guidance at home and school, says Jason Shames, chief executive officer for the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey. (Getty Images)

Fifth-graders at Maugham Elementary School in Tenafly, New Jersey, were tasked to write about the accomplishments of notable people and to dress up as their selected person.

One student chose Jim Carrey, while others wrote about Neil Armstrong and Amelia Earhart. Another child picked Adolf Hitler.

“I was pretty great wasn’t I,” the student wrote in pencil, using Hitler’s voice and highlighting his rise to power. “I was very popular and many people followed me until I died. My [belief] in antisemitism drove me to kill more than 6 million Jews.”

That essay hung on school walls among others in April, according to Lori Birk, an Englewood mother who on Sunday posted the widely shared image of the essay on her Facebook page.

Parents and community members in Bergen County, which is part of the New York City area, have called and written school officials, demanding answers and accountability about the assignment. In response, Tenafly Public Schools began an investigation Friday evening, according to Christine Corliss, communications manager for the school district.

“Today, Superintendent [Shauna] DeMarco along with other administrators and the Board of Education are dedicating their time to receiving a report of the full details related to the matter giving rise to the controversy,” she told The Washington Post. “Based on the results of investigation, appropriate action will be taken.”

Corliss told The Post that the investigation will be concluded as swiftly as possible.

The essay comes at a time when the United States is seeing an uptick in antisemitic violence and reports of vandalism at synagogues connected to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, The Post has reported.

A child writing about Hitler hurts the still-healing wounds of Jewish people who are coping with the rise in targeted violence in the United States and abroad, according to Jason Shames, chief executive officer for the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey.

“Jews are very sensitive right now to what’s going on,” he said. “The Adolf Hitler thing is to the core, for the Jew, the most horrific symbol of hate and threat you can imagine.”

Shames said that the superintendent is taking the proper steps toward investigating how the essay was allowed, and that the result is a combination of poor guidance at home and school, not the fault of the child.

Lauryn Kohn Dayton, a Tenafly council member, wrote Monday in a Facebook post that the student wanted to learn more about the Holocaust and was given approval.

“The child stuck to the requirements of a school assignment. The child had NO intention to be anti-Semitic, offensive or hateful towards our Jewish community,” she said. “I personally know this child and her family, and I would welcome them into my Jewish home anytime.”

Shames insists that those who take issue with the post are not blaming the child.

“The fault here is with the adult,” he said. “Some adult is really the one who missed this one.”

Birk said she has heard that some parents and teachers grumbled about the essay.

“Some people were scared or hesitant to speak up,” she said.

New Jersey mandates Holocaust education in curriculums that vary by grade level; it is one of 18 states that require Holocaust education as part of their secondary school curriculums, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Affluent Bergen County is part of the region with the largest Jewish population in the United States, according to data from the Jewish Virtual Library.

Residents told The Post that Tenafly in particular has been nicknamed “Little Tel Aviv” because of its sizeable Israeli and Jewish community and that the area hasn’t experienced blatant antisemitism such as the child’s letter.

Yael Weintraub told The Post that she wrote the superintendent because the incident was “abominable,” especially with the growth of antisemitic violence and rhetoric.“

It goes beyond what I would consider to be appropriate and crosses lines that should never be crossed,” she said. “To have a child dressed as a sociopath and somebody responsible for millions of deaths at the hands of Nazis ... The teacher should be admonished and the principal should be admonished.”

The Washington Post