I was shocked when I read this it was a very wrong thing to do in my opinion to involve religious matters into the topic if the essay.The teacher sure did deserve to be punished right there bringing a topic like that into a essay.But what shocked me the most is a high ranking nazi requested you to tell why Jews are evil that was not necessary.

I like this assignment. Part of good writing is being able to express a wide range of ideas and opinions, and think in ways you may not regularly think. And this taboo over talking about the Holocaust is tiring. Every topic should be open to debate. Our obsession over condemning Hitler and the Holocaust has gone on for too long. If the teacher had assigned something like, say, the Holodomor, nobody would be throwing a fuss.

My dads side is Jewish. This is actually pretty heartless and senseless. It would be the same thing as writing a paper about being a slave owner and how all black people deserve to serve white people because they are inferior. Why would someone even suggest a topic like that? It seems that as a society we still have a long way to come. That teacher needs to be slapped in the face!

As a teacher, I actually get exactly the idea of the paper. I think it is very effective and would be a good exercise in a higher level setting. Keep in mind that I say HIGHER level. Contrary to what a lot might get from this, I think it promotes open mindedness. Students today always label the Nazis as EVIL and ask questions like "How could they actually do this? How could they actually buy into what Hitler was saying?" This kind of assignment helps them see that though the acts of the Nazis was horrible, that doesn't mean all the people in the Nazi party were actually evil. Open minded assignment. With that said, I don't think high school kids are ready to take on that kind of assignment with the right mature mindset. This would actually be a very good project for a college level course. The teacher did need to have action taken against, but I can guarantee you that if this assignment went through, it would have really stuck with the kids who knew how to look at it the right way. But there likely wouldn't be enough of those kids to make this work.

Traduweise :
rcarter:
I saw this days ago and pretty much thought the same. the teacher isnt a nazi, even his critics admit they think he wasnt trying to promote hate.
also, a 3rd of students refused to submit.
there are 2 main points.
1. part of debate is being given a side to support that you disagree with, if you make a good argument youve pretty well proven yourself, because its much harder to argue for something you disagree with
2. its actually beneficial to learn why people think as they do. that assignement could really help understand the mindset and driving forces behind those that supported/support the nazi ideology. it could also reinforce your arguments against it because you would know the major opposition arguments and be able to counter them in the future.
perhaps it should have been a voluntary assignement, but I disagree with the teacher being suspended. he tried something innovative and stimulating and was harshly punished for it. this kind of thing doesent help teachers to experiment with their curriculums either.
bear in mind iv been to auschwitz, birkenau, berlin, even the sites from tge first world war. I fully understand what happened, I fully condem it, but that doesent mean we should forget it. in fact, this assignement could help everyone as far as understanding goes, and protect the students to falling victim to such things in the future. lack of understanding can be dangerous.
in auschwitz there was a quote.
"those who forget the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them."
this was a vote not to learn from our mistakes.
a pity, because it was one of the biggest mistakes man has made.

thenumberone : Good to know that some others can look past the title/face objective of the assignment. Though I do agree that the punishment shouldn't have been so severe, it was something that needed something. Though kids need to learn how to think of the perspective of the other side, something like this should be approached carefully. For example, something like this really needed to be discussed between the teacher and the principal. The teacher had to know that this would have caused a lot of talk around the school and likely be at least a little controversial. This is a type of assignment that they students should have been eased into instead of just thrown right in. 

I understand the purpose of the assignment but it could have been done with some other group or topic and still made the point.

I remember in some English classes being told what my topic AND position were. I was then tasked with arguing in favor of a position I did not hold. It makes you think about things in a different way when you have to do something like this.

traduwise: I bet you 1 in 100 people don't know what you are talking about without looking it up first. The Holocaust has gotten more publicity but I don't think too many people would feel any differently if there was an assignment given out to justify what Stalin and the Russians did to the Ukrainians.

There my be variuos evidence of Jews being 'evil' inthat that are to be blamed for certain unrighteous stuff that affects people who are not Jews.. that kind of stuff is wrong and frankly pisses me of... now, on the other hand, Jews are God's people as stated in the Bible.

Also, I have lived all my life growing up with the "white power nazi whatever mentality", at 19 I humbled myself and saw the nonsense

Nah, I don't read from your post propaganda, I read an assignment given to students by a neo-nazi.

rcarter2 :
thenumberone : We don't agree on much but you, with rcarter, nailed this one.  It's important that kids can step outside their own frame of reference and be able to see things from another perspective, however negative.  It's a chance for them to take materials, build arguments, and put creativity to a very negative use.

They learn the power of words with this assignment.

The topic and the assignment was insensitive, but I do not think it was out of line. Why is that?

First, I believe in role playing. I believe in walking a mile in another man's shoes. I think it builds a healthy understanding of another perspective, because Lord knows that our little frame of understanding isn't enough to be efficient at much of anything. A boxed-in mind is a cancerous mind. It slowly poisons itself because it chokes on its own excrement. But let your mind play outside a little bit and you don't have to remain strung in a box of narrow-minded and limited understanding. There is a world of freedom out there if you can just step out of your comfort zone.

Second, I believe that hyper-sensitivity is really starting to hurt our society. I do not believe anyone should be outright rude to anyone, and I understand sometimes that people will get offended if directly attacked, but in the event of bringing up a topic that is controversial, it is important that people get over taking things so personally. In part, I think that is one of the reasons mental health problems are on the rise. They take things so personally. And I'll be the first to tell you that I am no exemption to that. I've had many an argument with people who disagreed with me on an issue simply because they have a different perspective, but I took it as a personal attack on my own opinion when the reality is that we have differing opinions.

In an extreme case like this, we have to understand that there was a reason for many of these Germans to carry out some of these atrocious crimes. And I think it is a worthy point of study to think about and investigate what circumstances led to this point and what the mindset of many of these people was when it happened. I cannot, for one second, think that these people were innately evil without questioning whether or not I myself would hold up given their circumstances. And you are sadly mistaken if you don't question this yourself.

I honestly think that everybody is evil and i don't believe in right or wrong and this is why.
If somebody grows up in a christian house hold then they will most likely turn out to be a christian
just like if somebody grows up in an atheist house hold they will most likely turn out to be an atheist.
If somebody was grown up thinking they should hate America and the right thing to do is to bomb us then that same
person could of grown up in America to be the person that helped to cure cancer.

This teacher was perfectly right to ask kids to do this paper and i am not saying this because i hate Jews i am saying this
because you should of been taught in school why the Nazi's hate Jews and you should be able to look into the Nazis eyes and see why
they hated Jews as much as they did.

bloodyb : I'm not sure if what you said makes sense. You said you don't believe in right or wrong, but you believe all people are evil. And you listed things that really have nothing to do with the issue of right and wrong. True, if a person grows up in an atheist or a Christian household, they are more likely to be atheist or Christian, but I fail to see how that applies to you not believing in right or wrong. And how does a person thinking they should bomb America that could have cured cancer have anything to do with that? I really don't think you've explained yourself very well.

So let me ask you: To you, is right or wrong nonexistent? Or are you simply saying that what's right and wrong is in the eyes of the beholder? I hope you'll answer this, because right now, you are making no sense.

pray75 :

Sorry if that did not make sense.
but i think that right and wrong are nonexistent because everybody can go either way and what some body feels is wrong
the person doing it feels is right so if something is wrong in someones eyes but is right in another persons eyes how can evil exist
unless everybody is evil?

and i feel that it was relevant to this post because the title is explain to me how Jews are evil.

bloodyb : You misinterpreted the title. It wasn't meant to make you explain how Jews are evil. The point of the title was to get people's attention to read this thread. The title of the thread is simply the title of the assignment. So your response wasn't to explain your thoughts on Jews being evil or good. It is supposed to discuss the assignment, if you think the teacher was wrong in assigning it, etc.

bloodyb : Actually, can I just point this out, it does not matter what 'religion' or belief that you are raised in. You grow up and make your own decisions.

No i did not misinterpret the title but after reading some of the other answers i felt that i should explain the reason behind my answer. 
People may grow up and make there own decisions but if each person grew up differently don't you think those decisions might be different?

Gonna ignore posts before me and just make my statements.

While I think the prompt could have been better explained, I think this was a good idea for an assignment.

In my time getting my BA in history, we talked a lot about the bias in sources, especially propaganda. WWII in Germany was filled with it. This assignment would get students to look at this stuff and actually understand how the Germans could do what they did (the Holocaust) because of the information they were given.

I have written essays before from the perspective of someone at the time, mostly for my ancient classes. I had to write as a Roman senator against land reform, and as Marc Antony before the battle with Octavian (the Emperor Augustus) that lead to his crushing defeat and death.

Essays like this let you understand the other side, and it also raises more questions for you personally.

Could the teacher have chosen a less controversial topic, like why the Nazis felt that they had the right to the Rhineland or Poland or Europe in general? Probably? Would it have been as interesting? No. Would they have learned as much? Heck no!

I support the teacher in this 100%