Hitler-themed homework assigned to middle-schoolers angers parents

Student's binder on desk. (Photo credit: arker via Morguefile.com)

Credit: arker via Morguefile.com

Credit: arker via Morguefile.com

Student's binder on desk. (Photo credit: arker via Morguefile.com)

Parents in a Chicago suburb are furious after their kids brought home a homework assignment called "If You Give Hitler a Country." The assignment reportedly told the students to "create a comic strip for little kids that exemplifies Europe's appeasement towards Hitler."

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At Woodland Middle School in Gurnee, Illinois, eighth-grader Michael Masterton told WGN that "everyone in the class was given the paper and it tells you all the requirements." His mother, Kelly, was a bit more taken aback by the homework, telling the Chicago station, "I asked him, 'Did you ask the teacher if you could use these images?' and he said yes. … I'm not sure what the appropriate manner is to use a swastika." The concerned mother posted the image to her Facebook page and said, "[I] don't think [the teacher] did it to be anti-Semitic. I think she was trying to teach that there was propaganda. ... It did not come through that way."

On the handout, a cartoon character is shown wearing a Nazi uniform and sporting an Adolf Hitler mustache while giving a Nazi salute. Michael told NBC Chicago that he asked for an alternative assignment, saying, "Some kids were being a bit immature and trying to make this assignment a little bit funny, and it's disgusting."

School board president Carla Little apologized in a statement and said the assignment was aimed at teaching students about the appeasement negotiations between the Nazis and opposing countries and the events leading up to World War II. Kelly said she's not satisfied with the school's explanation and wants to know "that they're not going to go ahead and give more assignments and make light of it."