K<\/span>enneth was a nice enough young man.\u00a0 During class, he was quiet and respectful.\u00a0 Like most of the students at Fubster College, a small public college tucked away high in the mountains in the Deep South, he was a young man without pretense.\u00a0 He entered class each morning, took his seat, and did his work.\u00a0 His grades were average, and he seemed content with this.\u00a0 He often chatted amiably with Lisa, the attractive young woman who sat beside him.\u00a0 It did not take a rocket scientist to tell he was smitten by her.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Kenneth completed his work without any fuss. English composition was a requirement.\u00a0 He wanted to get through the course with as little pain as possible and move on.\u00a0 If you asked Kenneth his goal in life, he would have replied vaguely enough, \u201ca good job.\u201d\u00a0 English was at best a minor irritation to Kenneth.\u00a0 He knew if he sat through class quietly and did his assignments regularly, he could pass without too much exertion or anxiety.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of each semester, in my effort to ease students into a familiarity with the writing process, I assigned a descriptive\/narrative essay.\u00a0 To jog their creative juices, I offered them the usual pedagogical platitude.\u00a0 \u201cGo to what you know\u201d: write about a subject familiar to you.\u00a0 Tell a story about a memorable or frightening experience.\u00a0 Describe a person you admire.\u00a0 I handed out a smorgasbord list of mundane suggestions that included big events such as a birthday, prom night, the senior trip, a special holiday; and the names of influential people, particularly parents, grandparents, teachers, and preachers.\u00a0 The handout even included potential first sentences and a few short introductory paragraphs for those who found writing a complete quagmire.<\/p>\n

In return, I received mostly perfunctory essays.\u00a0 On occasion a student would turn in a remarkable essay about a joint replacement operation, a robbery witnessed while standing in line at a bank, a bloody beating received from a significant other, a hair treatment that went terribly awry and burned off all the writer\u2019s hair, or the prison sentence a writer mistakenly served for an alleged murder.\u00a0 These were the exceptions.\u00a0 They occurred often enough though to keep me reading and to keep me hoping.\u00a0 None of these, however, prepared me for Kenneth\u2019s effort.<\/p>\n

Kenneth turned in an essay provocatively titled, \u201cHitler My Hero.\u201d\u00a0 In the essay, Kenneth raised some intriguing and perhaps little known or overlooked facts about der Fuhrer.<\/p>\n

He held the opinion that Hitler was a fashion innovator.\u00a0 He described in detail Hitler\u2019s hairstyle with its shaved sides and \u201claid down top.\u201d Somewhere he\u2019d gotten the idea that \u201cHitler was the first person on Earth to use gel\u201d to style his hair.\u00a0 Kenneth carried on about that. He wondered \u201cwhat kind of gel\u201d Hitler used and where \u201cHitler got the gel cause he used it first.\u201d\u00a0 He assured the reader \u201cthe gel was a real good type being that Hitler\u2019s hair always sat in perfect place on his head.\u201d\u00a0 Where else it might have sat, Kenneth never mentioned.<\/p>\n

He argued that Hitler\u2019s hairstyle was a tonsorial model for Germany\u2019s youth: \u201cYoung people all over the world wore Hitler\u2019s hair.\u201d\u00a0 The style carried historical import, also.\u00a0 It was Hitler and his hair, according to Kenneth, that influenced the Beatles\u2019 early \u201cmop top\u201d style.\u00a0 \u201cWithout Hitler, the Beatles wouldn\u2019t have had hair,\u201d Kenneth claimed.<\/p>\n

Kenneth perceived Hitler\u2019s mustache as another fashion statement.\u00a0 He described the rectangular patch above Hitler\u2019s upper lip as a \u201cnew power statement.\u201d\u00a0 To make his point, he asked, \u201cWho else had one just like it?\u201d\u00a0 Just how powerful was this lip-topping affair?\u00a0 Mysteriously, Kenneth assumed some of its power derived from his idea that, \u201cHitler\u2019s mustache drove.\u201d He left it to the reader\u2019s imagination to surmise how, what, or where the \u201cmustache drove.\u201d\u00a0 He left no doubt, however, about the mustache\u2019s power:\u00a0 \u201cIt was a known historical fact Hitler\u2019s mustache brought thousands to his knees.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Kenneth did not mention if this \u201chistorical fact\u201d is still well known.\u00a0 We can only imagine, if it were, the number of men who would still be sporting such a look.\u00a0 Then Kenneth suffered what later he would admit was a severe mental lapse. Obviously forgetting the meaning of the cross dangling round his neck, Kenneth concluded his celebration of Hitler\u2019s mustache with the exclamation, \u201cOnly the world\u2019s most magnet mustache could have brought so many people to kneel!\u201d<\/p>\n

Kenneth devoted a paragraph to Hitler\u2019s clothes and their style.\u00a0 To Kenneth, Hitler was the consummate fashion plate because \u201chis clothes were always impeccably dressed.\u201d\u00a0 Who dressed them or with what, Kenneth never mentioned, but he did add, \u201cHitler dressed up served as a model for the Russian army.\u201d\u00a0 At first, this \u201cfact\u201d may seem inexplicable.\u00a0 But Kenneth may have been on to something.\u00a0 Perhaps he was proposing a new historical theory that historians had overlooked:\u00a0 that Hitler\u2019s clothes had prompted the Russians to abandon the Soviet-German non-aggression pact of 1940 and invade Germany in 1944.\u00a0 The world\u2019s a crazy place; anything is possible.\u00a0 After all, according to Kenneth, \u201cHitler set the standard in raincoats fashion around the world when they hit the floor and everyone wanted one just like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hitler\u2019s artistic abilities transcended the merely fashionable.\u00a0 To Kenneth, \u201cHitler was a great artist.\u201d\u00a0 As proof, he offered this challenge:\u00a0 \u201cJust look at his pictures.\u201d\u00a0 Kenneth described at length Hitler\u2019s sad, youthful efforts to pursue a career as an artist.\u00a0 \u201cHitler went from door to door with his art.\u00a0 He could draw great but nobody would give him a break.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professional jealousy was the reason Kenneth offered for Hitler\u2019s failed art career.\u00a0 Teachers would not admit Hitler to art school; they were envious of his personality.\u00a0 \u201cHe had too good a personality for art,\u201d Kenneth suggested.\u00a0 If his teachers had encouraged Hitler, Kenneth believed the \u201cworld would now remember a great artist instead of a great politican.\u201d\u00a0 To leave no doubt about Hitler\u2019s legacy as an artist to be reckoned with, Kenneth wrote, \u201cThe swaktiska [sic] is a work of modern art.\u00a0 Hitler drew the swaktiska and a lasting symbol to humanity was born.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Kenneth had point.<\/p>\n

Kenneth\u2019s admiration for Hitler was not confined to fashion and art.\u00a0 Kenneth could barely contain himself when he described Hitler\u2019s \u201cgenius for moving people with his powers of speaking.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 He likened Hitler to a giant generator.\u00a0 \u201cWhen Hitler opened his mouth people were electrified.\u201d\u00a0 And gassed and shot and tortured, he neglected to add.\u00a0 Hitler \u201ccould make anyone do anything any time he wanted to.\u00a0 He got things done by just opening his mouth.\u00a0 He got lesions [sic] of people to do his bidding.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Kenneth\u2019s interpretation of history, Hitler used his oratorical skills to do many things besides \u201chis bidding.\u201d\u00a0 Hitler \u201copened his mouth to advance science.\u201d\u00a0 When Hitler needed a more powerful bomb, \u201che just said to his scientists to invent the mother of all bombs, they did it without thinking.\u201d\u00a0 Kenneth deserved credit here.\u00a0 After all, the creation of bombs often occurs without thinking.\u00a0 When Germany had a gasoline shortage, \u201cHitler spoke up and soon his scientists made the Volkswagen one of the world\u2019s greatest cars still alive today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kenneth ended his ruminations on his hero with a sentence that described Hitler\u2019s charismatic leadership qualities.\u00a0 In conclusion, he exclaimed:\u00a0 \u201cIn all time, Hitler was the world\u2019s greatest oiler!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Cryptic though this sentence may be, it\u2019s difficult to argue with this concluding image of Hitler as the oiler of the machine of history.<\/p>\n

Kenneth\u2019s take on Hitler, if not quite original in its reverence, was uniquely his own.\u00a0 You might wonder what Kenneth had to say about Hitler\u2019s involvement in World War II and the Holocaust.\u00a0 Don\u2019t bother.\u00a0 He did not mention these events in his essay.<\/p>\n

Grading essays is always difficult.\u00a0 Even after twenty plus years of teaching and evaluating thousands of student essays, placing a grade on a student\u2019s effort is the least enjoyable part of my job.\u00a0 Writing is a process that one learns over time.\u00a0 Many of the students who attended Fubster College had little or no writing experience, in high school or anywhere else.\u00a0 As so many teachers in my position, I did my best to nurture students by offering gentle and thoughtful comments to right the mistakes in their thought processes, sentence structure and grammar and usage.\u00a0 Usually I steered away from making judgmental comments on what the students thought or believed.\u00a0 To explain to students the wayward peregrinations of their thinking processes was one thing.\u00a0 I was comfortable with that.<\/p>\n

To teach them what to think about anything outside the world of good writing is something else.\u00a0 A long time ago, I realized that as a composition instructor, I wasn\u2019t a psychologist, a philosopher, an ethicist, or a preacher.\u00a0 (I should note that the few times I transgressed, the administrators at Fubster College also reminded me of this.)\u00a0\u00a0 I focused my energies on one goal:\u00a0 teaching the kids to write thoughtful essays that contained clearly worded sentences.\u00a0 When I adopted this goal, my job became easier and less stressful.\u00a0 Grading became easier, too.<\/p>\n

Essays like Kenneth\u2019s occasionally crossed my desk.\u00a0 One student wrote that Emily, the lonely but fiercely proud matron in Faulkner\u2019s story \u201cA Rose for Emily\u201d was justified in killing Homer Barron, the Yankee laborer who was about to jilt her.\u00a0 The student didn\u2019t merely sympathize with Emily\u2019s situation and her subsequent action.\u00a0 He expressed a fiery belief that Emily had every right to kill Homer.\u00a0 In a broken prose littered with imprecations, he declared, \u201cHomer Barron was a lying, cheating Yankee bastard and die he should have been double-barreled.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good thing Emily killed him or I would of.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was happy to read an essay invested with such conviction and personal feeling, even if the student seemed confused about the line between fact and fiction.\u00a0 On the other hand,
\nthe student\u2019s views raised certain ethical and legal questions.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a particularly brave man.\u00a0 I\u2019m also originally from New York and after living more than twenty years in the South I still retained a pronounced New York accent.\u00a0 In this situation, what would you do?<\/p>\n

The student\u2019s essay was written in a language that approximated English.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t grasp the idea that Emily was a sad, if sympathetic, character from a bygone era.\u00a0 Apparently, this student confused Emily with the likes of Lizzie Borden or Jean Harris.<\/p>\n

I did not know how a poor grade would affect this student. I was not about to use his essay to engage him in a discussion on the circumstances or ethics of justifiable homicide.\u00a0 He wanted Homer Barron dead.\u00a0 He wrote furiously in his efforts to justify Emily\u2019s action.\u00a0 During class discussion, the student argued his conviction forcefully.\u00a0 I tried to lead him in another direction by citing textual evidence.\u00a0 The student resisted.\u00a0 He wanted nothing to do with another line of reasoning.\u00a0 Homer deserved to die just as certainly as Emily had \u201cher femine [sic] right\u201d to kill him.<\/p>\n

The student used his essay to show me his tenacity as a thinker and to reassure me he wasn\u2019t about to change his mind.\u00a0 Still, I was concerned he should read with more insight and reason and write in the English language.\u00a0 On the essay, I corrected the basic writing errors.\u00a0 I also scribbled a few cursory comments about Emily\u2019s state of mind and that traditions may shape one\u2019s consciousness or expectations.\u00a0 I suggested he examine some telling passages in the story.\u00a0 These, I suggested, might allow him to rethink his ideas about Emily.<\/p>\n

I am not proud of this, but fearing the student\u2019s intractable commitment to his convictions, I gave him the benefit of the doubt.\u00a0 What doubt, don\u2019t ask.\u00a0\u00a0 I timidly placed a D at the top of the page.\u00a0 Beyond that, I\u2019m sorry.\u00a0 As adamant as he was, I was not going to suggest more strongly he change his thinking on the penalty for jilting.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t taking any chances.<\/p>\n

I offer this incident to give some insight into the problem I faced grading Kenneth\u2019s \u201cHitler\u201d essay.\u00a0 He did not seem a bad kid, a violent kid or, aside from his essay, a misguided kid.\u00a0 He had his mind focused on graduating from college and finding a good job.\u00a0 Actually the way he was chatting it up with Lisa, she seemed Kenneth\u2019s most pressing goal.\u00a0 Still, I had to make Kenneth understand he could not separate Hitler\u2019s methods from his crimes.<\/p>\n

The enormity of Hitler\u2019s charisma impressed Kenneth.\u00a0 Somehow he failed to recognize Hitler was in cahoots with the Devil.\u00a0 Since I knew Kenneth to be a decent, God-fearing young man, I figured I\u2019d use the religious angle to explain the errors in his thinking.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t accuse him of being a Nazi sympathizer or berate him for lacking human compassion.\u00a0 I would show him his mistake by methodically leading him to the conclusion Hitler was the Devil incarnate, a killer the magnitude of which humanity has rarely seen.<\/p>\n

My simple tactic would be to point out that Hitler was a monster who trampled on the teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition.\u00a0 When I finished leading Kenneth tactfully through a tour of Hitler\u2019s murderous acts, Kenneth would see his mistake and resign himself to finding another hero.\u00a0 And he would naturally agree to write another essay.<\/p>\n

I graded Kenneth\u2019s essay as any other.\u00a0 I corrected the errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics.\u00a0 In the margins, I wrote the usual comments about problems in unity and coherence.\u00a0 At the top of the essay I added this remark:\u00a0 \u201cDidn\u2019t Hitler misuse his powers?\u00a0 Should someone responsible for untold deaths be considered a hero?\u00a0 Please see me.\u201d\u00a0 To be sure he\u2019d get the idea to see me and to rewrite (and to keep myself out of harm\u2019s way), I didn\u2019t put a grade on his essay.<\/p>\n

As I always did, I returned the students\u2019 essays at the end of the class period.\u00a0 Kenneth waited patiently for the classroom to empty and approached me.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, Mr. K.\u00a0 You wanted to see me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, Kenneth.\u00a0 What do you think about my comments?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, they\u2019re O.K.\u00a0 I gotta look more at them. But what does this mean?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

He pointed to my comment about Hitler\u2019s misuse of power. Good, I thought. I had his attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you think it means?\u201d\u00a0 I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, Mr. K.\u00a0 I can\u2019t read your handwriting.\u201d<\/p>\n

So much for a good start.\u00a0\u00a0 After many years on the job, I kept forgetting the students\u2019 first challenge to understanding my comments was reading my handwriting.\u00a0 I translated my scrawls.<\/p>\n

Kenneth was unflappable in his hero worship.\u00a0 \u201cWhat do you mean he misused his power?\u00a0 Hitler was a great leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

I thought Kenneth was being evasive, that he did not want to confront the facts.\u00a0 I frowned at him.\u00a0 It was not an accusatory frown, just one of those furrowed looks I adopted to let a student know he wasn\u2019t thinking clearly.\u00a0 Kenneth returned my look with one of his own, a blank stare.\u00a0 Was it possible he didn\u2019t know I was referring to Hitler the hooligan, the madman murderer of millions?<\/p>\n

Kenneth kept looking at me.\u00a0 The longer he looked the more his eyes reflected the uncomfortable question, \u201chuh?\u201d\u00a0 When I realized Kenneth somehow did not understand my question, I quietly asked him, \u201cKenneth, what about the Holocaust?\u00a0 Didn\u2019t Hitler use his gift of gab, his \u201cpowers of speaking\u201d as you put it, to kill millions of people?\u201d<\/p>\n

I threw in the colloquialism to let Kenneth know, if he had any doubts, I was on his side.\u00a0 I was a good guy, a facilitator (in the language of the pedagogical trade), not a tyrannical judge who with the stroke of a pen could easily delay his career aspirations.\u00a0 I wanted to present myself as a guy trying to straighten out some wayward ideas.\u00a0 I thought a cute phrase might make him agree more readily with me.<\/p>\n

He missed the point.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t register with him.\u00a0 How do I know?\u00a0 Simple. He threw his head to the side and gave a short, quick laugh, more a snort really than a laugh.\u00a0 Then he wagged his head a few times.\u00a0 His reaction was evidently the physical equivalent of the question, \u201cYou\u2019re kidding, right?\u201d\u00a0 He looked back at me to see if this gesture, offered as an answer, was sufficient.<\/p>\n

There was no way I was going to let this pass for an answer.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t respond and waited calmly for a verbal reaction.\u00a0 I was prepared to wait until hell froze over.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t take Kenneth long to get the idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh that. Come on.\u00a0 Hitler never made that Holocaust thing.\u201d\u00a0 Kenneth was now looking at me with the same expression I imagine I\u2019d worn when I was nine and Mrs. Milner, a nurse and my best friend\u2019s mother, took it upon herself to explain to me how babies were made.<\/p>\n

I was as amazed at Kenneth\u2019s response as he was at my question. I kept calm.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t let my sense of outrage or disbelief overwhelm me.\u00a0 \u201cHe didn\u2019t?\u201d I asked.\u00a0 \u201cThen who was responsible for the Holocaust?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCome on, Mr. K.\u00a0 You know.\u00a0 It was them Jews.\u00a0 They made up the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re telling me Hitler was not responsible for the Holocaust, for killing six million Jews, and gypsies, and Catholics, and sick and disabled people of all ages and races?\u201d<\/p>\n

I gave him a laundry list of victims to emphasize Hitler\u2019s brutality.\u00a0 I thought this would awaken Kenneth to Hitler as the mastermind behind these atrocities.\u00a0 Nothing doing.\u00a0 Kenneth just shook his head to let me know that whatever else was knocking around inside his skull there was no connection between Hitler and the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would the Jews invent such a thing?\u201d I asked, trying as best as I could to hide my incredulity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted people to feel sorry to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would they want people to feel sorry for them?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo they could get some land to make a home country.\u00a0 What\u2019s it\u2019s called?\u00a0 You know the one. Isram, or something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For no reason in particular, since reason had left the room anyway, out of curiosity I wondered aloud, \u201cWhere were the Jews living if they didn\u2019t have a homeland?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMostly most of them were living in the desert somewhere.\u00a0 They were always looking for a place to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apparently, Kenneth was nurturing the notion that the Jews were still wandering.\u00a0 I was getting no place fast.\u00a0 I had to change direction, before anger replaced my professional demeanor and my disbelief. Then an unhappy thought crossed my mind. If Kenneth didn\u2019t come around, he might become the first of my own Holocaust victims.\u00a0 But I couldn\u2019t abandon my pedagogical patience or self-control.\u00a0 I had too many questions to ask. After all, my purpose was to teach.\u00a0 Even if we\u2019d left composition behind, it was my civic duty as a citizen of these United States to let Kenneth know his head was filled with an ocean of historical misinformation. I struggled for equilibrium.\u00a0 I changed gears again.<\/p>\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t Hitler and the Germans start WW II?\u201d<\/p>\n

The ever-polite Kenneth responded, \u201cNo, sir. It was them Japs.\u00a0 They bombed the sea off a California in an air raid.\u00a0 That started the world war called two.\u201d<\/p>\n

The more questions I asked, the deeper I sank into Kenneth\u2019s delirious version of history.\u00a0 I felt trapped.\u00a0 But I couldn\u2019t give up. Given his answers, I asked Kenneth if he learned about WW II in high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure.\u00a0 That\u2019s what got me interested in the Hitler to start.\u00a0 My teacher, Mrs. Wade, was a big Hitler fan.\u00a0 She knew all kinds of stuff about him.\u00a0 She taught us what a powerful leader he was.\u00a0 She told us Hitler was one of the most motivational speakers of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t Mrs. Wade teach you about the Holocaust?\u00a0 Didn\u2019t she teach you about the concentration camps? You have seen pictures of concentration camps, haven\u2019t you?\u00a0 People walking around emaciated, just skin and bones.\u00a0 The dead dumped into trenches.\u00a0 Rotting corpses piled on top of each other.\u00a0 You\u2019ve seen these pictures, haven\u2019t you?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I seen movie pictures of them Mr. K.\u00a0 I never saw any in person.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was too far gone to assure him he was blessed never to have seen any in person.\u00a0 \u201cWell, what about the pictures you\u2019ve seen?\u00a0 Wasn\u2019t Hitler responsible for these atrocities?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCome on, Mr. K., you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, Kenneth, I don\u2019t.\u00a0 Know what?\u201d<\/p>\n

I did not \u201cknow what.\u201d\u00a0 I was feeling rigid and hot.\u00a0 What was happening here was difficult to understand, but not nearly as difficult as what Kenneth was about to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Holocaust and all that stuff it\u2019s all, you know, just movie magic.\u201d<\/p>\n

That did it.\u00a0 I lost my composure.\u00a0 My anger flashed out.<\/p>\n

\u201cMovie magic!?\u201d\u00a0 I exclaimed.<\/p>\n

Kenneth remained composed, almost detached. Did I detect a touch of sympathy (or was it sadness) in his eyes?\u00a0 He was wondering what all the fuss was about.\u00a0 So he tried to set me straight.<\/p>\n

With the calm of the veteran explaining the complexities of the game to a rookie, he said, \u201cAll that\u2019s done with actors and computers.\u00a0 It\u2019s all special effects.\u00a0 My brother told me about it when I was a kid.\u00a0 He once took me to that Jewish movie I saw, too, Shicker\u2019s List.\u00a0 My brother knows lots about movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShicker\u2019s List,\u201d the name shot though me like a belt of Johnnie Walker Red.\u00a0 I could hear my orthodox grandfather cry from his grave, \u201cWhat is this with the shiker already? Ugh! It\u2019s this boy is drunk with not knowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSchindler\u2019s List!\u201d\u00a0 I involuntarily exploded.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, that\u2019s the one.\u00a0 That was great.\u00a0 That commander guy picking off guys from his window and shooting them like they was just ducks in the water; now that guy could shoot.\u00a0 I mean he was drunk and half dressed and tripping over himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKenneth, that was an atrocity!\u00a0 Didn\u2019t that upset you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, yeah, kind of.\u00a0 But it was just a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, Kenneth, that was real.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean the movie was real.\u00a0 It was based on something that really happened. In history.\u00a0 Schindler\u2019s List was a recreation of history.\u00a0 Oscar Schindler was a real man who jeopardized his life.\u00a0 He sacrificed his life savings to save the lives of more than a thousand people.\u00a0 In Nazi Germany, there were people just like that commandant.\u00a0 The commandant in the movie was based on a real person.\u00a0 His name was Amon Goeth, just like in the movie. The Nazis killed people randomly and indiscriminately.\u00a0 They had a complete disregard for people who were not just like them.\u00a0 The movie is based on fact.\u00a0 Lots of books have been written about the Holocaust.\u00a0 Many other movies and documentaries have been made about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

I thought if I kept repeating myself, Kenneth would believe me.\u00a0 Kenneth was undeterred.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. K., are you sure?\u00a0 I know that movie was made by Steven Spiller or something, wasn\u2019t it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSpielberg, yes. So?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the man who made E.T. and the Poltergeist.\u00a0 E.T. was so great a movie.\u00a0 E.T.\u00a0 was really cute. And when he rode his bike over the policemen\u2019s heads to escape.\u00a0 I really remember that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ever polite Kenneth continued, \u201cI don\u2019t mean no offense, Mr. K. You\u2019re not going to tell me that was real, are you?\u00a0 Or in Poltergeist when the little girl goes into the TV.\u00a0 That\u2019s not real.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, Kenneth, you\u2019re right.\u00a0 What do those movies have to do with Schindler\u2019s List?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust that Spellman has a real great imagination, that\u2019s all.\u00a0 He could think up anything.\u00a0 Besides he\u2019s Jewish, too.\u00a0 I know that from his name.\u00a0 I mean why would he want to show the whole world Jews let themselves be killed like sitting ducks and not fight back?\u00a0 Come on, he had to make that movie up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kenneth kept piling it on.\u00a0 I felt like Ali in the fifteenth round of the \u201cThriller in Manila.\u201d\u00a0 I was beyond exhaustion, but I had to stay up and keep punching.<\/p>\n

\u201cKenneth, he didn\u2019t make it up. You think the Jews wanted to be sitting ducks?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey sure didn\u2019t put up too good a fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t you know they were overwhelmed and unarmed? Didn\u2019t you feel bad or horrified the way the Nazi\u2019s treated them, killed them mercilessly?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, well yeah, I did; but I thought it was just a movie. You don\u2019t feel bad when someone gets slashed in a Nightmare on Elm Street movie.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of funny actually.\u00a0 When the guy was pickin’ off the Jews, he was kind of funny. He was stumbling around and just shooting.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think all that stuff they did to the Jews was real.\u00a0 That\u2019s all.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kenneth was sorry. He wasn\u2019t a kid who would consciously tie me in knots.\u00a0 He was just a young man who had some delirious ideas about Nazi Germany and \u201cthe world war called two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since my efforts to right Kenneth\u2019s historical vision were going nowhere fast, and since I was out of patience, I asked, \u201cYou believe me, Kenneth, when I tell you Hitler was a vicious killer and the Holocaust was real?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you say so, Mr. K.\u00a0 You\u2019re a good guy. You wouldn\u2019t lie to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

I could tell Kenneth also had reached the end of his rope.\u00a0 He was now more intent on appeasing me than believing anything I said. He wanted to get out of there.\u00a0 He was not completely convinced.\u00a0 Who would be if your whole life you had watched slasher movies that propelled you into paroxysms of laughter?<\/p>\n

So I said, \u201cI\u2019ll tell you what.\u00a0 Meet me in the library tomorrow.\u00a0 We\u2019ll check out some books on WW II and Hitler and the Holocaust.\u00a0 You read them and we\u2019ll talk again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kenneth was compliant.\u00a0 He did read some books about the Holocaust.\u00a0 He came to me, and we discussed what he read.\u00a0 After our talks, Kenneth had a new take on Hitler.\u00a0 I\u2019m happy to say, der Fuhrer was no longer his hero.\u00a0 I told him I was proud of him.\u00a0 Not every student would take the initiative to learn.\u00a0 I asked him if he learned anything else from his readings.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I found a new hero,\u201d Kenneth said.<\/p>\n

I was encouraged.\u00a0 \u201cGood. Who is he?\u201d\u00a0 Was Kenneth thinking of Eisenhower or MacArthur?\u00a0 Maybe Roosevelt or Churchill.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was reading about Hitler, there was another man in Germany. He was a great writer and speaker.\u00a0 I might want to read his books. And he was a great family man with lots of children. I like that.\u00a0 His name is Joseph, I think you say his name like, Go-bells. Is that how?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGo bells,\u201d cow bells, church bells, sirens; they all began to clang riotously in my head.\u00a0 I was about to tell Kenneth, \u201cand Joseph Goebbels was such a great \u201cfamily man\u201d he took his entire family with him right into his suicidal grave!\u201d\u00a0 When suddenly I had a sinking feeling.\u00a0 A sense of vertigo gripped me; I felt tipped to the edge of Kenneth\u2019s corkscrew version of world history.\u00a0 What did Yogi Berra say, \u201cD\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again\u201d?\u00a0 I struggled mightily to maintain a sense of equanimity.\u00a0 I focused intently to hold onto my equilibrium.\u00a0 As I tried to stabilize, I was reminded of the only thing I am 100% certain of when I teach.\u00a0 I never know what the hell the students are learning. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He held the opinion that Hitler was a fashion innovator. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}