(JTA) — An 8th grade homework assignment about Hitler has angered parents in a suburban Chicago school.
Students at the Woodland Middle School in Gurnee, Illinois, were assigned last week to “create a comic strip for little kids that exemplifies Europe’s appeasement towards Hitler,” Chicago television channel WGN reported.
The cartoons that were turned in included swastikas and characters dressed like Nazi storm troopers.
One parent posted a picture of the Hitler-themed homework on her Facebook page, which raised questions from other parents.
The school district is investigating the assignment, WGN reported.
In a letter to students’ parents, school officials wrote that the “objective of the lesson is in alignment with district curriculum.” It also said, however, that the assignment was not meant to minimize Holocaust atrocities.
