Row over 'Hitler' poem

'If this really is true, the world really is going bonkers. Come back political correctness, all is forgiven.' So wrote a Jewish friend of mine in an anguished email this evening, Friday 21 Oct, before disappearing off for Shabbat. The World Jewish Congress had posted on its website a story from Manchester's Jewish Telegraph, in which it was stated that a poem praising the murder of Jews by the Nazis had ben included in a book of children's poetry to be distributed among schools in the UK. The publication, Great Minds, is produced by Young Writers who promote poetry and creative writing and publish the results in anthologies distributed to schools.

The latest anthology, featuring the work of 11-18 year olds, does indeed include an entry by 14-year-old Gideon Taylor written from the viewpoint of Adolf Hitler. It includes the lines, 'Jews are here, Jews are there, Jews are almost everywhere, filling up the darkest places, evil looks upon their faces.' Another part reads, 'Make them take many paces for being one of the worst races, on their way to a gas chamber, where they will sleep in their manger. I'll be happy Jews have died.' It ends with the question, 'At what price world domination?'

Steve Twelvetree, who edited the book, defended the poem's inclusion. He said, 'This poem shows a good use of technical writing and he has written his poem from the perspective of Adolf Hitler. Key Stage 3 history requires people to show knowledge and understanding of events and places, to show historical interpretation and to explain the significance of events, people and places, all of which World War II and the Holocaust is part of. The poem clearly states, I am Adolf Hitler and is not a reflection of the child's view, the editor's or the publisher's. The poem recounts a historical fact, something which Young Writers and Foreward Press are not willing to censor.'

He said he was unable to agree with the view that the poem was racist. Nevertheless, it seems certain that some in the Jewish community will find it so.

This story dropped into my inbox just a few seconds after I had finished writing about the new Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, who since his election was announced in June has been receiving racist mail, including letters covered in excrement and even swastikas. There can be little doubt of the racist intent behind those attacks on the Church of England's number two. But in the course of writing this story, I interviewed, or tried to interview, Mukti Barton, the author of a book, Rejection, Resistance and Resurrection, which describes racism as a "poison" often unconsciously spread by white Christians. Ms Barton is Dr Sentamu's adviser on black and Asian ministries and the Archbishop had contributed to the book, published in August, describing the Church as infected with institutional racism and as still a place of pain for many black Anglicans.

Ms Barton did not wish to be interviewed by The Times. In order to convey this to me, she attempted three times to negotiate her way past switchboards, mobile telephones and all the other obstacles placed by technology in the path of anyone attempting to speak to a real live journalist on a daily newspaper. She didn't leave any message, but I called her back when her number came up on 'caller display'. She said was so despairing of British society that she had attempted to launch her book with no attendant press publicity. She had given up even on the concept of educating us. She did not really wish to talk to me at all.

This breakdown of trust is just one example of the damage that is caused by racism in society. Of course, one half of me believes Ms Barton should be sent on the Church of England's first available media training course. But the other half wonders if she might not have a point. Dr Sentamu has not campaigned ceaselessly against racism without having good grounds to do so. Members of the Jewish community are not concerned by a child's poem about Hitler, even if written and published with good intentions, without reason. Racism is no less corrosive, just because it might be unintentional. Too many people are concerned about it for it to be dismissed as a problem of the past, just as some even today attempt to dismiss the Holocaust. It's a problem that we are all living with, and need to find some way of dealing with, if the underlying anger it is generating is not one day going to lead to catastrophe.

Comments

[helene]

I can not think of a better way to create more hatred and violence in this world than to have this peice of arrogant garbage published! to the publishers "what heroes"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bianca Summons]

In response to Ms Lancaster's comments, I found her remark about Ms Witchalls to be crude and extremely misplaced. I do not condone such devastating harm to individuals. A poem is words on a page and induces no such harm.
I think Ms Lancaster is struggling to formulate a suitable rebuttal.

[sandgroper]

The poem is disgusting, and the publishers should not be for defending such a gross and offensive error of judgement.

[Irene Lancaster]

Isn't it interesting that even though Gideon's school has stated that it knew nothing about the submission of the poem to Forward Press, which was done without their knowledge, and Gideon is sorry, Bianca and Sam are still quite happy to use the defense of 'freedom of speech': 'bad news for TV companies and film studios' (oh dear, my heart does bleed for these poor victims of society) and 'the fact that it [the poem] has evoked such a stong reaction surely implies that something has been done right'.

Well that's OK then. The attack on Abigail Witchall, who is a young mum paralysed for life, also 'evoked a strong reaction': that's all right then. Liverpudlian Ken Bigley was beheaded by a Jordanian fanatic, evoking a strong reaction: that's all right then. And of course 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. That also evoked a strong reaction, but according to Bianca and Sam, that would seem to be all right then.

They should know that there are already laws in this country making it a crime to say or write anything that might incite to racial hatred and violence.

That is exactly what has been done by setting out the poem in a book without the letter of explanation that Gideon apparently also sent to the publishers.

I repeat: that poem is a piece of writing which encompasses such hate and venom for 'Jews' [it does not say of what era] that it is very likely to lead to attacks on Jews in the classroom and in the playground and maybe wider afield.

It is similar in genre to Nazi writings, which evoked a reaction similar to that evoked in Bianca and Sam. Germany was also a democracy in which freedom of speech was allowed. Beneath the veneer of our civilisation there lies a hostility and barbarity which takes our breath away.

Freedom of speech is not a license to kill. It has been once and we should hope that it will not be again.

[Sam]

Poems are the result of imagination and their contents often do not reflect beliefs. I did not like the poem, but at the same time, I feel that freedom of speech should prevail. If we are never allowed to see representations of things from Hitler's point of view, as nasty as it may be, surely that's bad news for the TV companies and film studios, as well?

[stephen lee]

I am so glad that I was not the only person who found this "poem" offensive.My daughters(both aged 13)whose poems are published in the book were very upset when they first read this "poem".It does seem rather odd that it is to be found on page 1, and has no explaination as to why it is situated there and why does the "author" have no school attached to his name.Not very subtle really

[Bianca Summons]

I also wish to add - surely poetry is meant to move, inspire or shock? The fact that it has evoked such a strong reaction surely implies that something has been done right.

[Bianca Summons]

If an author writes a distrubing novel about suicide or murder we do not assume that they have directly experienced it - rather, that they are using their creativity to address a contentious issue.

Any kind of creative writing should be read intrinsically, for what it is, rather than concentrating overly on extrinsic factors (eg. is the boy who wrote this racist?). If one had taken the author's name and age away, I would imagine that the poem would be viewed differently.

It strikes me that while the poem isn't the most amazing poem ever written, Gideon Taylor shows great astuteness and perception, and is able to appreciate and express irony far more than a lot of the people who have expressed their disgust. None of us condones the actions of the Nazis - and as one can see from Gideon's comments, he does not either.

[Dr. Irene Lancaster]

I am a teacher and lecturer on the Holocaust and I also assess the literary skills of teenagers.

The literary worth of the 'poem' is nil, at least in comparison with the average 14-year-olds who live in my area of Greater Manchester. So why was it included in the anthology of very good poems for schools and who did the judging?

In addition, no poem would have been allowed about 'Gays', 'Muslims' or 'Blacks'. Because of rules in schools, self-censorship would have kicked in. Only Jews are not protected in schools, despite all the LEA rules and regulations against anti-racism. You can be anti-racist and still be an anti-Semite. A number of convincing books have been written on this subject and some of this blog's contributers should read them.

Let us take another average pupil of 13, not 14. Her name was Ann Frank. Her diary deserved to be published. It has merit both in form and content. Miraculously it was published after she was murdered by people holding identical views to those expressed in the poem.

If this poem, published by Forward Press, is distributed to schools, we shall be experiencing what is now going on in France, or even worse.

In a sensitive environment, with highly qualified, extremely able and intelligent teachers of empathy and integrity, a lesson could be conducted in which the poem might be used as an illustration of how evil Hitler was. However, this was not the aim of the publisher, who chose to stick it on the front page of his book, out of context and for maximum negative effect.

As for whether something is antisemitic or not, it is surely up to Jews, not others, to be the judges of this. This country has a real problem with - is actually in denial about - the antisemitism which is prevalent. The churches, the BBC, the universities and schools pretend it doesn't exist. And what is happening as a result? Scores, if not hundreds of Jewish people are voting with their feet and leaving these shores.

Why should that be, if Britain is the fabulous, tolerant place some of this contributors think it is: the fabulous, tolerant place my parents thought they were coming to after practically all their family was killed in the Holocaust in Poland.

Do your blog contributers really want Britain to become 'Judenrein', or are they scared: scared of the one racism that dare not speak its name: that of 'antisemitism' - the longest hatred.

Turning this confused and not very intelligent teenager into a martyr is the worst thing that could happen. So I have a suggestion. Let his school invite me to go down there (outside the glare of publicity) and take a class in which we will compare 'The Diary of Ann Frank' with this poem and contrast the ideals and sheer humanity of one teenager with the immature ramblings of the other.

And let them see the pack I have written on what really went on in The Holocaust and let all of us learn from the mistake of allowing Holocaust Education in our schools and on our media, without having had the wit to forsee the consequences.

Dr. Irene Lancaster PGCE
Centre for Jewish Studies
University of Manchester

Author: 'Landmarks in Jewish History'

[Ben Boerrigter]

Personally, I am not suprised that Gideon Taylor wrote this poem, not that I encourage it.

I am a 2nd year GCSE student at Ilkley Grammar. On our English syllabus, we have two particularly violent poems, one called Education For Leisure (Carol Ann Duffy), where the voice of the poem talks about killing flies, goldfish, and possibly, depending on your interpretation, you, the reader: "I get out our bread knife and go out./The pavements glitter suddenly. I touch your arm."

The other poem is called Hitcher (Simon Armitage) where the voice of the poem talks about skipping out of work and going for a drive, whereupon, he chances upon a hitch-hiker, who he picks up. As he is driving along a road: "I let him have it/on the top road out of Harrogate-once/with the head, then six times with the krooklok/in the face-and didn't even swerve./I dropped it into third//and leant across to let him out, and saw him in the mirror/bouncing off the kerb, then disappearing down the verge"

So, let's not aim our frustrations at Gideon, he only made it obvious. As Fred Baumann says, there are a whole variety of anti semitic literature. But, rather, let us take a look at what we are exposing people like Gideon and me to, in the classroom.

[Joan Van Poznak]

I am curious about the editorial and literary standards of The Forward Press. Any sensitive editor selecting students' work would steer clear of overt hate-mongering. One wonders what the reaction would be to an anti-Muslim poem.
And what about quality? From the printed excerpts this poem doesn't show enough originality to inspire creativity in other young people.Yours, Joan Van Poznak

[Bryan Reuben]

You are to be congratulated at publicizing this more widely. The question is, does this poem incite violence and I suggest the answer is yes, because Hitler himself incited violence. It should also be banned under the race Relations Act. I note that in the past the slogan "kill Jews" was declared not to be an incitement to violence, so one wonders what protection is offered to Jews by the law. Inded it is odd that the Muslem community wants legislation offering them the same (lack of) protection as racial groups.

That is not all. Someone is responsible for choosing this poem for publication.

The idea that this is simply showing people what Hitler's viewpoint was is nonsense without a commentary. If I write Hitler says... and then reproduce the Protocols, I am then publicizing the Protocols. If I say "God says 'kill Jews'" as one Islaminc group did, then I am just as guilty of promoting hatred as if I was not quoting (although the group conerned claimed that by quoting they were merely quoting God's view.)

Your finding that the Forward Pres had previously published anti-Semitic material makes it quite clear where all this is coming from.

[Barry Egan]

I have no truck with rascism or anti-Semitism, and on the basis of the extracts quoted, the poem seems to be irresponsible and contemptible.

However, to be fair, I suggest you can only request feedback on the poem if you present it in full, otherwise all we have is commentary on other people's commentary about extracts of a poem that were chosen (selectively or otherwise) by our correspondent.

This is not a request for the publication of the poem, far from it, it is an expression of concern at the growing incidence of short cut journalism, US style, where the media decides not to bother the public with the details, while at the same time giving assurances they are being fully informed.

Press the red button for Yes, etc, etc.

[malcolm jaffa]

This year I was in Belfast at a Holocaust exhibition at which there was no guide .
A school bus drew up outside and about 30 teenage schoolchildren from Limavady County Londoderry, Northern Ireland came in to see the Holocaust exhibition.
I volunteered myself as a guide .
These schoolchildren had never met a Jewish person before.
Do you not think that a poem with such attitudes expressed can leave a life long impression ?

[Trey Olmesdahl]

Poets Beware! Know thy craft! It seems this young writer has comitted the error of broaching a highly politically and emotionally charged subject without total and complete control over the medium.

History if full of tales of artists who were imprisoned or killed because the audience misinterpreted the message, and it is clear that a great many have misinterpreted this boy's poem.

Everyone has their opinion on this matter already, and the publisher will surely pay in one form or another. My comment is aimed at any artist brave enough to sail the sea of social commentary.

As artists we have a responsibility to know our craft and to show only those works of highest caliber production. If we ignore this responsibility, it will be at our own peril.

Art has the potential to elicit a powerful response from those who consume it. Never forget that infamy comes even more easily than fame.

[Andrew Caldicott]

The poem SHOULD have been published. We're supposed to have the right to free speech in this country. You cannot, by definition, censor free spreech; either you have free speech or you don't.

One may disagree, or even be appalled by what the lad wrote, but he has his own mind. We tolerate the mad preachings of muslim fanatics, various communist publications (Stalin's USSR slaughtered far more people than the Nazis), so why can't someone write a poem from Hilter's point of view. The lad may not even have sympathised with Hitler, as the last line suggests!

I find many of today's horror movies sickening and immoral, but they are not banned. . . .

[Margaret]

I have only read the excerpts of the poem available on this website. However, it does not seem to me that this young person is necessarily trying to identify with the terrible person that Hitler was, but writing creatively in a way that he imagines only such a deluded and cruel person as Hitler could. Engaging with the past is part of keeping its memory alive, which is of course extremely important, particularly as there remain fewer and fewer people to relate their personal experiences of horrendous times.

[Josef Artuch]

I am sorry but it seems that the world has gone crazy.

As Pauline Bradley clearly states "The holocaust was and continues to be a stain on the soul of the human race" so does this mean that we should never address the subject through any medium? Maybe we should only comment on it in ways that explicitly portray the nightmare that it was so the simple people can grasp the message.

The poem is written from the point of view of Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler did not like the Jewish race, therefore if he were to write a poem I imagine it wouldn't be that complimentary. Is that clear enough for you?

The problem here is not with the poem, it is with peoples incapability to address sensitive issues. The actions Hitler has shaped the lives of every human being, not just the Jewish community so why can non Jewish people not comment on this. Is it because the poet is only a boy? Forgive me for being ignorant but I was unaware Mr. Blair had put an age restriction on creativity.

The content and ryhme scheme provide a potent critique on Hitler. The rhyming couplets only accentuate the child like mentality of a madman. It is about time we use our brains a little more and act like the intelligent people you all claim to be.

[Stephanie Munden]

I am not in the least surprised that Forward Press thought the poem appropriate and clever. As an NQT I was astounded by the amount of anit-semitism I encountered in schools. The accepted causes for the Holocaust are simplistic in the extreme. Hitler and the Germans were very angry at the Versailles Treaty etc etc..They had to take it out on someone etc ect.. Israel is agressive and deserves all she gets etc etc.. Jews are different,jewish skulls are different, and so on. I often sat through lesssons with worse content. Thank goodness my background was never discovered! Actually Gideon Taylor isn't to blame for this very silly poem. The viewpoints of his teachers should be taken into account.

[paul simons]

Children are sponges and poetry is a very powerful and evocative tool. It works largely on the unconscious mind. This poem clearly evokes many of the age-old anti-semitic stereo-types (jews being evil, killing christ etc). It is therefore a great pity that it was allowed to slip through the net and into the hearts and mind of our English youth. It is also highly questionable that it was the work of a 14 year old.

[Nick Sams]

I feel like I must have woken up in a parallel universe. I am speechless at the illiberal reaction to what is obviously a thoughtful poem by a sensitive teenager trying to understand historical events that are for most of us - I am glad to say - beyond comprehension. One poster above acknowledges the good intentions but argues that these will be lost on younger readers. Magnificent! Let us not educate them at all if possible, and if we do, let it be only with hard facts. Poetry, it appears, should only be about good things. Bad luck, Shakespeare, better luck next time; your entire body of work has been censored by well-meaning 21st-century philistines.

And no, I'm not comparing this kid to Shakespeare; I am trying to demonstrate the absurd insensitivity of this rabble without a clue. Clearly most people in this country are unable to look beyond the surface and see the message contained within a poem. The only thing Ruth Kelly should do is see that the next generation is better educated.

[Steve Ward]

Is the world going bonkers? No, it is - the Western World, Britain at least - going politically correct. Such is childhood in this Britain of today. But hey, who chose to call them kids anyway?

[Simon Jenkins]

I sent this poem to Forward Press in view of Steve Twelvetree's warped explanation for encouraging children to write technically correct but morally inappropriate verse. I have had no response from him or his publishing company. Perhaps he has chosen to censor something that he finds too crtical of his own point of view.

Guard My Tongue from Evil and My Lips from Speaking Guile

Press forward, Forward Press;

And trample on the fears
Of those who still possess;
The scars of history.

Technique and Style
Will claim the prize;
Care nought for what it says.

Ignore the weeping eyes
Of those despised;
They do not count.

And praise the child
Whose youth is nullified;
By Hitler’s truth.

But will he bear
Forever in his mind;
A taste of evil.

Can it be true to cast the Jew
As you have done;
Some cruel source of fun.

Or are we fated to be hated
By those who never knew;
The Holocaust.

Let those who teach the young
Take care, and not ensnare;
Or glorify that past.

And try to hear
The songs, unsung;
Of children, gassed.

Simon Jenkins 30.10.05

[Rob]

The reactions to the poem strike me as a little hysterical.

Yes, it expresses ideas which we rightly find to be abhorrent. That is because it expresses the ideas of a man whose thoughts and deeds were abhorrent. Have we really become so dumbed down that we can no longer tell the difference between the espousal of a view and the description of it?

We gain nothing by trying to wrap children in cotton wool. Hiding the hatred and evil in the world simply leaves them naive and open to manipulation by those who hold such hateful views. Far better that they encounter, discuss and deal with these issues in an educational context, surely?

[Firozali A. Mulla]

The poem on Jews is badly written. The article talks of this as a good use of technical writing. He is not interested in the poetry. He wants to market his English language.
No one take this poem seriously.

[Dee Eimer]

Parliament is currently considering new legislation to outlaw the glorification of terrorist acts. Where does legislation stand on material such as this which condones and expresses joy at genocide?

[Linda Bennett]

I wonder if asking children to "empathise" is simply easier on teacher and pupils alike than actually reading, learning and coming to terms with facts?

A 14 year old should be able to read Hitler, A Study in Tyranny (Alan Bullock's masterly work) with great interest, but if he can't, a few extracts might suffice:

"The crudest of Hitler's simplifications was the most effective: in almost any situation, he believed, force or the threat of force would settle matters - and in an astonishingly large number of cases he proved right."

"I go the way the Providence dictates with the assurance of a sleep-walker."

"...Hitler, a man who believed neither in God nor in conscience ("a Jewish invention...")"

"...His sense of humour was strongly tinged with Schadenfreude, a malicious pleasure in other people's misfortunes or stupidities. The treatment of the Jews only roused his amusement, and he would laugh delightedly at the descriptions by Goebbels of the indignities the Jews had suffered... Indifferent towards the sufferings of others, he... was intolerant and callous, and filled with contempt for the common run of humanity. Pity and mercy he regarded as humanitarian clap-trap and signs of weakness..."

But even Adolf made sense occasionally. "A man who has no sense of history," he declared "is like a man who has no ears or eyes."

The thought that British children, in 2005, were being taught to empathise with his genocidal mania, would probably have appealed to Hitler's dark sense of humour. He would have laughed almost as much as he did at Goebbel's atrocity stories.

[elly zabb]

I want to weep for the British children. Why don't we publish poems about love, about caring for our fellow humans, about the good in the world. Why is it that the adults in charge seem to find it so important to stir the pot? I just want to weep.

[miriam sherman]

A book of children's poetry to be distributed to schools in the UK includes lauding the killing of Jews!! And the editors defend it! England's long standing anti-Jew bias had finally and definitely removed the UK from any pretense as a civilized cultured nation by permitting the training of UK's next generation of citizens to actively espouse and continue that hatred training toward Jews with the lame excuse that it shows individual creativity on the part of 14 year old Gideon Taylor.

[Linda Blatchford]

The publication by Forward Press including a poem about murdering Jews is inappropriate for distribution to school children or to anyone else.

In this terrorist-filled world:
-Isn't it enough that Jews survived the Holocaust?
-Isn't it enough that Israel is continually attacked by suicide bombers?
-Isn't it enough that the hated of Jews continues to this day?

[Andrew Brown]

Surely the really important thing about the poem is that it's ***** awful doggerel. Even if it had been entirely reversed in its sympathies it should still not be published as an example to other children. There's more broken in the education system than an inability to recognise anti-semitism.

[Cathryn Ilani]

I can not believe that a poem written by a child from Hitler's perspective would be allowed to be mass produced for usage in a poem book for middle school students. I am an Elementary teacher and I value education and different points of view, however I would never allow such hatred to be tought from a "poetic standpoint".
There is way too much hatred and intolerance in the world already. We need to focus on making students more accepting of another; not calling for or glorifying a genocide of any race.

[Shain Fishman]

The poem may have fulfilled the requirements set forth in the Young Writers competition, but the lack of thoughtfulness on the part of the editors is, at the very least, questionable. It is inappropriate and beyond comprehension that a piece praised for the young author's ability to empathize with Adolf Hitler, the Monster of the Twentieth Century, be included in a 'literary' collection intended for distribution to children. This 'poem' will be read by impressionable young minds with no context in which to understand or evaluate the intention of the author. I am having a hard time understanding and evaluating the intentions of the publisher.

[Doron Lubinsky]

As someone who has taught in universities for over 25 years, in three continents, I have seen the effect of material printed without context. More especially, as a parent and someone active in my daughter's school, I have also seen just how impressionable are young minds.

I therefore am shocked by the inclusion of a poem from Hitler's perspective in a book designed for schools. Especially a poem that contains such racist incitiement as "Make them [Jews] take many paces for being one of the worst races, on their way to a gas chamber, where they will sleep in their manger… I'll be happy Jews have died."

Forward Press would not dare to publish such a poem about any other community - whether Muslim or Christian, or any minority. It is specious nonsense to claim that this merely reflects a viewpoint that you do not endorse. You would not publish poems from the viewpoint of Osam Bin laden or the viewpoint of the British Nazi Party towards people of a different skin colour.

I appeal to Forward Press to have some proper perspective on the effect of what they are doing, and to withdraw the poem from publication.

Professor D Lubinsky (Atlanta)

[Jack Cohen]

I left England and lived in the USA and now in Israel because I experienced anti-Semitism at every level of British society. This poem and its editor's lame excuses are only symptoms. Best get out of there, it can't be good for children or any living thing.

[Alan Winters]

So British 14 year-olds, not only know how to hate, this time the Jews again, and not only are they proud to publicise their hatred, they are in fact, rewarded for such a despicable behaviour.
Would it be permitted to say that I despise the Forward Press and I would be happy to see its owners eliminated from this world? Never mind rewarding me, just publicise the fact, after all there is freedom of speech in the British Isles, is there not?
Yours disgustingly,
Alan Winters

[David Kudish]

This poem is horrific from anyone's perspective... the alleged 14-year old child's or the ignorant and intolerant editor who praised it, accepted it and is delighted to publish it.

For the record, this is the same Adolph Hitler who obliterated London and Coventry in WWII and caused the murder of many British and Commonwealth soldiers and civilian.

[Nevet Basker]

If true, this is disgusting and disgraceful. The combination of lunatic 'political correctness' (let's "understand" evil, not condemn it) and latent (or less latent) anti-Semitism (or anti-any-group, in a very non-PC way) is a very, very dangerous thing.

[johnny dee]

'Since the poem ends with the question "At what price world domination?"' ...

Actually, I've been searching for the whole text of this poem, because this whole outrage doesn't smell right to me. So... how do we know whether this child was expressing his creativity to satirise, to pillory, to hold up to the light the evil that was Hitlerism? In fact, the improbability of a 14 year-old english boy writing such vile emotions in his own voice is remote in the extreme.

I for one will criticise this a) after reading it; b) after discussing it with other poets, artists or the author himself.

[Elizabeth Blumenthal]

How sad to publish a poem of hate against anyone.

[Fred Baumann]

It's wonderful to see all the things that are NOT anti-semitic in Britain today. A prize-winning cartoon that shows Prime Minister Sharon eating Palestinian children? (Not anti-semitic because it's not directed against Jews as such, just against the Jewish state. And anyway, it references high art.) A prize-winning piece of student doggerel that confesses "I'll be happy Jews have died"? (Not anti-semitic because, you see, it only represents the viewpoint of a historical character who just happens to be Adolf Hitler.) Just the sort of thing, obviously, to be anthologized and presented to English schoolchildren for their moral edification and aesthetic delight. I suppose one should be grateful that Jew-hatred still needs its excuses, though these are becoming increasingly threadbare, and, as here, simply absurd.
Mr. Twelvetree, the book's editor, is very impressed by the poem's mastery of the "Key Stage Three" goal of demonstrating "knowledge of events and places." Right. This sure does that, doesn't it? And of course many of the other poems he includes take the same line, presenting the views of despots and haters about their victims. Oh, you say, that's wrong? There isn't another one like that? You say the only contribution to this interesting sub-genre is the Jews-as-seen-by-Hitler one? Really. How very interesting. A coincidence, I'm sure. But not anti-semitic. Anything but that. What a relief!

[HILL KAPLAN]

There is no place in a school book for a poem that can be interpreted as promoting hate for any race or religion.

HILL KAPLAN

[Eugen Tarnow]

Why is it so important for people to go after Jews? Why is the press so adament about it (for overcoverage of Israel, see, for example http://jewsonthebrain.com)? Why not just leave Jews alone?

[Lee Green]

Since the poem ends with the question "At what price world domination?" it's altogether possible the teenage author was attempting to get his readers to ponder the evil nature of Hitler's deeds, but this nuance will likely be lost on many young readers, many of whom have likely never even heard of the Holocaust yet. This kind of poem is just not appropriate for a children's poetry book, where there is no context given about the Holocaust, where the murders and hatred are not condemned.

Would a poem written from the perspective of Osama bin Laden, relating the joy he gets from his followers killing "evil" infidels, including the Christians and Jews in British trains and buses, have won a prize and been included in the book? How about a poem written from the perspective of a Ku Klux Klan member who takes joy in lynching blacks? Or how about a Serbian soldier's glee in raping and murdering Bosnian Muslim women?
Would they have been awarded prizes and included in children's poetry books also?

The editor of the poetry book appears to have lost his moral compass and common sense.

[Wendy Leibowitz]

How horrific. Think of the wonderful, inspiring poems that were NOT included to make room for one that spews hatred toward Jews or towards anyone else. Children will read and perhaps remember it. Someone will choose to recite it at an assembly or on the playground and say, truthfully, "I read it in our textbook at school."
Britain has so many historical figures with whom one could identify--was the Hitler poem really the best? Think of how many people read the poem and signed off on it for it to appear in the book. Then educators wonder where prejudice comes from. They should look in the mirror.

This should not be tolerated. If, indeed, these educators must replace the word "Jew" with "black" or "Muslim" to get the message, then we must instruct them to do so. I believe in Britain, because it has overcome these hatemongers in the past. It must rise up and do so again.
--Wendy Leibowitz, Washington, D.C. USA

[M Ibn Tahhara]

One approach to the racism question would be to ask: would this book be published if it was Muslims, say, rather than Jews, who were the target of the poem?

[Nicholas Beale]

It is clearly appalling that this Hitler Poem is being distributed as a role model to schools. The resurgence of anti-semitism amongst the Guardian-reading classes is very worrying.

However the 'unusual' reactions of Ms Barton need further analysis. Racism has, sadly, been omnipresent throughout human history, and is certainly lower in the UK today than in the past - although far too high. So it's far from clear that it is causing the breakdown in trust - there must be other factors at work as well. The only new factor I can see is that 'anti-Racism' became something close to a State Religion under Blairism - with well-documented appalling consequences - and it is the hypocricy of this stance (that Racism is the Only Sin, everything else is a 'lifestyle choice') that generates the breakdown of trust and frustration.

[Psuline Bradley]

I just want to say that I am appalled that a poem of this nature should be included in an anthology at all never mind one that will be circulated around schools.

The Holocaust was and continues to be a stain on the soul of the human race.

[Dr. Irene Lancaster]

An e-mail to Ruth Kelly, Education Minister, should elucidate the correct response as to whether school Holocaust education is there so that pupils can identify with Hitler (which is sadly very common in some schools I have come across), or to make sure that an attempt at mass extermination of the Jews never happens again.