A private school in the US is making news for giving assignments to Class 8 students on Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. According to Fox5 Atlanta, the students were given a series of questions asking them to rate some of Hitler’s characteristics as a leader. A screenshot of the question-and-answer assignment given by Mount Vernon School in Atlanta to the students has been posted on X by Fox5 reporter, highlighting the sections that are causing controversy.

EXCLUSIVE: An Adolf Hitler themed school assignment is causing controversy at the Mount Vernon School. 8th graders were asked to rate Hitler as a “Solution Seeker” & as an “Ethical Decision maker.” At 5&6pm on @FOX5Atlanta: students & the school respond. pic.twitter.com/sxEJq11mLy

— Brittany Edney (@BrittanyEdney) May 14, 2024

In one of the questions, students were asked, “According to the Mount Vernon Mindset rubric, how would you rate Adolf Hitler as a ‘solution seeker’?”

Another one asked students to “rate Adolf Hitler as an ethical decision-maker”.

Both the questions included options like “Lacks Evidence, Approaching Expectations, Meets Expectations, Exceeds Expectations”.

The questions sparked an outrage with some parents expressing concern and questioning if these are anti-semitic in nature.

Students too found the questions “troubling” and wondered if the questions glorified the Nazi leader.

“Obviously, that looks horrible in the current context. Knowing Mount Vernon, we do things a little odd around here,” one student told Fox5 Atlanta.

One student said he can see the school’s intended approach to critical thinking.

“I can definitely see why they’d be upset, but overall, I think it’s important to look at both sides of the coin in every situation and I think it’s important to be able to compare and contrast everything that’s happened in our world history, whether it’s been good or bad,” said the student.

The outlet also spoke to some former students who said these questions weren’t given to them during eighth grade.

When school officials came to know about the phrasing of the questions, they removed if from the school’s curriculum.

The principal of Mount Vernon, Kristy Lundstrom, wrote in a statement that the assignment was “an exploration of World War II designed to boost student knowledge of factual events and understand the manipulation of fear leveraged by Adolf Hitler in connection to the Treaty of Versailles.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologises for the events surrounding Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskyy’s visit at a media availability in Ottawa, Ontario, on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologised Wednesday, September 27, 2023, for Parliament’s recognition of a man who fought alongside the Nazis during last week’s address by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Mr. Trudeau said the speaker of the House of Commons, who resigned Tuesday, was “solely responsible” for the invitation and recognition of the man but said it was a mistake that has deeply embarrassed Parliament and Canada.

“All of us who were in the House on Friday regret deeply having stood and clapped, even though we did so unaware of the context,” Mr. Trudeau said before he entering the House of Commons. “It was a horrendous violation of the memory of the millions of people who died in the Holocaust, and was deeply, deeply painful for Jewish people.”

Mr. Trudeau repeated the apology in Parliament.

Just after Mr. Zelenskyy delivered an address in the House of Commons on Friday, Canadian lawmakers gave 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka a standing ovation when Speaker Anthony Rota drew attention to him. Rota introduced Hunka as a war hero who fought for the First Ukrainian Division.

Observers over the weekend began to publicise the fact that the First Ukrainian Division also was known as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, or the SS 14th Waffen Division, a voluntary unit that was under the command of the Nazis.

“It is extremely troubling to think that this egregious error is being politicised by Russia, and its supporters, to provide false propaganda about what Ukraine is fighting for,” Mr. Trudeau said.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week that the standing ovation for Hunka was “outrageous,” and he called it the result of a “sloppy attitude” toward remembering the Nazi regime. Russian President Vladimir Putin has painted his enemies in Ukraine as “neo-Nazis,” although Zelenskyy is Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust.

Speaker of the House Anthony Rota stepped down on Tuesday, September 26, after meeting with the House of Commons’ party leaders, and after all of the main opposition parties called on him to resign.

House government leader Karina Gould said that Mr. Rota invited and recognszed Hunka without informing the government or the delegation from Ukraine, and that his lack of due diligence had broken the trust of lawmakers.

In an earlier apology on Sunday, Mr. Rota said he alone was responsible for inviting and recognising Hunka, who is from the district that Rota represents. The speaker’s office said it was Hunka’s son who contacted NMr. Rota’s local office to see if it was possible if he could attend Zelenskyy’s speech.

The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies has called the incident “a stain on our country’s venerable legislature with profound implications both in Canada and globally.” (