Teacher praises Hitler's 'leadership qualities' after Jewish student questions classroom portrait

A California teacher praised Adolf Hitler's leadership qualities after a Jewish family asked why she posted a portrait of the Nazi dictator in her seventh-grade classroom.

The portrait was placed among a group of world leaders from history in the classroom at Carmel Valley Middle School, and a 12-year-old student who is Jewish told his father about it, reported KFMB-TV.

“We're sitting at the dinner table and he says to me, ‘Hey dad, my teacher has a picture of Hitler on the wall,’” said Dr. Roy David, the boy's father, who asked his son to send him a photo the next day. "There's Adolf Hitler, a big, portrait-size picture of Hitler, and right next to Hitler is Gandhi and Martin Luther King and JFK, and each one of these people has some kind of inspirational quote written underneath them."

David emailed the teacher seeking explanation and asking for the image to be taken down, but he didn't get a response.

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“My son went back the next day and basically asked her why she had this picture of Hitler on the wall and he actually told her, you know, you're trivializing the Holocaust," David said. "She tells my son, well, Hitler may have done some bad things but he had leadership qualities."

The portrait wasn't part of any history lesson on World War II and had been up since the beginning of the school year, David said, but the teacher eventually took it down after an uproar erupted on social media, and the school principal issued an apology.

"We have recently experienced one of those times that had a hurtful impact, particularly to our Jewish community, and to others, and for this we are sorry,” said middle-school principal Vicki Kim.

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