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16

FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1991

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Call The Jewish News

354-5959

Should Rommel Wear
A Swastika In School?

AMY J. MEHLER

E

Staff Writer

Leven-year-old Chris
Brasseur just wanted
his costume to look as
authentic as possible.
So when he decided to por-
tray a World War II German
general for a class project, he
didn't think anyone would
mind if he wore a swastika on
his arm.
But when Gail Zimmer-
man, whose son is in the
seventh grade at Berkley's
Norup Middle School in Oak
Park, attended a school pro-
gram last week in which
parents had to guess the iden-
tities of students dressed as
their favorite historical
figures, she didn't look past
the spidery red and black
swastika on Chris' khaki-
covered arm.
"I see now that I jumped to
the wrong conclusions and
didn't investigate the stu-
dent's historical character
more thoroughly," Mrs. Zim-
merman said.
"All I said to him was, 'Your
hero was a Nazi?' The stu-
dent replied, 'Well, I'm not
Hitler.'
"When I finally guessed his
identity, I didn't ask him for
any details, I just assumed he
was dressed as a Nazi," Mrs.
Zimmerman said. "I was
naturally upset so I called the
principal the next day, but I
should have asked the stu-
dent to explain why he chose
the character he did."
Steve Frank, principal of
Norup Middle School, said he
didn't remember seeing any
of his students wearing a
Nazi uniform. Mr. Frank
thought the student was from
Anderson Middle School, the
other school participating in
the program.
"When I tracked it back to
Chris, I spoke to him, and
there's no way he wore the
swastika as anything other
than a period piece," Mr.
Frank said.
Chris dressed as General
Erwin Rommel, also known
as the Desert Fox, a brilliant
military tactician whose
stratagems are still studied in
military academies all
around the world.
The general, who was in
North Africa for most of the
war, was involved in a plot to
assassinate Hitler and
ultimately committed suicide
when that failed.
"I chose to do Rommel
because he plotted against
Hitler," said Chris, a sixth-
grader at Norup. "I didn't ex-

plain myself more because we
were told not to, to make it
harder for everyone to guess
who we were."
Chris said he got the idea
after he saw a movie about
the general.
"I was impressed that he
stood up against Hitler, plus
he was a great general," Chris
said.
Chris, who lives in Hun-
tington Woods, is part of
Norup school's PAT program,
a special class for academical-
ly talented students.
Last week, about 150
students from Norup and
Anderson's sixth, seventh and
eighth grades dressed as
historical figures and
challenged parents and facul-
ty to guess their identities.
The program was called a
Celebration of Greatness and
was held once before about
three years ago.

"Students were instructed
to pick someone from history
they felt fit the definition of
greatness," according to Mary
Ellen Hurley, the PAT project

"Had one of my
students decided
to dress as Lee
Harvey Oswald or
Al Capone, I
would have said
no. But I didn't
find anything
inappropriate in
Chris' choice."

—Barry Lepler

coordinator. "Teachers had to
approve each choice and
organize classroom press con-
ferences before the official
program began."
Barry Lepler, who teaches
sixth grade at Norup, said he
met individually with each of
his students.
"Chris said he'd like to do
Rommel, and I said all right,
tell me why," Mr. Lepler said.
"He said Rommel was a great
general and that he was in-
volved in a plot to kill Hitler.
"It was clear to me that he'd
researched his character and
wasn't interested in Nazism,"
he said. "Rommel was a long-
time German general who'd
been shunted to North Africa
and was never implicated in
any Nazi war crimes."
Mr. Lepler said that none of
his students said anything in
class about Chris' swastika.
"I was a little surprised, but
I realized that everyone
understood that the swastika
was in keeping with Rom-
mel's character," Mr. Lepler

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