Teaching the Holocaust to third graders takes a large amount of care, discretion, and contextualization — if it is to be attempted at all. Casting a Jewish kid as Adolf Hitler in re-enactments and telling him to play-act Hitler’s suicide is, um … wow. The Washington Post might not be the friendliest outlet to the new parental-rights movement, but even they’re aghast at the local Watkins Elementary School incident.

It took place in a library class, by the way:

Originally, the students were in library class on Friday for a self-directed project they would present to their classmates before winter break. But the instructor had students participate in the reenactment during their allotted research time, Berkowitz wrote to parents.

“I want to acknowledge the gravity of this poor instructional decision, as students should never be asked to act out or portray any atrocity, especially genocide, war, or murder,” Berkowitz said in the email.

A different parent of a student who was a part of the reenactment said her son had to pretend to be on a train to a concentration camp, then act as if he were dying in a gas chamber. He also had to act as if he were shooting his peers, the parent said. The parent spoke on the condition of anonymity and declined to name the child.

What does the Holocaust have to do with libraries, anyway? It’s tough to see the connection between Adolf Hitler and the Dewey Decimal System (although I wouldn’t doubt that some have tried to connect the two). Even if “library class” is a euphemism for “study hall,” this still makes no sense at all.

There seems to be some confusion over the intentions of the instructor, too. It would be one thing if this were just an overzealous and inappropriate effort to make “Never Again” stick. However, at least some parents accused the instructor of making it into an exercise of anti-Semitism:

The instructor allegedly made antisemitic comments during the reenactment. The parent said that when the children asked why the Germans did this, the staff member said it was “because the Jews ruined Christmas.”

The instructor asked students after the reenactment not to tell anyone about it, but they told their homeroom teacher, the parent said.

How did this school allow a library class to engage in such elaborate and sickening psychodrama? The local Fox station contacted the librarian (not the instructor), who thinks that there’s been some “misquoting” of what happened:

“I think somebody’s misquoting what happened in the library that day,” she said.

She maintained there was no Holocaust re-enactment or hate speech, but would not answer when asked repeatedly whether there was any discussion about the Holocaust.

“I’m going to wait for the the investigation. I was shocked to see it myself,” she said, referring to the letter sent home to parents.

The school district is conducting the investigation, but it may not be long before parents force a more independent review of what transpired. They’re clearly not satisfied with a letter and a suspension at this point:

“My husband picked up our child after school and there was a lot of sobbing and crying and distress,” the mother said….

She said she’s also had conversations with other parents about how their kids are doing.

“They are traumatized. One parent said that their child was worried the teacher in question was hiding at their house. Children are having nightmares and generally having a very hard time,” she said.

She said the child who was told to play Hitler is “not doing well at all.”

More ominously for DCPS, the parents are organizing to demand accountability from the school board:

“We just want accountability for this,” she said. “Sorry is not enough. And we’re going to lay out what that looks like as parents.”

Quick — someone call Merrick Garland! The Department of Justice should be on alert for another potential case of domestic terrorism involving parents that demand accountability at public meetings. Although this time, maybe the administration and its allies should cool it on the Nazi analogies.

By the way, what else happens in library class at Watkins — or in other classrooms around the DC public schools? Are schools even bothering to oversee teachers and enforce proper standards? The impunity of this instructor, especially in assuming she could keep the students quiet about it, suggests that this didn’t happen in a vacuum. If the DCPS doesn’t deliver on its investigation, parents in the district should prepare themselves to do it for them.