Cover

Dedication

For all the young adults across the globe who have the courage to speak up against any injustice, even when you are afraid, even when others are against you, even when you have to confront those who should’ve been your role models.

You are lights illuminating darkness. The world needs you.

To Archer and Jordan for being my inspiration.

And to my lamplighters: Justin and Annabella, Ezra and Bracha.

Prologue

What you’re about to read is a fictionalized story based on an actual assignment given to students in a New York high school education program. It’s an assignment that could be given anywhere.

Any country. Any town. Any school. Even yours.

Chapter 1: Logan

Are we supposed to pretend we’re Nazis? The second Mr. Bartley turns his back to our class, I lean over to my best friend, Cade, and whisper, “What do you think?” I tap the assignment on my desk.

He lifts his hands, palms up, mirroring my confusion. “Weird, right?” He says it a little too loudly, drawing Mr. Bartley’s attention.

I nod, face forward, and refocus on the assignment. I read it one more time, hoping that somehow I’ve misunderstood the instructions.

TOP-SECRET

MEMO TO: Senior Members of the Nazi Party

FROM: SS General Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of the Reich Main Security Office

SUBJECT: A FINAL SOLUTION OF THE JEWISH QUESTION: Your attendance is required for this critical meeting scheduled for 20 January 1942 at the Wannsee Villa in Berlin, Germany.

PURPOSE: As members of Hitler’s elite Nazi leadership, our purpose is to debate a Final Solution of the Jewish Question and to share perspectives on how to resolve the storage problem of Europe’s eleven million Jews.

POSITIONS:

Pro: Extermination

Con: Sterilization, ghettos, work camps

WHAT TO PREPARE FOR THE MEETING: As a Nazi, you must thoroughly research and analyze five reasons supporting your position of a Final Solution of the Jewish Question.

Research:

1. The Nuremberg Laws
2. Attitudes on religion and race
3. Our policies on education, including who may attend or teach at primary and secondary schools and universities
4. Economics, including our perspective on who has the right to own businesses and property
5. Our leader’s stance on Darwin and survival of the fittest
6. How to increase our superior Aryan race by exploring key ideas such as emigration, expulsion, evacuation, and eradication to be judenrein (Jew-free)