“What happens to the Russians, what happens to the Czechs, is a matter of utter indifference to me. Such good blood of our own kind as there may be among the nations we shall acquire for ourselves, if necessary, by taking away the children and bringing them up among us.” Kerrianne’s voice cracks and when she continues, it’s in a much softer tone. “Whether the other races live in comfort or perish of hunger interests me only insofar as we need them as slaves for our culture; apart from that it doesn’t interest me.”

Mr. Bartley continues. “Under Lebensborn, Himmler highly encouraged his elite SS officers to procreate with racially pure single women deeply devout to Hitler’s principles. The women included in this program had to believe in the ideals and pledge their fidelity to Nazism. They, too, had to prove that they had no Jewish blood.”

Heather braces herself on her desk and stares down at her boots.

I look at Allie. Pink splotches dot her cheeks and neck. I’ve never given much thought to genetics, but I’m suddenly grateful for my reddish-brown hair and hazel eyes.

“Nice!” Jesse smirks.

“Knock it off,” Mr. Bartley booms, glaring at Jesse. “Not nice at all, Mr. Elton. But I’m happy to give you extra credit if you do additional research on this subject. I’m certain you would not find Himmler to be a respectable role model. Please read the next quote from that same speech, Jesse.”

With the smile wiped from his face, Jesse begins. “We shall now discuss it absolutely openly among ourselves, nevertheless we shall never speak of it in public. I mean the evacuation of the Jews, the extermination of the Jews.

“It’s one of those things that’s easy to say. ‘The Jewish race is to be exterminated,’ says every party member. ‘That’s clear, it’s part of our program, elimination of the Jews, extermination, right, we’ll do it.’

“And then they all come along, eighty million good Germans, and each one has his decent Jew. Of course the others are swine, but this one is a first-class Jew. Of all those who talk like this, not one has watched, not one has stood up to it.

“Most of you know what it means to see a hundred corpses lying together, five hundred, or a thousand. To have gone through this yet—apart from a few exceptions, examples of human weakness—to have remained decent fellows, this is what has made us hard. This is a glorious page in our history that has never been written and shall never be written.” Jesse blinks at the screen.

Heather slides into her seat, and so does Allie, who looks a little green. Jesse remains standing.

“I don’t get it,” Heather says quietly. “We’re not smarter or better than anyone else. Himmler’s speech, the Nazis’ treatment of human beings, is appalling.”