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French prof suspended for 'defending Hitler'

Sophie Inge
Sophie Inge - [email protected]
French prof suspended for 'defending Hitler'
The teacher allegedly told students Hitler was a "good man". Photo of a classroom: Shutterstock"

A teacher at a high school in central France has been temporarily suspended after her pupils reported her to education chiefs for allegedly repeatedly defending Adolf Hitler during German lessons.

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The female member of staff , who is a German teacher at the Lycée Auguste Renoir in Limoges, was this week suspended from teaching for 15 days for allegedly defending the German dictator and the Third Reich in class.

According to her students, the teacher would regularly praise Hitler, describing him as “a good man, who built motorways and who liked music”, Le Figaro reported.

She also allegedly expressed a wish that “German tanks come to Renoir to subdue unruly pupils”.

Eventually it appears the pupils decided to get together and take a stand.

Seventeen of the twenty pupils in her class signed a document complaining about her comments, which was then sent to two parents’ associations, the Federation of the Board of Students’ Parents (FCPE) and the Independent Association of Students’ Parents (AAPE).

The associations then took the complaint to the local education authority which took the decision to suspend the teacher for two weeks following a disciplinary council held on Tuesday morning, according to the FCPE’s president, Maurice Sourdioux.

“From my experience, I can say that this kind of procedure is extremely rare in national education. I have never seen it elsewhere before,” Sourdioux was quoted as saying by TF1.

The teacher, who started work at the school in September after moving between establishments several times, vehemently denies the accusations and could appeal the suspension at the city’s administrative court.

She is said to be “very shocked by the scope of this case”.

The Education Authority has refused to comment on the case.

Teachers have run into trouble before on the subject of Hitler and the Nazis. 

Our sister site The Local Germany reported how police in Berlin had questioned a high school music teacher after she made her pupils march up and down a classroom singing a Nazi song.

 

 

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