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What appears to have been a well-intentioned effort to encourage students in a suburban Los Angeles high school to critically think about history has for inadvertently lending credence to Holocaust denial, forcing the district and the school to issue apologies with promises to halt the assignment.

The research and writing project, assigned in April for eighth-graders at Rialto Unified School District, read:

When tragic events occur in history, there is often debate about their actual existence. For example, some people claim the Holocaust is not an actual historical event, but instead is a propaganda tool that was used for political and monetary gain. Based upon your research on this issue, write an argumentative essay, utilizing cited textual evidence, in which you explain whether or not you believe the Holocaust was an actual event in history, or merely a political scheme created to influence public emotion and gain. Remember to address counterclaims (rebuttals) to your stated claim.

Last week, officials from the Los Angeles offices of the Anti-Defamation League contacted the district to and displeasure over the assignment.

鈥淎n exercise asking students to question whether the Holocaust happened has no academic value; it only gives legitimacy to the hateful and anti-Semitic promoters of Holocaust denial,鈥� wrote Matthew Friedman, the ADL鈥檚 associate regional director. 鈥淚t is also very dangerous to ask junior high school students to question the reality of the Holocaust on their own, given the sheer volume of denial websites out there.

鈥淚f these questions do come up, it鈥檚 better to show the huge preponderance of evidence that鈥檚 out there (testimony, documentation, death camp sites, archaeology, etc.) and to also question why people would question the reality of the Holocaust (many motivated not by historical curiosity, but by anti-Semitism). Also, who are the people questioning the Holocaust and what do real historians say? This is more of an issue of teaching good information literacy.鈥�

State Sen. Norma Torres, who represents the district, , declaring: 鈥溾�淕iving school children an assignment that asks them to question whether the holocaust occurred is inappropriate. These actions are insensitive to the millions who lost loved ones and to the many people around the world who have no tolerance for discrimination and genocide.鈥�

In short order, the school district beat , announcing the assignment had been canceled: 鈥淭he holocaust should be taught in classrooms with sensitivity and profound consideration to the victims who endured the atrocities committed,鈥� said district spokeswoman Syeda Jafri in an interview.

鈥淭his was a mistake. It should be corrected. It will be corrected,鈥� Jafri added. 鈥淲e all know it was real. The Holocaust is not a hoax. 鈥� I believe our classroom teachers are teaching it with sensitivity and compassion.鈥�

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, was particularly outraged by a section in the assignment that referred to Anne Frank as a 鈥渇raud鈥�.

鈥淧edagogically, socially, morally 鈥� an F,鈥� Cooper said of the assignment.

鈥淲hatever [the district's] motivation, it ends up elevating hate and history to the same level,鈥� Cooper said. 鈥淲e should train our kids to have critical thinking, but the problem here is the teacher confused teaching critical thinking with common sense, because common sense dictates you don鈥檛 comingle propaganda with common truth.鈥�

The ADL that there was no evidence the assignment was devised to encourage Holocaust denial: 鈥淎DL does not have any evidence that the assignment was given as part of a larger, insidious, agenda. Rather, the district seems to have given the assignment with an intent, although misguided, to meet Common Core standards relating to critical learning skills.鈥�