In the preface to Elie Wiesel’s novel “Night” he talks about the need to invent a new language.
It became clear that it would be necessary to invent a new language. But how was one to rehabilitate and transform words betrayed and perverted by the enemy? Hunger—thirst—fear—transport—selection—fire—chimney; these words all have intrinsic meaning, but in those times, they meant something else (Wiesel ix).
This talk of perverting language immediately made me think of an article I read a few months ago. An article that made me ask the question, what’s in a name?
Well, I guess it depends on the name, right?
Read it here: Happy birthday, Adolf Hitler! Boy with nazi leader’s name denied ShopRite cake
Adolf has two sisters, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie. The latter, just eight months old, was named for Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler.
The article also says the father denies the holocaust even occurred and has his home decorated with swastikas. Really? A man who gave his children Nazi themed names denies the holocaust. Who would’ve thought? I bet he thinks the south won the Civil War, too.
They’re just names, you know, father Heath Campbell told the Easton Express-Times. Yeah, they (the Nazis) were bad people back then. But my kids are little. They’re not going to grow up like that.
If they are just names, as the father says, then why do they conjure images of gas chambers, emaciated faces and one of the worst instances of racism the world has known? (At least in my mind and I am sure in many others as well.)
The parents could have easily picked other names for their three children but it is obvious they intentionally chose these names. The fact that they were denied a cake with “Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler” on it serves them right; they need to know, at least in some way, that naming their son Adolf Hitler was wrong and offensive in so many different ways.
The parents insist they are not racist, although they don’t believe in mingling the races. And Heath Campbell claims he doesn’t understand why people are shocked when they hear his son’s full name. Someone give him a history book.
These parents have not only used these perverted names to idolize monsters of the past, they have also done a great disservice to their children. Any person capable of retaining an ounce of historical information knows what the name Hitler represents. A person with only a slightly greater knowledge of WWII would probably know what the other names symbolize and, surely, these children will have biases against them and against their parents (who are at least more deserving of them than their children) upon the learning of their names.
The names are not funny or ironic; they are living, breathing tributes to a horrific event in humankind’s history.
*On a side note, the three children were removed from their parents custody in February. No details have been released as to why the children have been put into state custody. Read about it here.
One Comment
I think your post is very interesting. Naming a child after someone like Adolf Hitler is indeed very disturbing. I end up focusing equally on how messed up the parents must be but also how sorry I feel for the children. Imagine going to school with that as your name. Poor kid.
This brings to mind how we need to remember events like the Holocaust for how horrible they were, but this is not the kind of remembrance we need. Like you said, naming a child after Hitler or Himmler is in effect making a tribute to those individuals. We need to remember the horrific things these men did and stood for so that they hopefully never happen again; we do not need to honor and commemorate them.
It is weird how one bad apple can ruin a whole name like that though. I mean, it’s just a grouping of letters… there is nothing inherently evil about the letters H-I-T-L-E-R in succession like that, but the connotations that go along with it make it abominable. I cannot think of too many other names off the top of my head that have such horrible connotations. I guess mass murderers like Ted Bundy or Charles Manson might have similar effects. There aren’t too many last names that have that effect by themselves though aside from Hitler, and perhaps bin Laden.
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