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Tennessee school board votes unanimously to ban book about the Holocaust

In a 10-0 vote, the McMinn County School Board removed the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel “Maus” from an eighth-grade language arts curriculum.
“If we do not learn about and from historical atrocities like genocide and slavery, we are bound to repeat them," one teacher responded, after a Tennessee school board banned "Maus," a book about the Holocaust.
“If we do not learn about and from historical atrocities like genocide and slavery, we are bound to repeat them," one teacher responded, after a Tennessee school board banned "Maus," a book about the Holocaust.Amazon

A Tennessee school board voted unanimously to ban the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel "Maus," which details the horrors of the Holocaust.

On Jan. 10, the McMinn County School Board voted 10-0 to remove the graphic novel from an eighth-grade language arts curriculum, citing foul language, nudity and copyright issues.

"I consulted with our attorney, Mr. Scott Bennett. After consulting with him, we decided the best way to fix or handle the language in this book was to redact it," Director of Schools Lee Parkison said at the beginning of the Jan. 10 meeting, according to a meeting transcript. "Considering copyright, we decided to redact it to get rid of the eight curse words and the picture of the woman that was objected to."

Parkison said two or three board members came by his office to discuss the book and its "rough, objectionable language." One board member, Tony Allman, said in the meeting that educators "don't need to enable or somewhat promote this stuff," according to the transcript, and cited the book's author's past history of creating graphics for "Playboy."

“It shows people hanging, it shows them killing kids," he added, describing the depictions in "Maus" of true historical events. "Why does the educational system promote this kind of stuff? It is not wise or healthy."

TODAY Parents reached out to McMinn County School Board members for comment, but did not hear back at the time of publication.

Book critic Maris Kreizman says "Maus" is a graphic memoir, meaning it's based on a true story and the experiences of the author’s Jewish family during the Holocaust.

"How sad that the school board doesn't think young teenagers are strong enough or mature enough or smart enough to be able to handle a few curse words in order to learn about real events."

Book critic Maris Kreizman

"It is horrifying and disturbing and depressing. It also contains brief mouse nudity and curse words," Kreizman tells TODAY Parents. "How sad that the school board doesn’t think young teenagers are strong enough or mature enough or smart enough to be able to handle a few curse words in very specific contexts in order to learn about real events."

The book's author, Art Spiegelman, learned the book — which depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor — had been banned on Jan. 26, one day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"I'm kind of baffled by this," Spiegelman, 73, told CNBC. "I’ve met so many young people who ... have learned things from my book."

TODAY reached out to Spiegelman for comment in the wake of both his novel being banned and the public response. "Art is overwhelmed with requests," a spokesperson replied. "But as he gathers his thoughts he wants to share this bookmark with everyone..."

courtesy of Art Spiegelman

Teachers, experts respond to ‘Maus’ banning

While the school board voted to ban "Maus" on Jan. 10, the decision didn't gain public attention until Nikki McCann Ramirez, a senior researcher at Media Matters For America, a nonprofit media watchdog group, tweeted about the vote on Wednesday.

The backlash was immediate and swift.

"We condemn the vote to ban 'Maus' as a teaching tool in Holocaust curriculum. It’s a widely celebrated work for its poignant use of art and storytelling to remember the Holocaust’s atrocities and educate younger readers," Jack Kliger, president and CEO of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, tells TODAY in a written statement. "The Holocaust is fact, and the facts of the Holocaust are indeed painfully difficult to digest, but 'Maus' has helped countless teachers and students to do just that."

"The best way to ensure something like the Holocaust can never happen again is to teach our young people its lessons."

Jack Kliger, Museum of Jewish Heritage

Kliger went on to say that the Museum of Jewish Heritage encourages "teaching children about the Holocaust to arm them against the misinformation and bigoted lies they are increasingly exposed to online."

In 2020, the first-ever 50-state survey on Holocaust knowledge among millennial and Gen Z Americans found that 63% of participants didn't know that 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, and 48% couldn't name a single one of the more than 40,000 concentration camps or ghettos established during World War II.

"The best way to ensure something like the Holocaust can never happen again is to teach our young people its lessons," Kliger says: "That we must empathize and care for one another, no matter our differences, and always stand up against the dangers of hate.”

Nancy Wang Yuen, author of “Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism” who taught 7th-12th grade English and Journalism at Beverly Hills Prep School, a now defunct private school in Southern California, assigned “Maus” to her junior and senior students.

“I remember it was very hard to get them to read anything, but 'Maus' was the only book they enjoyed,” Wang Yuen tells TODAY. “Many of the students were immigrants from Armenia and Russia. They resonated especially with the displacement.”

Wang Yuen adds that the visual and personal aspects of the novel helped her students “develop compassion and understanding in ways that historical factual texts are challenged to do.”

“Not only does 'Maus' help them understand the Holocaust from the perspective of a Jewish family, but also the trauma that gets passed down that spans geographies and generations,” she explains. “If we do not learn about and from historical atrocities like genocide and slavery, we are bound to repeat them.” 

Simone Schweber, Goodman Professor of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says there are already so few living Holocaust survivors left, and few teachers have the resources or the time to teach historically and emotionally complex topics.

"It’s probably fair to say that most kids in the U.S. learn about the Holocaust for the first time from social media or their friends, from television or movies, which means they aren’t necessarily learning what’s historically accurate or morally complex," Schweber tells TODAY. "It’s one reason that it’s so important for wise teachers to have access to great texts like 'Maus,' because they make learning about important subjects like the Holocaust, racism and antisemitism more powerful for kids."

Schweber says she believes that now more than ever, young people need to be exposed to difficult topics.

"I think there’s never been a time where it’s been more important to teach kids about what it looks like when racial hierarchies win," she adds. "It’s just incredibly important to have access to big ideas."

Sounding the alarm on a growing trend

Kreizman, also the host of the literary podcast The Maris Review, says banning books and lessons that make people "uncomfortable" has become a disturbing trend.

“This is fascism.”

Maris Kreizman

“There’s been so much hand wringing about cancel culture from the right, but the banning of books from public places like schools and libraries is as 'cancel culture' as it gets,” Kreizman says. “This is fascism.”

The American Library Association told NBC News in a written statement that 273 books were affected by censorship attempts in 2020, according to the association's Office for Intellectual Freedom. Many of the books' content centers on issues of race, gender and sexuality.

In Florida, the state senate advanced a bill that would "prohibit making white people feel 'discomfort' when taught or trained about past discrimination in public schools and private businesses."

Katy Independent School District, located near Houston, Texas, canceled an appearance by award-winning children’s illustrator and author Jerry Craft, who is Black, after some parents objected due to "critical race theory." Craft's books are not about "critical race theory."

Christopher Browning, Professor of History Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an expert witness in prominent Holocaust denial trials, says banning books invokes an "arbitrary check list" of topics that may make people uncomfortable, like nudity, language, sex, sexuality, childbirth out of wedlock, crime and mental illness.

"Great literature deals with serious issues, any of which will cause at least someone 'discomfort.'"

Christopher Browning, Professor of History Emeritus at UnC Chapel Hill

"One could quickly end up banning virtually every great work of literature," Browning tells TODAY. "Great literature deals with serious issues, any of which will cause at least someone 'discomfort.' So banning books on the basis of some arbitrary check list of 'forbidden' mentions is a fool’s errand."

Browning says that when school boards are banning books, they're actually discouraging students from thinking critically.

"Surely the collective wisdom of a school board ought to be able to distinguish between pornography and gratuitous violence on the one hand and books that deal seriously with real life issues on the other," he adds.

What happens when books are banned?

On Twitter, people have volunteered to buy copies of "Maus" for any Tennessee student who wants to still read the novel, regardless of the school board's decision.

"I’ll donate up to 100 copies of 'The Complete Maus' to any family in the McMinn County area in Tennessee," Ryan Higgins, owner of Comics Conspiracy and co-host of The Geekbox and The Comic Conspiracy podcasts, tweeted. "Just DM me your address!"

"I predict Pantheon’s sales of 'Maus' will go up 100% or more," Kreizman adds. "Banning books sells books, which is a nice silver lining. But I would still prefer not to have books banned in the first place!"

Browning, also the award-winning author of "Ordinary Men," "The Origins of the Final Solution," and "Remembering Survival," says any ban on "any legitimate book about the Holocaust, or any legitimate study of any historical topic for that matter," is regrettable, but is particularly distressing when the ban impacts young people.

"For students, banning 'Maus' would be akin to banning the 'Diary of Anne Frank,'" he explains. "(You're) banning a classic work."