Holland Township man names son after Adolf Hitler

Maverick · Dec 16, 2008

Sick parents calling their son, Adolf Hitler!!! uke:

Holland Township man names son after Adolf Hitler

Sunday, December 14, 2008 By DOUGLAS B. BRILL
The Express-Times

HOLLAND TWP. | In a living room decorated with war books, German combat knives and swastikas, a 2-year-old boy, blond and blue-eyed, played with a plastic dinner set.
The boy, asked his name, put down a tiny plate and ran behind his father's leg. He flashed a shy smile but wouldn't answer. Heath Campbell, 35, the boy's father, encouraged him.

"Say Adolf," said Campbell, a Holocaust denier who has three children named for Nazism.
Again, the boy wouldn't answer. It wasn't the first time the name caused hesitation.
Adolf Hitler Campbell -- it's indeed the name on his birth certificate -- turns 3 today, and the Campbell family believes the boy has been mistreated. A local supermarket refused to make a birthday cake with "Adolf Hitler" on it.
The ShopRite in Greenwich Township has also refused to make a cake bearing the name of Campbell's daughter, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, who turns 2 in February.
Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, a girl named for Schutzstaffel head Heinrich Himmler, turns 1 in April.
"ShopRite can't even make a cake for a 3-year-old," said Deborah Campbell, 25, who is Heath's wife of three years and the mother of the children. "That's sad."
A director for the Anti-Defamation League in Philadelphia applauded the supermarket's decision. An Allentown psychologist said the names would cause problems for the children later in life.
A cake case
Karen Meleta, a ShopRite spokeswoman, said the grocer tries to meet customer requests but rejects those deemed inappropriate. "We believe the request to inscribe a birthday wish to Adolf Hitler is inappropriate," she said.
The grocer offered to make a cake with enough room for the Campbells to write their own inscription. But the Campbells refused, saying they would have a cake made at the Wal-Mart in Lower Nazareth Township. The Campbells say Wal-Mart made cakes for Adolf's first two birthdays.

A spokeswoman for Wal-Mart said the store won't put anything illegal or profane on a cake but thinks it's important to respect the views of customers and employees.
"Our No. 1 priority in decorating cakes is to serve the customer to the best of our ability," Anna Taylor, the spokeswoman, said from Bentonville, Ark.
If the Campbells have a legal case over the refusal, it would be that the family was denied service because of race, ethnicity or religion, said Shannon Powers, of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, a state agency that enforces anti-discrimination laws.
The Campbells, she said, would have to prove ShopRite didn't make a reasonable attempt to provide service it provides others. She said the offer to make a cake with room for an inscription would probably count as a reasonable attempt.
"It sounds like they (the supermarket) don't want to offend other patrons or do something offensive to their own sensibilities. If that's the motivation, that's totally different from discrimination," Powers said.
'They're just names'
The Campbells have swastikas in each room of their home, the rented half of a one-story duplex just outside Milford, a borough in Hunterdon County. They say they aren't racists but believe races shouldn't mix.
The Campbells said they wanted their children to have unique names and didn't expect the names to cause problems. Despite the cake refusal, the Campbells said they don't expect the names to cause problems later, such as when the children start school.
"I just figured that they're just names," Deborah Campbell said. "They're just kids. They're not going to hurt anybody."
Heath Campbell said some people like the names but others are shocked to hear them. "They say, 'He (Hitler) killed all those people.' I say, 'You're living in the wrong decade. That Hitler's gone,'" he said.

"They're just names, you know," he said. "Yeah, they (Nazis) were bad people back then. But my kids are little. They're not going to grow up like that."
"Other kids get their cake. I get a hard time," he said. "It's not fair to my children.
"How can a name be offensive?" he asked.
'Why not call the kid Peace?'
Robert M. Gordon, a clinical psychologist in Allentown, said the names would hurt the children.
"Certainly society is going to be hostile towards those kids, especially when they go to school," Gordon said.
More than that, he said, the children would be harmed by their parents' views.
"By the time they get to school, they will already have been damaged," Gordon said. "Any parent that would impose such horrific names on their children is mentally ill, and they would be affecting their children from the day they were born. Only a crazy person would do that."
The problems the children might encounter in school, he said, "would be icing on the cake."
Barry Morrison, a director at the Philadelphia office of the Anti-Defamation League, which works to stop anti-Semitism and bigotry, said the organization had never heard of children named for Hitler, Himmler or Aryan nations.

He found the names offensive and commended ShopRite's decision.
The Campbells, Morrison said, "might as well put a sign around their (the children's) neck that says bigot, racist, hatemonger. What's the difference? Why not call the kid Peace or Tranquility or Hope or Acceptance?
"It's doing them (the children) a tremendous disservice, and it's cruel that parents would place these names on children," he said. "It's a mark upon them. It sets them apart for ridicule, derision, attacks.
"The children at this age might not have an understanding of these names. But when they grow up, hopefully, they would want to distance themselves from them," he said. "If they come to identify with the ideology of Hitler, Himmler and the Aryan nations, their parents are launching them on a life of hatred."
Swastikas and choices
The Campbell home is kept neat aside from scattered toys and other evidence three children live there. It's small, but it's what the Campbells can afford.
Disabilities, the couple says, have left both out of work: Heath Campbell can't landscape or pump gas because he has emphysema, and Deborah can't waitress because she has a bad back. They live on Social Security payments.
In the foyer, Heath Campbell, who said he has German ancestry and a relative who fought for the SS, took off boots he said were worn by a Nazi solider named Daniel.
He laid them next to a skull with a swastika on its forehead, the first of dozens of swastikas seen by the Campbells' rare guests.
There are swastikas on walls, on jackets, on the freezer and on a pillow. The family car had swastikas, Heath Campbell said, until New Jersey's Department of Children and Families told him they could endanger the children.

The swastikas, Heath Campbell said, are symbols of peace and balance. He considers them art.
"It doesn't mean hatred to me," he said. Deborah Campbell said a swastika "doesn't really have a meaning. It's just a symbol."
Heath Campbell said he doesn't want to force his views on his children, in part because he had views forced on him. He said he also teaches them nonviolence.
Abusive guardians, Heath Campbell said, used Bible verses to teach him to distrust blacks. If he questioned the guardians, he said, he was hit. He acknowledged he couldn't challenge the guardians' views.
He said Adolf Hitler, Aryan Nation and Hinler would be able to make their own decisions about race.
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AC0110 · Dec 16, 2008

I didn't read the article, but I read your description... -_-

At least the kid is not from Germany.. (I think)

Akki · Dec 16, 2008

then again it will cause problems when the kid enters high school and learns about the world wars...

[N] · Dec 16, 2008

dumbest parents ever. this kid is probably gonna die in hate crimes pretty early on. way to go. if you want to be called adolf hitler go and change your own name. i know freedom of speech and all but obviously this shit is gonna haunt the kid forever.

ralphrepo · Dec 16, 2008

I agree with the opinion expressed by one of the commentators (Barry Morrison from the Anti-Defamation League) that in doing this, the parents are using their children to express their political views in a way that ultimately harms them. This is nearly a carbon copy of the incident detailed in this other PA thread, Judge Renames Girl and Bans Absurd Names, (see my attached comments from that thread in the ADDENDUM below) from a few months back, except in this case, no authority has yet stepped forward to protect these children. In giving their children such emotionally crippling names, these parents are indeed abusing their children and violating the trust that society allows them. The children should be taken away by state child protective services and their names should be changed (to something normal) by court order.

AC0110 said: ↑

I didn't read the article, but I read your description... -_-
At least the kid is not from Germany.. (I think)
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Germany has some very specific laws on Holocaust Denial, where it is a crime. Further, the display of Nazi paraphernalia is also criminalized. IOW, they would not have gotten away with this if they were in Germany. Additionally, the Campbell's claim that their use of the swastika (from the Sanskrit word "svastik") as a symbol of peace (or historically, luck) is rather disingenuous. In this regard, with clear association and references to a former SS soldiers' uniform, and skulls (a favored motif of the SchutzStaffel), in conjunction with the naming of their children to people and things associated with Nazis and their ilk, it is obvious that they're using the swatikas as symbols representative of German aggression and not of ancient Hindi serendipity.

ADDENDUM:

Often, when parent themselves are immature, they think that by naming their child something strange and unique, that it would be a "cool" thing that they could then show off to their friends. So, why not tattoo a political statement; or decorate the child with the latest face hardware too; or do to the child whatever foolish whimsy that would render it a nice conversation starter for the next gathering of friends? -unsure

Why not? Because children are human beings too. I think that the judge ruled correctly and courageously in stopping a form of Child Abuse in which the girl's whole sense of self was yoked to a biting emotional ridicule every time someone spoke her name. Its been said that just because people can make babies, it doesn't mean that they're smart enough to have them. In this case, its rather plain to see the truth in that.

The parents should have "I am stupid" tattooed to their faces. Then maybe they may better appreciate the art of proper social labeling.

Stupidity isn't illegal, but it should be painful.

pralinescream said: ↑

every parents have the sole right to decide name of their own children.
what is society to judge?
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On the surface, your statement seems like its no brainer correct, that is, naming a child should obviously be the rightful purview or sole domain of its parents. This line of thinking has traditionally had its basis on two codependent ideas or principles of law and society; namely, (1) the age old idea that children are only a form of property; and (2) that a parent will have the child's best interests at heart (that is, not to do anything that would bring the child harm).

However, in society as we know it, the second principle is easily acknowledged to be the primary guiding factor and almost always overrides the effect of the first principle. Clearly, custody (or if you will, ownership) of a child is wholly dependent on society's trust that one strictly adheres to the tenets of the second principle of fostering the child's best interests.

In the case at issue, the parents have clearly demonstrated that they had lost focus of that second principle. By doing that, they abrogated or gave up their claim to the first principle (of ownership). Hence, the judge removed the child from their legal custody. Once that happened, they lost their (if you will) property rights to the child, and as such, no longer had the right to name her (or have any other say so). By legally declaring her as a ward of the court, the judge effectively made the sovereign state of New Zealand her parents. Thus, New Zealand now has the parental right to name her "anything" it wants, so long as it has her best interests at heart. Some people may disagree with this, but the majority of people in society agree with it (this system of law and adjudication), and as do I. Imperfect as it is, it nonetheless serves as a guide post towards protecting children from parents who may otherwise be the child's worst enemy.
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AsianInvasion · Dec 17, 2008

That is so messed up, those kids are going to be ridiculed and solo'ed out, especially in Highschool. The worst part is, is that the parents are setting them up for this. how horrible =[

ralliart · Dec 17, 2008

The kids gonna have a terrible life. If he doesn't get shot first.

Resentless · Dec 18, 2008

he prolly get hated to death at high school.. IF he makes that...

whoaitselaine · Dec 18, 2008

I think I saw this one the news. :O
They wanted a birthday cake for their son, but the caterers wouldn't write "Adolf Hitler" on the cake, lol. >.< So sad.~

The_Jelly · Dec 18, 2008

There are so many good names out there and they had to choose hitler's?

hadouken · Dec 19, 2008

might as well use "Loser"

master_g · Dec 19, 2008

The_Jelly said: ↑

There are so many good names out there and they had to choose hitler's?
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Stupid parents thats why, when they have had their fun and are dead and gone the children will have to live on with that name. they even called the other one Arayan Nation...

considering there is a good chance the kids will be reviled and discriminated against because of the name given to them they may just end up hating everyone and becoming nazis for real, a perfect example of self-fulfilling prophecy.

if its really about the names they can pop out two more kids and call em Robert Mugabe and Genghis Khan

ralphrepo · Dec 19, 2008

The_Jelly said: ↑

There are so many good names out there and they had to choose hitler's?
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It isn't for a lack of names, but rather parents using kids a bill boards for political messages. This is nothing new; Chinese kids were named after the communist party (during the height of the cultural revolution), and thankful Kosovar ethnic Muslims (saved by American military intervention from Serbian aggression), named their newborns Bill or Hillary. The people in this case, love Hitler and his Nazi party ideals, (despite their generally drawing universal condemnation). Hence, they're doing what other proud parents do, name their children after something that they're fond of.

Except in this case, what they're fond of is currently reviled by 99.9% of the rest of the world population. If they had done this in 1939 Germany, I doubt anyone would have cared :ugh:

brown_bear · Dec 19, 2008

awww sucks to be that kiddie....even the cake makers dun wanna put his name on the cake

Holland Township man names son after Adolf Hitler

Maverick Lord Vader

AC0110 Let the Fun Begin

Akki ...

[N] RATED [ ]

ralphrepo Well-Known Member

AsianInvasion Well-Known Member

ralliart Well-Known Member

Resentless MIA

whoaitselaine Well-Known Member

The_Jelly NSFW? :P

hadouken .

master_g .

ralphrepo Well-Known Member

brown_bear ☆‧° ☆﹒﹒‧ ☆ ﹒﹒‧☆‧° ☆