A custody battle over a New Jersey couples’ children, whom all have Nazi-inspired names, continues in New Jersey.
According to the Associated Press:
Heath and Deborah Campbell's three small children were removed from their Hunterdon County home last year, not long after a supermarket refused to decorate a birthday for then-3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell.
Deborah Campbell and attorney Pat Giannetta attended a hearing at family court in Hunterdon County on Thursday. A judge kept a gag order in place, and the parties left through a back door and didn't discuss the hearing. State child services officials have declined to discuss the case, citing confidentiality laws.
Four-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell, three-year-old JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and two-year-old Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell were removed from their parents home in January 2009 and currently remain in foster care. The Campbell family story was picked up by national news late last year when a local store refused to make a cake with the name "Adolf Hitler" on it. According to The Imperfect Parent, the children were not removed from their parents because of the cake incident.
"We reserve the right not to print anything on the cake that we deem to be inappropriate," ShopRite spokeswoman Karen Meleta said. "We considered this inappropriate."
A Pennsylvania Wal-Mart later decorated the cake for the family, though the decision has since prompted the store to review their cake decorating guidelines.
Heath Campbell told the Associated Press last year that officials took his children because they felt they were in “imminent danger.” He accused New Jersey officials of removing his children because of their names.
The issue introduces an important question: To what extent do parents have the right to name their own children? Naming children in a way that honors Nazism is as much racism as it is child abuse. Someone named after Adolf Hitler, the white nationalist-neo-Nazi organization Aryan Nation, or the feminine version of SS leader Heinrich Himmler has his fate sealed. He will be outcasted from society, and will be destined to a hate-filled life.
Click here to view photos of the family in their birth certificates.
