ShopRite says No to Adolf Hitler Cake

There are laws against naming your children (or changing your own name) to something inappropriate. Such names referring to: obscenities, "fighting words", racial slurs, bodily functions etc. would be rejected. Nevertheless some parents choose names that are unusual and sometimes a little silly for their kids. Some examples are: Apple Martin, Peerless Price and Poppy Petal. Although there is nothing wrong with any of these names, it may cause the kids some embarrassment or even ridicule from their peers.

However it takes a special kind of parent to name their kids after notorious figures in history. The Campbells are one such couple. They have three young kids:

• Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, a girl named for Nazi head Heinrich Himmler, turns 1 in April


• Joycelynn Aryan Nation Campbell, who turns 2 in February.


• Adolf Hitler Campbell who just turned 3

Heath and Deborah Campbell believe that the holocaust never really happened. They have swastikas in each room of their home. In the foyer were boots worn by a Nazi solider named Daniel. They lay next to a skull with a swastika on its forehead. The living room is decorated with war books, German combat knives and, of course, swastikas. There are swastikas on walls, on jackets, on the freezer and on a pillow.

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. They live in a 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.

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.

The Campbells ran into a problem when they tried to order a cake from their local ShopRite supermarket for their 3-year-old son's birthday cake. Deborah Campbell, 25, said she phoned in her order last week to the ShopRite. When she told the bakery department she wanted her son's name spelled out, she was told to talk to a supervisor, who denied the request. That's right the store refused to decorate a cake wishing Adolf Hitler Campbell a happy birthday!

"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."

Karen Meleta, a spokeswoman for the ShopRite located in Greenwich Township, said the grocer tries to meet customer requests but rejects those deemed inappropriate. She said the Campbells had similar requests denied at the same store the last two years and said Heath Campbell previously had asked for a swastika to be included in the decoration. The store has also refused to make a cake bearing the name of Campbell's daughter, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, who turns 2 in February.

"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.

Heath Campbell,35, 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.

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.

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."

Heath Campbell said he named his son after Adolf Hitler because he liked the name and because "no one else in the world would have that name." He sounded surprised by all the controversy the dispute had generated. He said his ancestors are German and that he has lived his entire life in Hunterdon County. He said he was raised not to avoid people of other races but not to mix with them socially or romantically. But he said he would try to raise his children differently.

"Say he grows up and hangs out with black people. That's fine, I don't really care," he said. "That's his choice."

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