Bachmann Film Links Fed Ed Standards to Auschwitz

Being forced to follow national education standards would be so heinous it could bring about another Holocaust, proclaims a video made years ago by Michele Bachmann and an activist colleague. A scene in the 2002 film, Guinea Pigs II, shows an Auschwitz image superimposed with the words "Work Makes Free," a reference to the German sign that stood over the World War II concentration camp. The film was a highlight of Bachmann's work at the time as an education activist in Minnesota for conservative organization Maple River Education Coalition. Education reform at the time was viewed by Bachmann and the group as a kind of international conspiracy to turn the US into a totalitarian state and was somehow linked to developing a "planned state economy," according to Bachmann.

Minnesota's new curriculum standards established by the governor were going to "undermine our freedom and our national sovereignty" and turn children into dreaded "global citizens," Bachmann says on the video. Such standards were moving away from Christian founding principals to a "utilitarian world view" that led in Germany to Auschwitz, says her colleague on the film. "It's already here, and it's something we have to deal with," responds Bachmann. The video reveals that Bachmann "was Tea Party before the Tea Party was cool," points out Mother Jones. (More Michele Bachmann 2012 stories.)