Doomed To Repeat It of the Day: A mock-Nazi parade, complete with swastika armbands and “Sieg Heil” salutes, which took place at the Sacred Heart School in Chiang Mai, Thailand, was roundly condemned by several embassies and international Jewish human rights groups.
“It is difficult to calculate the hurt such a display inflicted on survivors of the Nazi Holocaust and the families of all victims of Nazism,” said Simon Wiesenthal Center associate dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper. “There can be no justification for such an outrage to emanate from place of learning.”
The school today posted a letter on its website apologizing for the Sports Day event, claiming that teachers had no prior knowledge of the students’ plans. An editorial piece published by the Bangkok Post blamed the incident in part on “[t]he political indoctrination by the education system to foster ultra-nationalism based on the supremacy of the Thai race.”
A similar Nazi-themed parade took place at a Bangkok school in 2007.
Meanwhile, in Taiwan, where the Nazi party has become a symbol of courage due to a poor understanding of history, 7-Eleven announced that they would be removing several items featuring a cute caricature of vampire Hitler.
[cnn: 1,2 / post.]
