A Pennsylvania artist’s efforts to create a Halloween float for a local Catholic school went awry when he inadvertently included a replica of the gateway arch from a Nazi concentration camp, prompting a hasty apology from the diocese of Harrisburg.
In apologizing for the fiasco, Galen Shelly told PennLive that a lighted archway and lanterns he ordered to decorate a parade float he was building for Hanover’s St Joseph’s school did not arrive in time – so he searched the internet for images of cemetery gates to represent the idea that “none of us get out of this life alive”.
What he found, and replicated, was a photograph of the gates from the second world war Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, among the most notorious of the Nazi death camps during the Holocaust in which at least 6 million Jewish people were systematically murdered.
The float, captured in images of the 30 October parade posted to Facebook by the Hanover Area Watch group, featured Shelly’s cloned archway containing the German phrase Arbeit Macht Frei – work sets you free – a slogan the Nazis placed at the entrance of numerous concentration camps to mock those who passed through the gates to face brutality and extermination.
“I had no ill intent,” Shelly told PennLive. “I made a mistake and I am deeply sorry.
“I wanted to illustrate the idea none of us get out of this life alive. I never intended anything to be like this. I couldn’t have anticipated it. I ask everyone’s forgiveness.”
The bishop of Harrisburg, Timothy Senior, said he was “shocked and appalled” by the episode and issued an apology on behalf of the church, noting the Holocaust imagery was a late addition of which it had no knowledge.
“The inclusion of this image, one that represents the horrific suffering and murder of millions of innocent people, including six million Jews during the Holocaust, is profoundly offensive and unacceptable,” he said in a statement.
“While the original approved design for this float did not contain this imagery, it does not change the fact that this highly recognizable symbol of hate was included. On behalf of the diocese of Harrisburg, I express my sincere apology to our Jewish brothers and sisters and to all who were hurt or offended by this display.
“I strongly condemn the inclusion of this symbol on the float. As Catholics, we stand firmly against all forms of antisemitism, hatred and prejudice, which are rampant in our society.”
Senior added that the diocese would “work with the school community to ensure that this incident becomes an opportunity for education and reflection, and review approval processes so that such a grievous incident is never repeated”.
Leaders from St Joseph’s Catholic church, which operates the school, also apologized for a “lack of vigilance” and failing to review the float before the parade, the Hanover Sun reported.
