Thai school apologizes for Nazi-themed sports day parade [Sacred Heart College]

Global Post's Weird Wide Web ^ | September 28, 2011 | News Desk

[Alex Murphy]

A school in Thailand has apologized after students dressed up as Nazis for a sports day parade, Agence France-Presse reports.

Students at Sacred Heart College, a Catholic school in the northern city of Chiang Mai, carried red banners adorned with swastikas, wore Nazi uniforms, and gave "Sieg Heil" salutes, while some had swastikas painted on their faces, according to photos released by the U.S.-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization. 

School officials said that students had organized the parade themselves, and it was not intended to cause offense.

AFP reports:

"The school officially explained that it was an internal sports day and students who were in the red team wanted to give a surprise by using swastikas as the background since it's the color red," said Charnwit Tupsuphan, secretary of the Private Education Commission, a government body.

"Both students and the school expressed their regret and apologized," he added. "I've instructed all schools to be more careful about this kind of issue and to use it as a lesson."

The Israeli embassy in Thailand said it had received a letter of apology after contacting the school.

Itzhak Shoham, the Israeli ambassador to Thailand, told AFP that he thought the Nazi parade took place "out of ignorance, not out of bad intentions," adding that "many people here in Asia are not aware of what happened in Europe."

The Simon Wiesenthal Center denounced the parade, saying it was "glorifying Nazis," and called for Thailand's Christian leaders to condemn the parade, CNN reports.

"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. There can be no justification for such an outrage to emanate from place of learning," Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said in a statement.

Cooper noted that a similar parade took place in 2007 at a school in Bangkok.

[Alex Murphy]

Chalk this up under "clueless students with really bad ideas"...

Students at Sacred Heart College, a Catholic school in the northern city of Chiang Mai, carried red banners adorned with swastikas, wore Nazi uniforms, and gave "Sieg Heil" salutes, while some had swastikas painted on their faces, according to photos released by the U.S.-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization. 

School officials said that students had organized the parade themselves, and it was not intended to cause offense....Both students and the school expressed their regret and apologized," he added....The school officially explained that it was an internal sports day and students who were in the red team wanted to give a surprise by using swastikas as the background since it's the color red....

[bajabaja]

Recent history not taught at schools in Thailand, apparently; just stupidity or something else?

[ozark hilljilly]

But if had been the yellow hammer&sickle on that red, they would have been applauded.
(full disclosure: I do not advocate nor approve of the Nazi party...just sayin’.)

[iowamark]

Hitler's Cross Cafe in Mumbai, Inida.

[ozark hilljilly]

Oh, and forgot to add:
Thailand???

[Alex Murphy]

Hitler's Cross Cafe in Mumbai, India.

"Flame-broiled, oven baked meals"

[iowamark]

India

[RitchieAprile]

Nice outfits, except for the Hakenkreuz..

[Waverunner]

Thai schoolgirls in nazi uniforms, Ilsa would be proud.

[Waverunner]

Thai schoolgirls in nazi uniforms, Ilsa would be proud.

[Pyro7480]

Seriously, do you comb the news the world over looking for Catholics acting badly?

[Alex Murphy]

Seriously, do you comb the news the world over looking for Catholics acting badly?

Do you think these are Catholics acting badly?

[Natural Law]

"Seriously, do you comb the news the world over looking for Catholics acting badly?"

Is that a rhetorical question? The answer is obviously yes. Its a clear case of Crosier Envy. Nowhere in his posting history will you find complimentary postings of actions by the Church in defense of life and marriage. Never an acknowledgment that the Church has achieved any good in the last 2,000 years.

He obviously holds the Church to be something special and expects every action by its followers to be above reproach.

"From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more." - Luke 12:48

[Al Hitan]

Amen.

[Natural Law]

"Do you think these are Catholics acting badly?"

The school no doubt is Catholic, but based upon Thailand's demographics and the school's own website (its a K-12 school, not a "college") there is no indication that the students involved were actually Catholics. The article clearly stated that the students organized this on their own and it was dealt with by the school.

So, you tell me where there is Church culpability and why this isn't yet another example of you posting anything that you think will reflect badly on the Church without actually fact checking or researching the article. A carefully chosen half truth is fully a lie.

[Alex Murphy]

The answer [to the question "do you comb the news the world over looking for Catholics acting badly?"] is obviously yes. Nowhere in his posting history will you find complimentary postings of actions by the Church in defense of life and marriage. Never an acknowledgment that the Church has achieved any good in the last 2,000 years.

3700+ threads. 15,000+ replies. And never/nowhere, you say? You've read all of them?

[Natural Law]

"And never/nowhere, you say?"

What's the matter, guilty conscience?

Its typical that you would make a quantitative response to a qualitative observation. The fact that we would have to get out the microscope to refute to my statement is sufficient corroboration. It would be like looking for a tarnished dime in a landfill. Everyone can see that your act is a one string banjo. Your tune is getting pretty irritating.