Faith leaders condemn a Pennsylvania Halloween parade float with an Auschwitz sign

Jewish and Catholic faith leaders condemned a Halloween parade float that carried a replica of the gate to the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz as the designer behind it apologized, saying he made it “with no ill intent.”

The replica gate, topped with the sign, “Arbeit macht frei” (work will set you free), was included on the float made for Saint Joseph Catholic School in Hanover for a parade Thursday. Hanover is in a rural area about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Baltimore.

Nazi German forces murdered over a million people at the Auschwitz site in southern Poland between 1940 and 1945. Most of their victims were Jews killed on an industrial scale in gas chambers, but victims also included Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people and others.

A video of the parade shows the float, towed by a pickup truck, go through the central square in Hanover, decorated with pumpkins, ghosts and a sign reading “SHAM ROCK-N-ROLL,” as “Tutti Frutti” by Little Richard plays in the background. About a dozen kids and some adults, many dressed in green, walked beside it as the parade commentator urged spectators to cheer. The sign was at the back of the float.

“It wasn’t like people threw tomatoes at them,” said Matthew Jackson, a Hanover resident and longtime advocate for equality and social justice. “I think a lot of people didn’t know what it meant. But that doesn’t take away the harm of it.”

The Catholic bishop whose territory includes the school, the Rev. Timothy C. Senior in Harrisburg, issued a written apology on Saturday.

“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,” Senior wrote. “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.”

The Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg condemned the float’s display, saying the depiction of the Auschwitz gate is never acceptable outside of an educational setting.

Galen S. Shelly, who designed the float, told Pennlive.com this weekend that he made it with “no ill intent” and apologized: “I made a mistake and I am deeply sorry.”

A phone message seeking comment from Shelly was left on Monday. He told Pennlive he turned to the Auschwitz gate when a lighted archway he ordered did not arrive on time.

“I wanted to illustrate the idea none of us get out of this life alive,” he told the news organization. “I never intended anything to be like this.”

Jackson said Monday the episode shows the community “needs to do a much better job of interracial and interfaith dialogue.”

“I was told that there weren’t that many people that were even aware of it, which to me speaks to a larger problem, which is cultural literacy and awareness,” Jackson said.

Police said the incident prompted a threatening and obscene voicemail to be left on voicemail early Saturday for the Saint Joseph principal, claiming the school’s children were in danger. The parish canceled youth events over the weekend as a result and a suburban Philadelphia man was charged with making terroristic threats and other criminal counts.

The Jewish Federation said Jewish organizations were working to invite the institutions involved “to partner for opportunities that may bring better understanding to the history of these symbols and images and help ensure that ‘Never Again’ is a reality.”