Minnesota students face backlash for Nazi-themed high school dance invite

[Mrs. Overall]

A pair of Minnesota high school students on Thursday were condemned by their school after an image surfaced of them doing Nazi salutes over a Hitler-themed invitation to a school dance.

The teenage boy and girl were photographed with the invitation to the Minnetonka High School’s annual Valentine’s Dance called Sweethearts, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

“Sweethearts would be a Hit(ler) w/you, and I could Nazi myself going w/anybody else. Be Mein? Yes or Nein,” the invite poster reads.

The female student posted the photo on her private Instagram account with a caption reading, “Also I would like to state I am not anti-Semitic in any way, I hate all races equally.”

Read more at The Hill: https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/426024-minnesota-students-denounced-for-nazi-theme-invitation-to-high

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I hope someone gave those kids a good chewing out along with a history lesson, at a minimum.

[RKP5637]

2. And possibly backed with parental approval and/or conditioning of the kids to hate. n/t

[Downtown Hound]

3. Stupid kids

I don't really see these particular kids as being real Nazis, but rather more of that all too common trend these days among people (especially young people) that think that being offensive and violating social taboos automatically makes you a master of comedy. And if you're offended, well, that serves you right for being so uptight!

[FSogol]

4. and the normalizaton of RW extremists and both-sides-isms.

[gratuitous]

9. It's not that new a trend

Young people have for many years (even back to mine own high school days when we had to dodge sabre-toothed tigers on our way to class, uphill, both ways, in the snow) attempted edginess in service of humor. One of the differences these days is that dumb kid stuff now goes world wide instead of remaining just a local phenomenon, and can potentially be out there forever to dog one's tracks.

[MineralMan]

5. Well, I suspect school today is going to be unpleasant

for them, assuming they attend today.

Still, they got their moment of fame, although the media blurred out their faces. People in their school, though, know who they are.

[msongs]

6. then again their views may be popular and widely shared at that school nt

[MineralMan]

7. Yeah, probably not, really.

While that part of the Twin Cities is pretty conservative politically, it's not really a hotbed of anti-semitism. Plus, it's high school kids. Typically most of them aren't really that way. Lots of Jewish kids at that school, too. There are three synagogues in the city of Minnetonka, and more in nearby communities.

[MrsCoffee]

8. ..."two-thirds of millenials (66%) could not identify the infamous Nazi death camp of Auschwitz."

Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC) said in a statement the group was “deeply disturbed by the egregious anti-Semitic image.”

“Such images both insult the memory of Hitler’s victims, as well as the heroic Minnesotans who fought to defeat Nazism,” Hunegs said.

The JCRC acknowledged how the picture was posted shortly before Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27.

The group pointed to a New York Times survey from April which found that two-thirds of millennials polled — 66 percent — could not identify the infamous Nazi death camp of Auschwitz.

Someone mentioned the other day that the attack on our public school systems is one of the biggest reasons we are where we are today. I tend to agree.

[FiveGoodMen]

10. Two more republicans-for-life

[melm00se]

11. When I was in High School

we had to run posters by our faculty adviser before we put them up. I think only 1 out of several hundred got sent back with a ????? comment.

Isn't that the case any more?

[akraven]

12. Niemoller:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

Teach your children well.