'Offensive' Holocaust imagery on Catholic school's Halloween float condemned by bishop

A Catholic diocese in Pennsylvania has apologized for Holocaust imagery that appeared on a Catholic school’s Halloween parade float on Thursday

A Catholic diocese in Pennsylvania has apologized for Holocaust imagery that appeared on a Catholic school’s Halloween parade float on Thursday.

In a statement Friday, Bishop Timothy C. Senior of the Diocese of Harrisburg condemned the float, which was presented by St. Joseph Catholic School in Hanover, Pennsylvania, at the town’s Halloween parade. He said he was “shocked and appalled” it included a replica of the Auschwitz concentration camp gate bearing the words “Arbeit Macht Frei.”

The German phrase translates to “work makes you free,” according to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial website. “It has become almost a symbol of the concentration camp,” the website says. The motto was introduced at the Dachau concentration camp in 1933 and was quickly adopted by other Nazi camps including Auschwitz.

“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.

The original, approved design for the float did not include the Holocaust imagery, according to Senior.