A Pennsylvania artist has apologised after inadvertently including a replica of the gateway arch from a Nazi concentration camp on a Halloween float for a Catholic school. Galen Shelly told PennLive that he ordered a lighted archway and lanterns for the float he was building for St Joseph's school in Hanover, but when they did not arrive on time, he searched online 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 Auschwitz concentration camp, featuring the German phrase 'Arbeit Macht Frei' (work sets you free), a slogan the Nazis used to mock those entering the death camps. The float was captured in images of the 30 October parade posted to Facebook by the Hanover Area Watch group.
'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' 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.
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 also apologised for a 'lack of vigilance' in failing to review the float before the parade.
