TAIPEI, TAIWAN – Israel’s representative office to Taiwan on Saturday issued a strong condemnation after high-school students marched in Nazi uniforms in a school-sanctioned event at Hsinchu’s Kuangfu Senior High School.
“It is deplorable and shocking that seven decades only after the world has witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust, a high-school in Taiwan is supporting such an outrageous action,” Israel’s representative office said in a statement.
Expressing deep disappointment over the event, Israel called on Taiwan’s government to initiate programs at all levels of education to explain the meaning of the Holocaust, saying that schools should “educate for tolerance and understanding among people.
“Images of the high school’s “Christmas and Thanksgiving Costume Parade” surfaced late on Friday, showing students of the sophomore media and design class decked out in Nazi uniforms and marching with cardboard tanks while giving the “Sieg Heil” salute.
The Presidential Office issued a statement calling the event “especially disrespectful to the Jewish people’s suffering at the hands of war and represents ignorance toward modern history.”
Apologising for the incident, the government called for an investigation of the school officials responsible and urged that education on such matters be strengthened.