California teen candidate roasted for Nazi uniform picture

Photos of a 19-year-old California school board candidate dressed in what appears to be a Nazi uniform have sparked outrage among parents in the district, with many supporters backtracking on their endorsements of the young man’s political campaign despite the fact that the images had been posted online five years ago — when the candidate was only 14.

The pictures of Sage Naumann, which were posted to Facebook on Halloween 2009, were accompanied by captions that read “Sad Natsi [sic] mourns the loss of ze Fuhrer” and “Angry German waiting for candy.”

Naumann, a candidate for the Carlsbad Unified School District Board of Trustees, denied that the images of his 14-year-old self were indicative of any anti-Semitic tendencies and stressed that his costume, which he said he purchased online for $75, was not intended to portray a Nazi soldier but rather a German Communist party member, the UT San Diego reported.

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“It is the most ridiculous thing, they are trying to make me look like I’m anti-Semitic or a Nazi supporter,” Naumann told the San Diego paper.

“I was 14 years old at this party. The uniform isn’t a Nazi uniform. [And] if it was a Nazi uniform, and that makes me anti-Semitic, if I wore a devil uniform then does that make me a Satanist?”

Naumann was described by the San Diego Rostra blog as a rising Republican star and had originally garnered support for his candidacy from prominent conservative figures across the state. The surfacing of the photos, however, has prompted many to withdraw their support for him, according to UT San Diego.

The images were recently deleted from Naumann’s Facebook account.

A director at the Anti Defamation League’s San Diego branch criticized Naumann for his choice of costume, and said she hoped voters would consider Naumann’s past actions when choosing their next candidate for board of trustees.

“Obviously it’s poor judgment. We can all agree, I think, on that… The intention seems to be there to be portraying a Nazi, and that always shows a real lack of knowledge about that time in history and a lack of sensitivity,” Tammy Gillies, the regional director for the ADL in San Diego, told UT San Diego.

Adiv Sterman contributed to this report.