Wisconsin high school pulls yearbook over anti-Semitic quote
New Berlin West apologizes for student’s ‘inappropriate and offensive’ reference to Nazi genocide; publisher to cover offending remark
A high school in Wisconsin stopped distributing yearbooks after it was discovered that the memento contained a published anti-Semitic quote by one of the graduating seniors.
“There will always be one true Final Solution,” read the quote in the yearbook of the New Berlin West High School, WTMJ Milwaukee reported.
An email was sent to school parents to inform them of the offensive quote. In it, school principal Michael Fesenmaier called it, “inappropriate and offensive.”
“The quote, unfortunately, went undetected during the yearbook vetting process and was published in the yearbook. We are embarrassed by this oversight, and we apologize that this offensive quote was not detected sooner,” read the email.
Jostens, the yearbook publisher, will supply the school with stickers to cover up the quote, which refers to the “Final Solution,” the Nazi plan to exterminate European Jews at the time of World War II.
The school will place the stickers in the yearbooks that were not yet distributed. The owners of the yearbooks that were distributed on Thursday and Friday will be able to pick up stickers from the school’s office.
Elana Kahn, director of Jewish Community Relations at the Milwaukee Jewish Community Federation told the news channel that the quote “is not innocuous and it is not funny.”
“It’s recorded in history as this being his most important quote,” she said. “I think it’s very disturbing and upsetting.”
She said she has worked with the school district in the past after other anti-Semitic incidents, including bringing in someone to speak about the Holocaust.
