Viral Nazi salute photo in Baraboo condemned
School district, veterans and others express anger
BARABOO – It’s a tradition that dates back many years.
Before spring prom at Baraboo High School, photos are taken on the front steps of the courthouse because it’s a large enough spot to fit everyone in. Photos are taken of couples as well as pictures of just the girls and just the boys.
A disturbing photo taken of the male prom-goers last spring has gone viral because it shows many of the Baraboo students with their arms upraised in Nazi salutes.
The school district on Monday swiftly condemned the photo. Veterans in Baraboo, gathering for a Veterans Day ceremony, were outraged when they saw the picture and the city’s administrator was quick to say it did not reflect the values of this community of 12,000, well-known as the place where the Ringling Brothers started their famous circus.
“This isn’t Baraboo. This isn’t who we are,” said Ed Geick, who has been city administrator for 15 years. “Baraboo is a very welcoming city.”
The school district posted a message on its Facebook page Monday.
“The photo of students posted to #BarabooProud is not reflective of the educational values and beliefs of the School District of Baraboo,” the post said. “We are investigating and will pursue any and all available and appropriate actions, including legal, to address.”
Later Monday morning, the district sent an email to parents.
The note was signed by Superinten-
dent Lori Mueller.
Mueller and High School Principal Glenn Bildsten were not available for questions when a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter visited the high school and school district’s administrative offices Monday.
Tessa Saiia graduated from Baraboo High School in 2016 and knows some of the boys in the photo.
“Honestly I thought it was photoshopped at first. Even if they meant it as a joke, it’s just dumb. It’s inappropriate,” said Saiia, as she walked her puppy, Cleo, on the sidewalk across from the courthouse steps Monday afternoon.
Jewish groups in Wisconsin released a joint statement Monday noting a rising tide of anti-Semitism.
“As we know, acts of hate begin with hateful expressions” the statement read. “Such expressions must be a call to action for schools and families to educate youth to respect diversity and to embrace difference.”
The statement came from the Milwaukee, Madison and Wisconsin Jewish Federations, the ADL Midwest and was co-signed by a wide swath of interfaith and civil rights groups and clergy in Wisconsin.
The photo also drew a response from the Auschwitz Museum, which tweeted, “It is so hard to find words .... This is why every single day we work hard to educate. We need to explain what is the danger of hateful ideology rising. Auschwitz with its gas chambers was at the very end of the long process of normalizing and accommodating hatred.”
It appears the photo was taken by a professional photographer named Pete Gust, who posted it on his firm’s website Wheel Memories. As the photo spread online, Gust removed the picture and blamed the need to change the web page on “malevolent behavior on the part of some in society.”
“It is too bad that there are those in society who can and do take the time to be jerks … The Internet can be a wonderful tool, but for some there is an overwhelming urge to destroy. The destruction may not be physical but instead it can be bullying that is intellectual or emotional,” he said on the website.
Gust added: “To anyone that was hurt I sincerely apologize.”
Jules Suzdaltsev, a New York-based journalist for Prompt News Online in Abuja, Nigeria, first publicized the incident early Monday, according to USA TODAY. One student, who identified himself as Jordan Blue to Suzdaltsev, texted that he couldn’t get away quickly enough from the group photo after he realized what was happening, USA TODAY reported. “The photographer took the photos telling us to make the sign. I knew what my morals were, and it was not to salute something I firmly didn’t believe in it,” Blue wrote.
Russ Hasenbalg, 91, who served in the 8th Army in Germany during World War II, was offended. To Hasenbalg, and other World War II veterans, a hand upraised doesn’t just mean a Nazi salute or a nationalistic gesture, it is a sign that some people have forgotten the horrors of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
“What goes through my mind when I see this picture is they should’ve been there, places like Dachau (concentration camp) and seen the devastation the Nazis caused,” Hasenbalg said Monday afternoon after finishing a Veterans Day luncheon in the basement of Baraboo’s American Legion Post.
Hasenbalg was 18 when he was drafted and sent to Europe in the 143rd Ordnance Battalion. He also fought in the Korean War in 1950 and ’51.
“These are stupid kids who think it’s fun. It wasn’t fun,” Hasenbalg said. “I hope they grow up and realize what the world is all about.”
Cliff Rabuck, 78, who served in the Army during the Vietnam era, said the photo is hurtful.
“In America we have freedom of speech and religion, we have freedom even to do that,” said Rabuck, looking at the picture of the boys grinning with upraised arms. “If you ask them why did you do it? They’d probably say, ‘I don’t know, everyone else was doing it.’ ”
Added Phil Stopper, 84, a Korean War veteran: “It’s an insult. Just a plain insult to the country. It’s a disgrace.”