Pennsylvania artist sorry for including Nazi camp arch on school parade float

"In apologizing for the fiasco, Galen Shelly told PennLive that a lighted archway and lanterns he ordered to decorate a parade float he was building for Hanover's St Joseph's school did not arrive in time so he searched the internet 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 second world war Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland,"

"The float, captured in images of the 30 October parade posted to Facebook by the Hanover Area Watch group, featured Shelly's cloned archway containing the German phrase Arbeit Macht Frei work sets you free a slogan the Nazis placed at the entrance of numerous concentration camps to mock those who passed through the gates to face brutality and extermination. I had no ill intent, Shelly told PennLive."

"The bishop of Harrisburg, Timothy Senior, said he was shocked and appalled by the episode 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."

An artist, Galen Shelly, built a Halloween parade float for Hanover's St Joseph's school and ordered a lighted archway and lanterns that did not arrive. Shelly searched online for cemetery gate images to represent mortality and replicated a photograph of Auschwitz's entrance, including the German phrase Arbeit Macht Frei. Parade images posted online showed the cloned archway, prompting immediate backlash. Shelly apologized, saying he had no ill intent and sought forgiveness. Bishop Timothy Senior of Harrisburg apologized on behalf of the diocese, called the imagery profoundly offensive and unacceptable, and said the Holocaust imagery was a late, unknown addition.

Read at www.theguardian.com