High School Papered With Swastikas After Holocaust Survivor’s Visit

The Holocaust survivor was the stepsister of Anne Frank.

high school swastikas
Eva Schloss was the step-sister of Anne Frank. (Ingo Wagner/picture alliance via Getty Images)
picture alliance via Getty Image

Flyers featuring Nazi swastikas were posted at a California school just days after a Holocaust survivor shared her horrific firsthand experience with students who had previously posted anti-Semitic photographs during a party.

Ten papers in total were discovered at Newport Harbor High School on Sunday morning, CNN reported. The offending images were later removed by police. While posting the flyers is not a crime, according to Newport Beach police, they are investigating.

“Again we condemn all acts of anti-Semitism and hate in all their forms,” School principal Sean Boulton said in a statement. “We will continue to be vigilant with our stance, and the care of our students and staff.”

One senior at the school, Max Drakeford, whose grandmother survived the Holocaust, said the latest episode was “super disheartening — a step backward.”

“[The posters] send a message that we aren’t welcome at our own school,” Drakeford added.

And Katrina Foley, mayor of the neighboring city of Costa Mesa, where the March 3 party took place, agreed.

“That tells me that there is a small group of people who want to intimidate students from speaking out,” Foley told CNN. “We should not allow that to happen. They are trying to intimidate an entire community from speaking out.”

The school was papered after Eva Schloss, an Auschwitz survivor and stepsister of Anne Frank, was invited to come speak to students who were  in the pictures posted online from the offending party.

Schloss was brutally honest and told the students about how the Nazis gassed Jewish people and targeted disabled men and women and their children.
Those who were there told CNN that many of the teenagers involved with the viral pictures were crying while Schloss spoke. Several of the students also wrote open letters of apology to the Jewish community, the city, the school district, friends and family.

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