https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/us/nazi-salute-wisconsin-students.html
It sounds like the photographer encourage them to take this pose and almost the entire class of males complied. The student in the top right hand corner that didn’t participate, Jordan Blue, had this to say, “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,” he said in a statement. “I attend BHS, these classmates have bullied me since entering middle school, … nothing has changed.”
Some more local and non-paywalled news sources on the subject:
https://www.wiscnews.com/baraboonewsrepublic/news/local/update-nazi-salutes-in-group-photo-of-boys-from-baraboo/article_3224ea4a-7423-5fc1-b2ca-20159f7129e5.html
https://madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/baraboo-high-school-seig-heil-photo-goes-viral-officials-condemn/article_8ed5dc1c-57c0-5063-ac1a-8b95327cd963.html
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2018/11/12/photo-posted-twitter-shows-baraboo-hs-students-giving-nazi-salute/1974837002/
I live about 40 miles from Baraboo, in a suburb of Madison. Unfortunately, this incident doesn’t surprise me. It might be more outrageous than most, but there is plenty of racism in Wisconsin and certainly not only originating from high school boys.
These boys’ great-grandfathers, many of whom fought Nazis in Europe, would be horrified to see their great-grandsons Seig Heil-ing. Note that the boy in the center front, with the red tie, is making the white power sign, just in case we were in doubt about what these young white nationalists believe.
It gets worse. This picture was taken by a professional photographer, who put it up on his site. It’s gone now.
“What goes through my mind . . . they should’ve been there . . . Dachau, and seen the devastation the Nazis caused,” says WWII vet after lunch at Baraboo American Legion hall. “I hope they grow up and realize what the world is all about.”
The photo was condemned by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland early today.
“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,” the Auschwitz Memorial tweeted.
The photo was up on the photographer’s website for months. Surely it was seen by many before today.
https://madison365.com/baraboo-photographer-says-photo-was-innocent/
Photographer claims that he asked the students to do “a wave that you’re saying goodbye to your parents”. Student who did not raise his arm said that the photographer “only told the group to raise one hand for a photo” but that “he felt at the time that many of the boys were intentionally doing a Nazi salute”.
posted before reading all comments
UCB, it sounds like the photographer wants to shift all the blame to the students.
What a crock.
Previously, the photographer was blaming all who were offended for being offended.
And here’s another troubling report out of CT:
https://www.nhregister.com/connecticut/article/Students-decry-anti-Semitism-they-say-is-rampant-13387102.php
Ugh, I just happened to finish two books about the Holocaust. I think the school should make these boys read them, word by word, out loud. 
Please…the photographer AND the students knew what they were doing! What amazes me is these kids are so weak and have such a herd mentality. As parents, we spend so much time and effort raising kids to do the right thing, have certain morals and values. Hasn’t kicked in for this lot. You wonder what’s going on in those homes…
Absolutely, I certainly hope that my sons would not have participated but who knows once peer pressure kicks in. I have long ago learned the hard way to not say “my kid would never…”
My kid would never Sieg Heil. Of that I am completely certain.
Gust could not be reached for comment Monday, but in an interview with Madison365, he said he asked the boys to “give me a high sign, a wave that you’re saying goodbye to your parents.”
I’m not hanging the photographer out to dry. He may very well have done that after examining most of the class in the photo. You can read what you want into the photo. It is possible that some in the class took the opportunity to do a Nazi salute. But to me it certainly isn’t universal.
I don’t know but I’m certainly not jumping on the bandwagon to condemn a town over an old pre-prom photo. With parents there for the photo shoot and other people around I sincerely doubt that nobody would say anything at the time.
It’s become an internet storm so long after the fact because someone decided to make it one.
In other instances of bad behavior by those under 25 the ‘undeveloped brain’ defense was brought into play. Wouldn’t that apply here?
There were a number of posters defending the athletes who were caught stealing in China. The argument - they had undeveloped brains which didn’t compute long term effects or even short term consequences. They were sucked into the moment and egged on by their ‘group’.
These students are even younger…
Kids need to know that actions have consequences. We can teach them right form wrong, morals, values, etc. But the rubber meets the road re consequences. My kids aren’t perfect by any stretch, but I can say unequivocally, they would never have participated in this stupid, childish, and hurtful activity. They literally know better and know to treat humans better. They also know the consequences would be severe because the actions are severe.
Perhaps your kid would’t. But please don’t be so quick to judge other children.
My kid is well respected (e.g. elected school president) and doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. But he is also sometimes naive and his natural tendency is to follow those in charge. If he was asked to raise his hand, he probably would have at that particular instant, not immediately realizing what it meant.
I suspect that many of the boys in that photo are now ashamed, not for being caught, but for doing it in the first place.
As a parent, I’d want to understand more about the context before I decided how to react. If the boys all got together, discussed doing this in advance and thought it was funny I’d have a different reaction than if it were a spur of the moment thing and a different reaction than if it were the photographer just asking them to waive goodbye to a parent. (Although my reaction to that last explanation would be, “I’m angry that you think I’m stupid enough to believe that.”)
But whatever my reaction was as a parent, given the age of the boys I think it’s pretty harsh to make this public on the internet with no context. That in itself is a lesson, too, though.