One of the Thailand’s top universities has apologized for a congratulatory billboard which showed Adolf Hitler surrounded by cartoon superheroes. University staff said their students were ignorant about Hitler.
Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University received complaints over the
billboard - just one of many banners which are traditionally
placed on campus during the university's commencement period. The
various signs are placed as a send-off from incoming students to
the graduating class.
Students belonging to the faculty of arts came up with the idea
of “a conceptual paradox to superheroes” and painted
Hitler with his arm raised in a Nazi salute. Batman, Captain
America, the Incredible Hulk and Iron Man were positioned next to
him.
The banner, which was displayed for two days, sparked fury and
outrage from the Simon Wiesenthal Center - an international
Jewish human rights group.
"Hitler as a superhero? Is he an appropriate role model for
Thailand's younger generation - a genocidal hate monger who mass
murdered Jews and Gypsies and who considered people of color as
racially inferior," associate dean at the Simon Wiesenthal
Center, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, said in a Friday statement.
The billboard was removed Saturday in response to criticism.
"(We) would like to formally express our sincere apology for
our students' 'Superhero' mural," art school dean Suppakorn
Disatapundhu said in a statement issued on Monday. "I can
assure you we are taking this matter very seriously."
Dean Suppakorn said that the idea was to show that good and bad
people co-exist in the world.
"They told me the concept was to paint a picture of
superheroes who protect the world," the dean told AP in a
telephone interview. "Hitler was supposed to serve as a
conceptual paradox to the superheroes," he said. Serving this
idea, the superheroes were painted in bright colors, while
Hitler's image was in grey and black, the dean said.
"This kind of thoughtless display will not happen again," he
added, vowing to explain to students “that this man caused
tragedy in the world.”
The students behind the banner received a verbal warning from the
university.
According to an explanation provided in an AP report, the lack of
world history knowledge among Thai students is because Thailand’s
education system primarily covers the history of the country and
its monarchy. For example, children are required to memorize all
of the country’s previous kings, while learning very little about
the Holocaust.