Updated at 5:50 p.m.
A photo of eight teenagers lying in the shape of a swastika on Branham High School’s football field, accompanied by an antisemitic quote from Adolf Hitler, circulated widely online Wednesday.
The photo was initially posted on Instagram by an account that featured the first and last name of a student who attends the San Jose public school. The post and account were removed from Instagram by Friday morning.
Branham High School Principal Beth Silbergeld condemned the incident on Thursday in a statement sent through an online portal for parents. J. obtained a screenshot of the statement.
“Branham High School is aware of a recent incident circulating on social media that does not reflect the values of our school community,” Silbergeld said in the statement. “The incident is being investigated in accordance with district procedures, and appropriate follow-up will occur. We want to be clear: Branham stands firmly against all forms of hate, discrimination, and intolerance. Acts that target, demean, or threaten others have no place on our campus.”
Silbergeld, who is Jewish, told J. on Friday that the school recognizes the incident as antisemitic and is working with the San Jose Police Department, the Anti-Defamation League and the Bay Area Jewish Coalition “to ensure that we receive appropriate support and guidance as we work to repair the harm that’s been done to our community.”
She noted that the school is addressing the incident with the student body too.
“We acknowledge that it’s an act of antisemitism and hate that doesn’t reflect the values of the school,” she said. “Our student and staff leaders are collaborating to prepare information and hold space for young people next week. We share collective responsibility to ensure safety and a respectful environment. We remain committed to maintaining an emotionally and physically safe school environment for all of our students and staff and the larger community that surrounds Branham.”
In the Instagram post’s caption, the user quoted, in German, an infamous speech that Hitler made to the Reichstag, or German parliament, on Jan. 30, 1939. The quote — translated to English through an Instagram feature — stated “international financial Jews” had “succeeded in plunging nations into a world war.” It also threatened “the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.”
The speech was delivered on the sixth anniversary of Hitler’s rise to power. According to historians, it foreshadowed the Holocaust’s Final Solution and became a key piece of Nazi propaganda used to justify the murder of 6 million Jews during World War II.
Although the post and account were removed from Instagram, a screenshot of the image circulated on Nextdoor, on Reddit (where it was later removed) and in Jewish community group chats.
A Jewish senior at Branham High School, who spoke to J. on condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation from peers, said when she first saw the image of the “human swastika” she thought it must have been fake or AI-generated.
“It was just insane to think that there were people at my school that went around quoting Hitler,” she said.
The student said that in an announcement over the loudspeaker to the student body on Friday, Silbergeld confirmed that all eight students involved had been identified. The student commended Silbergeld for being open about the situation and said she felt supported by staff.
“I’ve been in education for a long time and have seen, sadly, lots of incidences of oppression and hate toward many groups,” Silbergeld told J. “I think that we always have a responsibility as schools to do what’s right and to take action and learn from the experiences of other other schools and other incidents as a way to hopefully eliminate actions like what we’ve experienced.”
Another Jewish senior, who also requested to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, said she was in disbelief when she found out about the incident.
“I was really scared, my identity feels threatened right now,” she said. “There are people at my school who think they can get away with this. And for me, that was just really, really scary to know.”
A Jewish mother of a Branham ninth grader, who spoke to J. on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said her son recognized at least one of the students in the photo because they had a class together last year. The mother is the child of a Holocaust survivor.
“I’m afraid because I feel that my son is not safe at school,” she told J. “I’m a second-generation Holocaust survivor, and I have goosebumps seeing this picture.”
The high school has dealt with issues surrounding antisemitism before. Earlier this year two teachers at Branham High School were found to have violated California law when a California Department of Education investigation concluded that they had delivered one-sided instruction on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that “discriminated against Jewish students” in ethnic literature classes for seniors.
The Branham High mother said that another one of her children at the school experienced antisemitism in the classroom a few days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. The child asked her mother not to say anything to the administration out of fear, and the mother declined to describe the incident to J. The mother said that when she saw the Instagram post this week, her first thought was “how could this happen again?”
“It’s become kind of normalized to joke about antisemitism and to be openly prejudiced against other people,” one of the Branham seniors said. “It’s not OK, but it’s just kind of the life that some openly Jewish people have to live.”