California high school students spark outrage with human swastika

San Francisco Bay Area high school students post group photo posing as a human swastika, captioned with a quote from Adolf Hitler presaging the genocide of Jews in Europe.

By World Israel News Staff

A northern California high school has launched an investigation after a photograph of students lying in the shape of a swastika on the school’s football field went viral on social media last week.

On Dec. 3, a photograph was posted online showing eight high school students forming a human swastika on the football field of Branham High School in San Jose, southeast of San Francisco.

The human swastika photo was captioned with a quote from Adolf Hitler predicting and justifying the genocide of European Jews, part of a January 1939 address to the Reichstag just months before the beginning of World War II.

“I want to be a prophet again today: If international financial Jewry inside and outside of Europe should succeed once more in plunging the peoples of the world into a war, the result would not be the Bolshevization of the earth and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe,” the caption read.

The photo quickly went viral and soon caught the attention of local students, parents, and eventually school administrators.

Within days, the viral photo had drawn media attention across the US.

Last Friday, school officials said that they were probing the incident.

In a message to students and parents, Principal Beth Silbergeld wrote that the incident “does not reflect the values of our school and community.”

“Branham stands firmly against all forms of hate, discrimination, and intolerance,” Silbergeld continued. “We remain committed to fostering a safe, inclusive learning environment where every student feels respected, valued, and supported.”

The Bay Area Jewish Coalition’s Maya Bronicki told NBC that administrators need to “raise awareness” and “teach students to be more inclusive, to stop this hate.”