Just what a high school needs to warm up the crowd at a football game, a little speech by Joseph Goebbels:
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina: Part of a speech by World War II Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels was played over the public address system before a high school soccer game, prompting an apology by the home team's principal.
Forestview High School principal Robert Carpenter said neither he nor his team's coach knew about the speech before the 90-second excerpt was played during pre-game training Saturday, according to a letter he sent Monday to visiting Charlotte Catholic High School.
Carpenter said in the letter the team had adopted the slogan "On to victory," and a German exchange student who plays on the team had taught other students how to say the phrase in German.
"Some of our more zealous students sought to capture this slogan in German and to play it on the PA," Carpenter wrote.
School officials said two players had downloaded Goebbels' speech off the Internet, and no adult heard it before it was played at the field, The Charlotte Observer reported Wednesday.
Catholic coach Gary Hoilett said his squad was "just real shocked."
"All of us stopped and looked up at the booth," Hoilett said.
Hoilett, who is black, said some Forestview players also shouted racial epithets at his two black players. Gaston school officials said they interviewed 14 people, including coaches, officials and players, but did not find conclusive evidence of that.
Hoilett called the Forestview principal's apology "lame."
Those nefarious exchange students!
Nazis. I hate Nazis! (from the original Blues Brothers)
Wait a sec, the exchange student did just translate, not download or play over the speaker (I hope)! In dubio pro reo...
Anyway, I doubt the inspiring effect of a german speech, given that not many in the audience will have understood what Göbbels was talking about.
Kids. Sheesh.
Think of all the brains in attendance.
Why do I get a picture of Jon Lovitz in Rat Race?
Kids do the darnest things.
We have a German exchange student at my school. On Friday, we had a huge Veteran's Day assembly (it is a community tradition). Our exchange student played in the band and was witness to the whole thing, slideshows, speeches, songs, and interviews. I asked her later that day for her impression. She found the entire thing very strange. We had a great discussion about how her culture is still very sensitive to overt displays of nationalistic pride. I only wish the rest of my students had been in the class to here the discussion.