Wiesenthal Center Condemns Holocaust Mockery by Ohio State University Marching Band

July 31, 2015

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is calling for an immediate investigation by the NCAA into reports that the Ohio State University marching band had a song mocking the Holocaust as part of its unofficial repertoire.  The song, “Goodbye Kramer”, sung to the tune of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” contained lyrics like “a small town Jew…who took the cattle train to you know where…” and “Head to the furnace room…. Oh the baking never ends, it goes on and on and on and on.” The song was revealed during an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and other behaviors within the marching band.

“It is outrageous that one of America’s most celebrated marching bands would mock the greatest crime in history where one-third of the world’s Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazis,” said Rabbi Meyer H. May, Executive Director of the Wiesenthal Center and Aron Hier, the Center’s Campus Outreach Director. May and Hier stressed that the Center’s Holocaust educational training be introduced to all marching band members and their faculty advisors.

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).