German Seminary Students Expelled over Anti-Semitic Jokes

The Expatica
July 31, 2013

http://www.expatica.com/de/news/german-news/german-seminary-students-expelled-over-anti-semitic-jokes_270923.html

Two Roman Catholic seminary students have been expelled for making anti-Semitic and racist jokes and attending a concert by a band accused of far-right ties, German bishops said Wednesday.

The decision came after an independent probe ordered by the German Church, which found wrongdoing by the students, who were not identified, but no evidence of a "right-wing extremist network" at the priest training college.

The bishops of the southern cities of Bamberg and Wuerzburg, Ludwig Schick and Friedhelm Hofmann, made the announcement in the wake of a scandal dating from May that was deeply embarrassing to the Church.

The report lists in detail incidents directly involving three students in a class at the Wuerzburg seminary, whose graduates go on to serve as priests in Wuerzburg and Bamberg.

"One student told at least three concentration camp jokes for fun," they said in a statement, based on the findings of a three-member external commission.

The same man imitated Adolf Hitler in a bar at the seminary and flashed the straight-armed Nazi salute, which is banned in Germany.

Hitler's favourite march, the so-called Badenweiler march, was also repeatedly played in the bar in the seminary's cellar.

Another man demanded a "negro to clean up" after a lunch, while in a separate case a student went to a concert by the allegedly far-right band Frei.Wild.

"As a church bishop, these anti-Semitic and racist statements as well as the glorification of Nazi symbols and nationalism trouble me deeply," Schick said in a statement.

The bishops are still to decide whether to kick out the third student, who allegedly made threatening remarks about people attending an anti-racism demonstration.

The expelled students could still face criminal charges of inciting racial hatred.