Image by Getty Images

The principal of a Massachusetts high school wrote a letter apologizing for the publication of a quote generally attributed to Nazi leaders in the school’s yearbook.

Hundreds of copies of the yearbook had been printed and distributed to students at Andover High School in Massachusetts before the school became aware that a senior captioned his photo with a quote associated with Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler, the New York Times reported. It stopped selling the yearbook, and now the school is now offering to replace the page or cover the quote up with a sticker.

“We are appalled and angered that this quote was submitted, and I ask you to please accept my deepest apologies on behalf of our faculty, staff, and administration for the insertion of these words in the yearbook,” principal Philip Conrad wrote in the letter. “Quoting a racist dictator bent on genocide or his minister of propaganda has no place in our school or our community and it is deeply upsetting to all of us.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The quote reads, “Make the lie big, keep it simple, keep saying it and eventually they will believe it,” which is widely associated with Hitler and Goebbels’s use of propaganda to build the Nazi empire. It is not attributed in the yearbook and appears underneath the photo of the student, who has not been named.

“He used it without any knowledge of where it came from or the hateful background with which it is associated,” Mr. Conrad said of the student. He declined to comment Friday on what the student was intending to convey.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount