Danish Scout Camp Features Nazi Game
By Associated PressJanuary 23, 2003, 7:54 PM EST
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- A Danish scout group acknowledged it "may have crossed the line" by organizing a game of tag in which adults pretending to be Nazis chased children dressed as Jews around a phony concentration camp.
The Danish Christian FDF scout group put up swastikas and Nazi-type signs and had the children wear yellow Stars of David as they were chased around the school yard at the Kongeaadal school, 161 miles southwest of Copenhagen.
One sign had the German words "Arbeit macht frei," or "Work will set you free," the infamous inscription over the entrance of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.
"I was shocked," Johanna Christiansen, whose two daughters took part, told the Ekstra Bladet newspaper on Thursday. "It's wrong to expose children to this."
Jes Imer, of the local FDF chapter, told the tabloid B.T. that organizers "may have crossed the line this time with a night game where Nazis chase Jews."
"I don't know whether I should apologize," Imer told B.T. of the incident last weekend. "I didn't want the game to hurt anyone."
The group of about 160 scouts, aged 11-14 included a dozen teenagers from the Danish-speaking minority in northern Germany.
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press
Comment