After all the Catholic Church has been through, you’d think that it would be a little bit more self-aware, but it’s not. As a product of 16 years of Catholic schooling myself, I can easily see how this story could happen, but that makes it no less excusable.
If you’ve never been to Hanover, it’s a beautiful small town south of Harrisburg and just southeast of Gettysburg. The times I’ve been there, I’ve always been amazed at how the town and the surrounding area represent the best of America, which makes this story all the more shocking to me. Last week, the town hosted its annual Halloween parade, and one of the entries made news for all of the wrong reasons.
St. Joseph Catholic Church entered a float in the annual parade that featured World War II Holocaust depictions. The float included a facsimile of the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp gate, inscribed with Arbeit Macht Frei (“Work sets you free”). More than 1.1 million Jews, Polish people, and others were murdered in that death camp by the Nazis during the war. This sign was the last many of them saw as they left the free world.
Reaction to the tasteless display was quick and severe.
The Harrisburg Diocese is condemning a float that was used by a local Catholic school in a Halloween parade which showed "a replica of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp gate."https://t.co/GRz1z8LcqQ
— CBS 21 News (@CBS21NEWS) November 1, 2025
Bishop Timothy Senior of the Harrisburg Catholic Diocese, of which St. Joseph’s is a part, issued a statement on the situation:
I was shocked and appalled to learn that the Halloween parade float from Saint Joseph Catholic school in Hanover included a replica of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp gate, bearing the words ‘Arbeit Macht Frei.’
The inclusion of this image—one that represents the horrific suffering and murder of millions of innocent people, including six million Jews during the Holocaust—is profoundly offensive and unacceptable. While the original, approved design for this float did not contain this imagery, it does not change the fact that this highly recognizable symbol of hate was included.
On behalf of the Diocese of Harrisburg, I express my sincere apology to our Jewish brothers and sisters and to all who were hurt or offended by this display. I strongly condemn the inclusion of this symbol on the float.”The bishop then promised that his diocese would “work with the school community to ensure that this incident becomes an opportunity for education and reflection, and review approval processes so that such a grievous incident is never repeated.
Horrifying.
— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) November 3, 2025
The Diocese of Harrisburg apologized after a Catholic grade school’s Halloween parade float featured imagery resembling the entrance gate of Auschwitz, including the slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei,” which appeared over Nazi concentration camps where millions were k*lled. pic.twitter.com/ymF8QoLp26
That’s all well and good, but when you hear stories like this, you have to wonder how, in 2025, does something like this even happen?
According to the Hanover Evening Sun, “Galen Shelly, of Littlestown, who identified himself on social media as the designer and builder of the float, wrote that he had originally designed the float to feature a lighted archway he found on Halloween Express, but ‘could not find any new or used cemetery entrances available in time and began making my own.’”
The Evening Sun reported that Shelly asked for forgiveness and said that the “situation stemmed from a misunderstanding of his intended ‘artist statement,’ which he wrote ‘somehow seems not to have occurred to the casual viewer.’”
Shelly said that he had a "vision in my heart and knew exactly what it all meant to me," but he "did not know what it could mean to others."
The local newspaper reported that Shelly was tapped by family members to help with the church’s float, and he wanted to portray an "eternal perspective about life." He said the phrase on the Auschwitz gate stood for the “lie” of working for material possessions that will not matter when death comes. That, he said, “struck a chord” with him.
In an unattributed statement on Facebook, St. Joseph Church apologized for the float, saying its leadership apologized for a "lack of vigilance" in reviewing the float’s design and depictions.
"I feel like I have failed you in a way because I wasn't as vigilant as I normally would be," the statement said. "Although the float was not lit up yet, I looked at it and saw how detailed it was, and had I been more vigilant, I would have seen the sign and immediately recognized it."
If you think that’s bad, it gets worse. This from the Evening Sun:
Church leadership wrote that the church had not participated in the parade for several years, and saw the parade as a ‘wonderful opportunity amidst the ghosts and goblins and all the witchy stuff there to show something different.’
The float had ‘parameters’ put in place, according to the statement, but did not elaborate.
'Most of the people at that parade probably did not even know what those words meant,’ the statement continued, ‘I know that if any of our people knew what they meant they would have immediately pointed it out to me when I visited.’
‘Part of the outrage I think, having spoken to people about this, is that more people did not know what it was,’ the statement reads, ‘and the reason they don't know what it was is because we've stopped speaking about the Holocaust and the atrocities that happened.’
In light of these statements, some things become clear. Obviously, the designer and builder of the float had no intention to glorify or exploit the killing of six million Jews and others during World War II. The same can be said for the church leadership and community.
But if that’s the case, how does something like this happen, especially to a mainline church with a school? The levels of historical illiteracy and insensitivity on display here are mind-boggling. It’s these lapses that make a bad situation much worse. How can we learn from history if we don’t even know it? Keep in mind, these are educators and religious leaders.
Related: ‘America 250’ Tuesday: Four Women Who Helped America Win the Revolutionary War
After the Nazis killed over six million in concentration camps, a slogan emerged that spanned decades: “Never forget.” Now, thanks to a little Catholic church in a small town in Pennsylvania, we’re seeing just how much we have forgotten the lessons of World War II. (Again, these were the adults, not the kids.) I fear there is much more that public and private schools have stopped teaching, from the lessons of 9/11 to World War I, Vietnam, and Korea, to the rise of Communism, and so much more.
All of this comes to light on a day when New York City is set to elect a member of the Democratic Socialists of America as mayor. Will we ever learn from history?
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