A member of the Gettysburg College Board of Trustees resigned this week after a 1980 yearbook photo of him dressed as a Nazi from Hogan’s Heroes surfaced.
Gettysburg College alumnus and trustee Bob Garthwait Jr. resigned this week after a photo of Garthwait Jr. dressed as a Nazi circulated in the campus community. The photo, which was found in the 1980 edition of the Gettysburg College yearbook, features a young Garthwait Jr. dressed as a German soldier from the TV show Hogan’s Heroes.
Garthwait apologized for the photo in a short statement that he released this week. In the statement, Garthwait said that he did not understand the “significance” of Nazi symbols when he was a sophomore at Gettysburg College in the late 1970s.
“I understand how disturbing this image is to members of the Gettysburg College community, and especially those who are Jewish,” Garthwait said in a statement. “As a sophomore in 1980, I was not fully aware of the significance of those symbols. While this is no excuse, I am deeply embarrassed and regret participating in this event where Nazi symbols were used.”
“My sincere hope is that our current students will learn from my poor judgment 38 years ago,” he added, “and be more thoughtful than I was about the impact of their actions on others.”
Garthwait is the CEO of Cly-Del Manufacturing, a firm that focuses on progressive stamping and deep drawn metal components.
Gettysburg College President Janet Morgan Riggs published a statement on Garthwait’s resignation, urging students to their Jewish peers. “I encourage you to reach out to one another in support of our Jewish community members,” Riggs wrote in the statement. “Anti-Semitism clearly contradicts our values as an institution today, as it did when this photo was taken.”
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