A Massachusetts restaurant has apologized to offended customers this weekend after a group of World War II reenactors sat down to dine in full Nazi uniforms.
Kith and Kin, a brunch and dinner establishment in Hudson, said a group of eight showed up in their historic costumes on Saturday.
There wasn’t a problem with the four who were dressed as US soldiers and another donning a military nurse outfit.
The problem arose when customers noticed a couple was wearing German SS uniforms – the uniforms once worn by Adolf Hitler’s Schutzstaffel secret police. The SS were responsible for establishing and running the concentration camps where six million Jews were murdered in the 1940s.
The restaurant owners wrote: ‘As a small, family-owned business, we strive every day to do our best and are continuing to learn and grow. Last night we fell short, and we deeply apologize.’
Pictured: Kith and Kin, the restaurant where two diners showed up dressed like Nazi soldiers
Participants dressed as Allied and Nazi soldiers are pictured during this weekend’s reenactment event put on by the American Heritage Museum. It’s unclear if any of the actors pictured above were involved in the incident at the restaurant
‘We would never intentionally do anything to offend or hurt anyone in the community,’ the post continued. ‘If we truly thought these individuals held anti-Semitic beliefs, we would never have allowed them to step foot in the restaurant.’
‘In hindsight, they should have been asked to change before being seated.’
The restaurant explained that these patrons were living historians from the nearby American Heritage Museum, which hosted a ‘Battle for the Airfield’ World War II reenactment event this weekend.
‘Even though we knew they were living historians at a time when acts of anti-Semitic violence continue to rise, we should have realized other diners might not be aware of the local WWII re-enactment,’ the restaurant wrote.
The museum, too, responded to the incident at Kith and Kin, sharing a statement with The Boston Globe.
‘At a time when acts of anti-Semitic violence continue to rise, when neo-Nazis have taken to the streets, and the horrors of the Holocaust continue to be denied, wearing German uniforms in a public space is beyond thoughtless, it’s repugnant.
‘These uniforms were meant to be used in the context of an historical reenactment designed to educate a new generation as to what American GIs confronted and defeated some 80 years ago,’ the museum said.
The restaurant’s full explanation and apology, which was posted to Facebook on Sunday, the day after the incident
An example of what a reenactment Nazi uniform could look like
SS officers are pictured in front of a building at an SS retreat outside of Auschwitz in 1944. Left to right; Josef Mengele, Josef Kramer, Rudolph Hess and Karl Hoecker
The museum will be ‘undertaking a thorough review of how our strict presentation protocols are understood and followed by the living historians who participate in our programs and the consequences when they are ignored.’
Residents were also outraged that something like this could be allowed to happen.
‘As someone who happened to be there dining I did notice and thought it was odd that the reenactors mistakenly felt it unnecessary to change out of the costumes … I can’t imagine they truly thought it was acceptable to wear those costumes to dine in public,’ one woman wrote in response to the restaurant’s post.
Another commented: ‘It doesn’t matter that there was a re-enactment event or whether diners knew about the event. No one should be subjected to seeing people dressed as Nazis without their consent.’
Many others came out to publicly support the restaurant, assuring the owners and staff that what happened wasn’t their fault.
Kith and Kin announced Tuesday it would be closing due to ‘increased harassment and threats’ (Pictured: The restaurant’s outdoor patio)
One customer described Kith and Kin as ‘a huge part of the community’ and said she was ‘proud’ of the owners for issuing an apology that she thinks really should have come from the reenactors.
Another customer wrote: ‘I do not believe that you should be judged for taking whatever customer walks through the door. It was clearly a costume and people just like to sit behind a computer or phone and bash whoever then (sic) can to make themselves feel better.’
Kith and Kin announced it would be closed Tuesday citing increased threats following the flurry of news coverage of the incident.
‘After last night’s news airings, our restaurant has been the target of increased harassment and threats,’ the post read. ‘Therefore, for the safety of our staff, we will unfortunately be closed today, Tuesday, October 15.’
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk