One Harvard publication is in hot water.
The Washington Postpoints out the Harvard Lampoon, a publication run by students, ran a picture that depicted Anne Frank's head on a woman in a bikini, with the headline, "Gone Before Her Time: Virtual Aging Technology Shows Us What Anne Frank Would Have Looked Like if She Hadn’t Died." Anne Frank, a Jewish diarist from Germany, died at the age of 15 in a Nazi concentration camp.
Per the Harvard Crimson (a separate university student newspaper), Rabbi Jonah C. Steinberg, executive director of Harvard Hillel, denounced the depiction of Frank. In an email to the Lampoon editors, he likened it to Nazi propaganda, and labeled it “the sexual violation of a child—one who, in life, was subjected to the most hideous of crimes.”
Jenny Baker, a Harvard sophomore, also voiced her discontent for the image. She posted the image to Facebook, but it was removed for violating community standards, forcing her to repost her comments in a Google doc. "Sexualizing ANNE FRANK and saying it is a shame she was ruthlessly murdered because of her religion because she would have been hot? So unbelievably not okay," she wrote. "To suggest that the worth of Anne Frank’s life is tied to the appearance of her body rather than her bravery and resilience is exceptionally demeaning."
After receiving immense backlash (and inspiring a petition on Change.org), the Lampoon released a statement on their website, apologizing for the picture. "We as individuals and we as an organization would like to apologize for our negligence in allowing this piece to be created for and printed in our latest issue," the statement read. "We are sorry for any harm we have caused. Furthermore, we want to both affirm and emphasize that the Lampoon condemns any and all forms of anti-Semitism."
