Duxbury fires football coach, cancels Friday night’s game over ‘Auschwitz’ audible

Duxbury has fired head football coach Dave Maimaron and canceled Friday’s game amid a probe into the shocking use of anti-Semitic language as audibles — including the word “Auschwitz.”

“I am outraged, disappointed and profoundly saddened that we find ourselves here,” said Duxbury School Committee Chair Kellie Bresnehan.

The offensive audibles came to light after Plymouth North players informed their coaches that Duxbury players were using anti-Semitic language when the two teams met on March 12.

The Herald later learned and was the first to report that one of the calls used was “Auschwitz,” the Polish site of a Nazi concentration camp where over 1 million people, mostly Jews, were murdered during World War II.

“The fact that members of our school community used such offensive language, including anti-Semitic language, is horrifying and disappointing,” the school’s statement read. “We are collaborating with the Anti-Defamation League regarding the seriousness of the allegations, and on our short-term and long-term response.”

Maimaron, the head coach at Duxbury since 2005, has also been placed on paid administrative leave from his special needs teaching position pending further investigation.

The school statement, signed by Superintendent John Antonucci, Assistant Superintendent Danielle Klingaman, Chief Human Resource Officer Patrick Dillon, and High School Principal James Donovan, said the district was hiring Edward R. Mitnick of Just Training Solutions LLC to conduct an investigation.

The Herald learned that the use of anti-Semitic and other offensive language by Duxbury players and under the purview of the coaching staff has been going on for multiple years. Two incidents occurred last year at the junior varsity level.

State Sen. Barry Feingold, who played football at Andover High as well as Franklin & Marshall College, said now is a good time to have an open conversation about the meaning of Auschwitz.

“Given my background both on the football field and in my religion, I would like to offer a few thoughts to your team,” said Feingold, who is Jewish. “Football has played an incredible role in my life and helped me become who I am today. I want that same continued opportunity for you as well. I’m not looking to villainize you; instead, I think this moment could be an important learning experience.”

Duxbury has postponed its game on Friday night against Patriot League Keenan rival Hingham. In a statement, Antonucci said the decision on whether future games would be played will come at a later date.

Holocaust survivor Izzy Arbeiter, who said he saw children put to death in the gas chambers in Auschwitz, said he’s “not afraid or embarrassed” to show the Duxbury players the tattoo the Nazis burned into his skin in the concentration camp.

“The public has to know what other people do,” Arbeiter, 96, said Wednesday. “I wish I was younger, I’d go speak to them.

“I made a promise to my father when he was taken to the gas chamber,” he added. “I promised to talk about it.”

Arbeiter lost his father, mother and brother in the Holocaust. His wife, Anna, also survived Auschwitz.

“We need to let the world know what happened in the heart of Europe, he said so people today don’t treat it as just a page in a history book.

Joe Dwinell contributed to this story.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3rngT8q