Dad Surprised By Backlash Over Father-Son Nazi Halloween Costumes

Adolf Hitler records a speech. Image by getty images

By Alyssa Fisher October 29, 2018

A Kentucky man dressed him and his son up in Nazi costumes for a trick-or-treating event Thursday, drumming up outrage online, WEHT reported.

A picture was posted online of Bryant Goldbach dressed as a Nazi soldier and his young son as Adolf Hitler during the city of Owensboro’s Trail of Treats event. Goldbach, who said he regrets the decision, claims that his intention was to dress as historical figures, according to the NBC affiliate.

“Anyone who knows us knows that we love history and often dress the part of historical figures,” he wrote on Facebook.

Goldbach apologized, insisting that he didn’t foresee the controversy.

“I think it was in bad taste for me to let my child to wear that, probably for me to wear that. It didn’t occur to me,” he said. “I thought it was a bad decision on my part.”

Goldbach was in a Nazi officer’s uniform, and dressed the boy in a suit, swastika armband and a Hitler-style mustache, Kentucky.com reported. He said he and his son were victims of disparaging comments and threats at the event.

“Tonight grown adults threatened a child over his costume,” Goldbach continued on his social media post. “Threatened to rip his outfit off of him, screaming obscenities, scaring a small child.”

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected]

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO