A New Jersey middle school recalled its recently released yearbook after a picture of Adolf Hitler as a baby was found in the publication’s baby pictures section.

“Earlier today, after students had already received their yearbooks, we learned that the baby pictures section of the yearbook contained an image that was later identified as an infant photograph of Adolf Hitler,” East Brook Middle School Principal Ryan Aupperlee wrote in a June 25 letter to parents, according to Fox News.

“We immediately collected the yearbooks so the image would not remain in circulation,” Aupperlee added.

“The baby Hitler photo from 1889 was discovered by a teacher after 8th-grade students at East Brook Middle School began signing each other’s yearbooks. Students were told to submit a baby photo for the yearbook. According to NBC 4 New York, one student decided to submit a photo of baby Hitler instead. An investigation is underway to determine how no one noticed the photo before the yearbooks were printed,” Collin Rugg wrote.

Fox News shared further:

East Brook Middle School serves students in Paramus, a Bergen County borough in northern New Jersey.

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“I am aware of the unfortunate incident, involving the year book, at East Brook Middle School yesterday and have been in communication with both the Superintendent of Schools and Chief of Police,” Paramus, New Jersey, Mayor Chris DiPiazza wrote Friday in a Facebook post. “Our borough’s strength has always been because we are a town welcoming to all faiths and home to numerous houses of worship. Any examples, like yesterday’s, does not reflect Paramus. God bless”

The incident prompted an investigation in Paramus. It was not immediately clear how the image was submitted, who was responsible for including it, or how it made it through the yearbook review process before the final copies were distributed.

The district is expected to determine next steps after reviewing how the photo appeared in the student publication. Law enforcement is investigating, too, according to the report.

“I want to be direct with you: the presence of this image is unacceptable. Even if the image was not immediately recognizable to those paging through the book, its inclusion in an official school publication is a severe breach of our values,” Aupperlee wrote, according to the New York Post.

“Adolf Hitler represents hatred, antisemitism, and the horrors of the Holocaust, including the murder of six million Jews. An image of him has no place in a yearbook created for our students. It does not reflect who we are or what East Brook stands for, and we condemn its inclusion without reservation,” Aupperlee continued.

More from the New York Post:

There have been several instances where a student or former student snuck a Hitler reference into a yearbook for shock value.

In 2021, a Connecticut high school senior was charged with two felony counts of third-degree computer crime after allegedly changing entries in the school’s yearbook to include quotes from the Nazi dictator, including one entry he misattributed to George Floyd.

An Andover, Mass., high school pulled its yearbook prior to publication after the “horrified” principal found out a student had used a quote attributed to Hitler or Joseph Goebbels under his picture.

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