EXCLUSIVE

“Happy Hanukkah from Auschwitz!!” reads the image caption.

The photo, taken at an event organised and hosted at the elite St Mark’s residential college, features two recent students from the University of Adelaide wearing striped concentration camp-style pyjamas, caricature hook noses and a yellow Star of David pinned on their chests.

The students are also depicted wearing mock shackles with prisoner identification numbers marked on their inner arms, simulating those tattooed on Jewish concentration camp victims during the Holocaust.

Other photos, also taken at St Mark’s College — and unearthed as part of a news.com.au investigation into university college culture — feature a student dressed as Adolf Hitler and others doing the Nazi salute.

The images are not from one party. They’re from a number of similar events hosted at the college year after year.

Students who attended this year’s Orientation week in February say a whole table of students attended an evening event dressed as Adolf Hitler.

“There were about 10 people, all boys, who came dressed wearing swastika armbands and moustaches,” says a student who wished not to be named, fearing reprisals.

“There was basically free licence to choose whatever costume you want. I can’t believe that others could stand by and not step in. It baffles me.”

In recent years the college has introduced a strict social media policy but earlier images taken during a 2015 Orientation Week college quiz night depict teams of students dressed as racial stereotypes, including Asian and Jewish caricatures.

The “Jew Team” can be seen wearing hook noses and fake beards and holding bags with dollar signs. Two female students who are apparently dressed as flames stand alongside the students dressed as Auschwitz prisoners.

One individual has commented on Facebook, “Can you do anything slightly politically correct?” to which a student who attended wearing a hooked nose and shackles has responded, “Wouldn’t Jew like to know?” The image has been liked more than 40 times.

The Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) released a statement slamming the photos.

“This appalling behaviour denigrates the memory of the systematic extermination of 6 million Jews and millions of others during the Holocaust and trivialises the horrific crimes perpetrated by the Nazis,” said Noa Bloch, the national political affairs director of AUJS.

“That students can view this sort of behaviour as acceptable, or even funny, demonstrates the necessity for better antisemitism and anti-racism education in Australia and on our university campuses.”

PHOTOS OF STUDENTS IN BLACKFACE UNEARTHED

News.com.au has also obtained a video of a St Mark’s student repeatedly saying the word “n****r” along with more than 50 photos of students from the college — including current students — dressed in blackface.

The blackface photos have been captured at official college events every year between 2011 and 2016 before stricter social media policies were enacted. Some of the students pictured are still enrolled today. But news.com.au understands dressing up in racially offensive costumes still occurs within the college.

In one photo from 2016, a student has commented: “Happy birthday you cheeky negro” — making reference to a friend in blackface — “hope you don’t get arrested and brutalised #blacklivesmatter”.

Another depicts a student in blackface wearing a patient identification board around his neck which reads “Race: African; Blood type: AIDS Positive” with “HIV POSITIVE!!” also scrawled in large letters underneath.

Many of the photos come from the annual Garden Party hosted at the college.

In recent years, students have donned blackface to impersonate various African American athletes and artists including Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Derrick Rose, Mr T, Lil Wayne, Flavor Flav, Coolio and Rick Ross. Another male student came dressed in drag and blackface as Melanie Brown from The Spice Girls.

Ethan Taylor, president of the Union of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students (UATSIS), has condemned the images.

He said that images of students with coloured dye smeared on their faces and bodies references “historical events where people dressed up in blackface for the purpose of embarrassing and humiliating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and other people of colour”.

“Blackface has been a tool to degrade and oppress people of colour and will continue to be a tool to degrade and oppress regardless of the intention,” he said.

Mr Taylor says that the prolific number of photos spanning several years demonstrates a pattern of behaviour and a “failure to own up” on behalf of the institution.

“The lack of accountability is worse than the original transgression,” Mr Taylor said.

A recently exited student from St Mark’s College says that: “Garden party is an event where there are no rules regarding sexual or gender discrimination, racism and bullying.

“St Marks is a community that creates its own rules in relation to everything and often these are the opposite of the ‘good’ values society tries to teach children.

“Most people aim to mock religion, lower socio-economic individuals, promote drug use, and primarily to dress as ‘funny’ puns.”

The November 2016 edition of St Mark’s official magazine boasts that “costumes (this year) included safari-clad hunters … and even a troupe of Mexicans being led by Donald Trump”.

The 2015 edition of the magazine advises that the Garden Party dress “theme is unlimited” allowing collegians to show off their “creative side”. Photos reveal that several students attended dressed in head-to-toe blackface.

The magazine write-up concludes: “Sadly, the day quickly drew to a close and it was time to start scrubbing off the body paint and get ready to head back to the hard life of a uni student!”

INSTITUTION’S SHOULD ‘EXPECT CONDEMNATION’

Asked to respond to the criticisms, St Mark’s College outgoing chairman said: “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. The college chooses not to comment.”

The University of Adelaide issued a statement saying: “As an institution of higher learning, the University of Adelaide celebrates and is enriched by cultural diversity among our students and staff.

“We do not tolerate any form of racism, discrimination, or religious vilification on our campuses. Such behaviour is reprehensible wherever it occurs, and we condemn it. It is not reflective of our University community.”

But according to student leaders at the University of Adelaide, some members of senior management have privately dismissed the incidents as just students being “silly”, and “not evidence of racism”.

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham has condemned those responsible, including any institutions which are proved to have turned a “blind eye”.

“There’s a very clear line between some harmless pranks and acts of racism, sexism or antisemitism,” he said.

“Young adults should remember that when they cross that line it may follow them into their adult lives and be judged harshly by potential employers, while institutions who condone or turn a blind eye to it can rightly expect condemnation.”

Dr Gilbert Caluya, who specialises in representations of racial vilification at the University of Melbourne, said institutions often paid lip service to the issue while ignoring the broader structures which give rise to racism in society.

“It is easy to condemn instances of extreme racism while accepting other racial inequalities as part of normal life,” Dr Caluya said.

“Universities were originally conceived to be educational spaces for the brightest minds of each generation … It raises questions about our education system when students in our highest elite educational institutions feel that this is acceptable behaviour since these students will eventually become the leaders of our next generation across multiple industries.”

The Student Representative Council presidents of both the University of Adelaide and University of South Australia, Matthew Boughey and Jordan Mumford, issued a joint statement condemning the images.

“We will not tolerate this filth and will continue to call it out everywhere we see it,” they said.

“These appalling images spanning several years are further evidence of the toxic culture that has manifested in the college. Australia is a proudly multicultural society, and our university campuses and residential colleges should exemplify these values.”

National Association of Australian University Colleges (NAAUC) student president Alisha MacLean said the behaviour depicted in the images was unacceptable.

“It is NAAUC’s belief that discrimination on any grounds should play no part in official or informal culture in any residence … This is regardless of any joking intention they may have. Most importantly, it is critical that students are informed and aware so they may call out behaviours inconsistent with what is right,” she said.

RACISM ON OTHER CAMPUSES

The incident has also sparked wider questions about how right wing racism is festering on campuses around the country.

In June this year, students from Charles Sturt University (CSU) campus published photos of students dressed as Ku Klux Klan members standing above a male student dressed in blackface as a ‘cotton picker’. A second photo depicted three CSU students with shaved heads in pinstripe pyjamas, also featuring the Star of David, with a fourth student dressed as Adolf Hitler in the background.

The photos were widely condemned by anti-racism groups and the mainstream media.

One of the students depicted in the Charles Sturt photos was found dead in the shower earlier this year.

His family believe he suffered a seizure and fell over while in the shower, with his dad

blaming the backlash over the images as a factor in his death.

Late last year Swastikas and other antisemitic paraphernalia were also found on several university campuses across Australia including the University of Tasmania, Melbourne University, Monash University, University of Queensland and University of Sydney.

“These incidents, coupled with the Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s finding that reported antisemitic incidents in 2017 has increased by 9.5 per cent, are a sad reflection on parts of Australian society” said Noa Bloch from AUJS.

“With the rise of antisemitism on both the extreme left and right, we must be ever vigilant in protecting the tolerance and multiculturalism we cherish.”

In July, Charles Sturt University concluded their investigation into the matter and handed down penalties ranging from exclusion to suspension.

The students responsible were also required to complete the University’s Indigenous Australian Cultures, Histories and Contemporary Realities subject as well as engage with Indigenous and Jewish communities.

CSU Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Vann said, “These images resulted in global outrage and contact to the University from individuals around the globe. On a local level, it deeply offended our Indigenous and Jewish communities.”

KNOW MORE ABOUT COLLEGE CULTURE OR RACISM ON CAMPUS: Contact redzonereportinfo@gmail.com

Nina Funnell is a Walkley Award winning journalist and author of The Red Zone Report into hazing and sexual assault at Australian universities. Twitter: @NinaFunnell