In 2014, an investigation was opened into the Ohio State Marching Band’s culture after a songbook with highly controversial lyrics was made public.
An initial report discovered the book that had been a long held secret with songs centering on bestiality, rape and homophobia. A follow-up investigation revealed “Goodbye Kramer,” a song mocking the Holocaust, set to the tune of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” was added to the band’s repulsive repertoire in 2012. |
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The lyrics, to be sung to the tune of the 1981 Journey hit “Don’t Stop Believin’,” include references to Nazi soldiers “searching for people livin’ in their neighbor’s attic” and a “small town Jew … who took the cattle train to you know where.”
B’nai B’rith International, a Jewish human rights and advocacy group, condemned the song’s authors and praised the university’s response.
“It is never acceptable to trivialize Holocaust imagery,” B’nai B’rith said in a statement Thursday. “To do so in a jovial tone and completely for the sake of offending is even more abhorrent.”