UPDATE: As of Thursday morning, a flag with a peace symbol has been placed in the location where the Nazi flag had been displayed.
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A Nazi flag hung in an Oshkosh neighborhood this weekend continues gathering attention tonight. Two separate tenants live in the duplex where the flag was displayed but only one of them is responsible for the hanging the flag for everyone to see. Tonight NBC26 shares what the person who put the flag up is ready to explain regarding why they did it.
Tonight we're finding out why one renter in Oshkosh thought it was appropriate to wave a Nazi flag in their quite Midwestern neighborhood in northeast Wisconsin. For safety reasons NBC26 is not going to name the person who put the flag up, but we are going to let their written words see the light of day explaining why they displayed the flag in the first place.
In an email written to NBC26 the person who hung the Nazi flag says that on Saturday night a debate was going on within their home, a debate about the current political state of our country according to the email. That person said quote, "the reason we chose to do so was simple in our minds. To us, America today feels much like it's heading towards an era likened to the times of Nazi Germany."
They also said, "Our president has spoken out in the past with plans of action that eerily mirror the times of Hitler. We were simply exercising our constitutional right to freedom of speech."
And perhaps the most powerful statement shared with us from the tenant who put the flag up was this, "we are very sorry for the extreme misunderstanding of our actions and we would like to let people know that we meant no disrespect."
That tenant went on to say in the email that they are not a racist, not a Nazi and they do not condone hate. But by looking at the attention this story is getting on Facebook many people are making their own interpretations about what the waving of that flag really means.
The other tenants in the duplex say they are being harassed and are currently trying to move on the account of the attention the Facebook post has brought to their home. Saying they have received death threats and even damage to their car. NBC26 will continue following this story as it develops.
