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I saw this tweet on Twitter (it’s been self deleted by its author since it was first posted here, but add Wayback Machine link for reference) and am a bit skeptical about the claims made it—and implied—by it. Images from the tweet below; text from the Dan Hett who posted it on Twitter is here:

“this poor guy dressed himself and his kids as historical figures for halloween and got a load abuse. unbelievable, the costumes can't be that ba.... okay never mind”

First, while I believe the photo of the adult man and some children is a real photo, was this photo actually taken in 2018 during a Halloween celebration? Where did it come from? Additionally, a screenshot of supposed claims of violence made against the man and the children are made. But did this all actually happen? It seems like the claims allude to this happening in the U.S., but the avatar for the screenshot of the complain clearly shows a German flag.

Did this man dress up as a Nazi and dress up his child as Adolf Hitler for Halloween in 2018 and have he—and the children he was with—physically threatened by strangers?

enter image description here

Text claiming to be from the adult dressed as a Nazi in the picture

Giacomo1968
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  • What would you accept as evidence, either way? – Oddthinking Oct 27 '18 at 01:47
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    @Oddthinking Some evidence that this all occurred. Such as quotes from local media or something that states definitively “Yes! This is real, and this happened in XYZ place.” – Giacomo1968 Oct 27 '18 at 01:52
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    @Oddthinking In general, I would like some verification because while I can believe the pic was taken, I am not 100% convinced this happened in 2018 and not 100% convinced the presented response is real either. – Giacomo1968 Oct 27 '18 at 02:31
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    “Trail of treats” seems suspiciously similar to “trail of tears”. I suspect trolling in the quoted FB post. – Andrew Grimm Oct 27 '18 at 02:45
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    @AndrewGrimm: Seems to be a real thing, based on a pun. e.g. https://www.facebook.com/events/297109091068959/ – Oddthinking Oct 27 '18 at 05:41
  • @AndrewGrimm - The organization which runs the Minnesota Renaissance Festival also runs a "Trail of Terror" event every October. That sort of naming for outdoor events where the "audience" follows a linear path (i.e., a "trail") seems fairly common. – Dave Sherohman Oct 27 '18 at 08:10
  • Hmm. Dressed as historical monsters on Halloween. – JRE Oct 27 '18 at 08:12
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    This claim seems to involve someone who has no other claim to fame. It's not like he's a [member of a royal family](https://www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2017/08/28/how-prince-harry-went-nazi-dress-ups-model-royal) or an [analyst in Human Rights Watch who investigated Israel](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/15/human-rights-watch-nazi-israel). The claim is about some random member of the public. Is a random member of the public and his family wearing such costumes a notable claim? Or should we let it go? – Andrew Grimm Oct 27 '18 at 22:49
  • Related meta, except that examples given in that question involved notable people: [Should there be stronger notability criteria for claims about living people?](https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2954/should-there-be-stronger-notability-criteria-for-claims-about-living-people) – Andrew Grimm Oct 27 '18 at 22:57
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    The rant against the "Tolerant Left" in the last sentence of the tweet makes me wonder whether the costumes were a genuine Halloween idea or a political provocation using children. – Evargalo Oct 29 '18 at 10:18
  • **Of course** he would get heckled. Why else would he dress up as a nazi? Voting to close as not notable. – gerrit Oct 30 '18 at 14:50
  • OK so apparently this really blew up, i think this is notable now. Just google the guy's name. – DenisS Oct 30 '18 at 17:32
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    So Mr. Goldbach has a history of posting extreme anti-liberal thoughts, overtly racist thoughts and images, and anti-Semitic stuff. Considering that his "story" is only told through his version, perfectly fits his worldview, and reads like something straight out of "/r/ThatHappened", it's going to be hard to prove that this did or didn't happen. It is notable that he has since come out and apologized for dressing as an SS officer and dressing his son up as Hitler. The problem is that there are a number of possibilities here and no way to confirm any of them to be true without video proof. – DenisS Oct 30 '18 at 17:39
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    1. His story is 100% accurate, and he truly does enjoy portraying historical figures and didn't think that a SS uniform and a Hitler outfit would provoke responses, and was attacked. 2. He's "trying to offend the liberals" by doing something not PC, and was attacked for doing this 3. He's "trying to offend the liberals" and made up the whole story 4. He's "trying to offend the liberals" and people yelled at him, and he embellished the story to make him be attacked – DenisS Oct 30 '18 at 17:44

1 Answers1

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A Kentucky news station interviewed Bryant Goldbach, who apologized for the costumes. I don't know if it's true or not that they were threatened over the costume, but other interviews conducted by the station made it pretty clear that people weren't happy about the costumes at all.

This happened at the 2018 Owensboro, KY Trail of Treats.

Goldbach also provided this photo:

Bryant Goldbach dressed as a Nazi with his son at the 2018 Owensboro, KY Trail of Treats

Giacomo1968
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Laurel
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    Good answer! And fair enough about the threats; which I doubt happened. I think people might have actually been more scared of this jerk and just casually criticized him, but not threaten his child. Also, in the video he claims he “came up with the idea at the last minute.” Really? Like he had no costume ideas so he just went though his closet, got the readily available Nazi gear he had and just ran with it? What a putz! – Giacomo1968 Oct 27 '18 at 15:39
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    Perhaps a reference to the father's thinking that, because it was a historical figure, he says he was surprised that people took offense, would flesh out the events a bit more. – PoloHoleSet Oct 29 '18 at 21:26
  • @PoloHoleSet: Or it could lend undue weight to a pretty poor argument? – DevSolar Oct 30 '18 at 07:02
  • @DevSolar - I don't have a huge problem believing that someone is either so sheltered/isolated/ignorant or is immersed enough in their own racism that they genuinely thought of it as "just" a historical theme. Now, if you're looking for a justification or excuse to make it not offensive, yeah, that's weak. If you're looking for whether this guy set out to intentionally offend most of the society he lives in, I can believe he wasn't doing it as a big "F U." But, that is his claim, he did immediately apologize for it, so I think that's part of the content for a more complete picture of events. – PoloHoleSet Nov 01 '18 at 15:47