Thai university apologises for Hitler mural

The huge billboard was placed outside the art faculty of Chulalongkorn university as part of a tribute to this year's graduates.

It said ‘Congratulations' in bold white letters and showed Hitler with his arm raised in a Nazi salute next to Batman, Captain America, the Incredible Hulk and Iron Man.

"[We] would like to formally express our sincere apology for our students' superhero mural," the art school dean Suppakorn Disatapundhu said in a statement yesterday. "I can assure you we are taking this matter very seriously."

The billboard was up for two days before being removed on Saturday in response to criticism.

Suppakorn said new art students had painted the banner as part of a traditional send-off from incoming students to the graduating class, and it was one of dozens of banners and billboards across the campus during the university's commencement period.

The artistic vision behind the picture was to show that good and bad people co-exist in the world, Suppakorn said after summoning the students for an explanation.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, an international Jewish human rights group, had criticised the banner before its removal.u00a0