GERMANTOWN, Tenn. – Officials with the Germantown Municipal School District are scrambling to explain to parents why pictures of two students dressed up as Nazis was published in a middle school yearbook.

The image showed students at Houston Middle School dressed in Nazi-style uniforms – with swastikas on their hats and Hitler mustaches – sparked a backlash from parents and local Jewish leaders, WREG reports.

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The “image without context is understandably upsetting a lot of people,” Temple Israel Rabbi Katie Bauman told WATN. “That picture contains symbols, contains these images that are very powerful, that carry with them a very painful story to my people in particular.”

The Germantown Municipal School District issued a statement that it “does not condone the placement of photos of this nature in any school publication and apologizes to anyone who was offended by the insensitive image.”

Houston Middle School Principal Liz Dias followed up with a letter to parents that attempts to explain the situation, according to Fox 13.

“I would like to clarify a picture in the yearbook,” she wrote. “At Houston Middle, one of our classes is Facing History and Ourselves, which is an ‘international educational and professional development organization whose mission is to engage students of diverse background in an examination of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry.’

“This particular lesson was entitled The Nazis in Power: Discrimination, Obedience, and Opportunism. The goal was to examine the racism and prejudice that occurred in Germany before and after Hitler became dictator,” she continued. “Students analyzed primary source documents and drew conclusions about racism and prejudices under the Nazi regime. Through role-playing, the students were asked to draw conclusions about unjust laws in Nazi Germany.”

Marti Tippens Murphy, spokesman for Facing History’s Memphis chapter, told WATN role-playing isn’t part of the program.

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“We strongly discourage students dressing up as Nazis or role playing,” Murphy said. “Our organization is to support educators and students so they can become informed, so that they could learn from history and it can help them make better decisions today.”

School officials are now offering a refund to anyone offended by the yearbook photo.

“We apologize that the yearbook picture may have offended anyone or has caused misunderstanding of our intent,” Dias wrote to parents. “As a matter of fact, this class and our annual Days of Diversity event are in place to help teach our students the importance and appreciation of our diverse world.

“Houston Middle celebrates diversity,” she wrote.