On Friday, the Thai girls' band BNK48 held a dance performance in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, during which a member of the band wore the Nazi swastika on stage.
The pictures of the 19-year-old dancer, Pichayapa "Namsai" Natha, wearing a swastika on stage were quickly distributed on social networks and aroused widespread criticism.
The Israeli embassy in Thailand issued a statement expressing shock at the incident. Smadar Shapira, a senior official at the Israeli embassy in Thailand, said that "the presentation of Nazi symbols by the singer of the band hurt the feelings of millions around the world whose relatives were murdered by the Nazis."
The German ambassador to Thailand, Georg Schmidt, also condemned the young singer who wore the swastika and invited members of the Thai band to "discuss the terrorism of the Nazi dictatorship with senior German embassy officials."
The next day, the young dancer turned to the audience during a performance and apologized with tears for wearing the swastika. "I want this apology to be an example to everyone, please forgive me," she said tearfully.
Later she added an apologetic post on Facebook in which she wrote, "I cannot correct my mistake, but I promise that it will never happen again."
This is not the first case in which Nazi symbols were used during cultural events in Thailand. In 2013, high-school principals in Bangkok were forced to apologize after students painted a Hitler mural during a graduation party. In 2011, students in another school chose to wear a Nazi uniform for a sports day at the school.