Anne Frank Halloween Costume Yanked After Social Media Uproar

Image by halloweencostumes.eu

By Ari Feldman October 16, 2017

An online Halloween costume retailer has pulled an Anne Frank costume after an onslaught of criticism on social media. HalloweenCostumes.com is no longer showing its “Anne Frank costume for girls” on its European and American sites.

In the product’s description, the company described Frank as a hero, writing that “we can always learn from the struggles of history.”

The European version of the site listed the costume as ‘World War II Evacuee.’

But after a slew of criticism on social media, the company is no longer offering the product.

A spokesperson for the company responded to the mockery on Twitter, saying that the costume might have found use in a school play.

pic.twitter.com/IdoB15TpRZ

— Ross Walker Smith ? (@RossWalkerSmith) October 16, 2017

The statement did little to quell the growing tide of criticism. The website the Blaze called the outfit “the worst costume of all time.”

“There are more appropriate ways to commemorate the legacy of Anne Frank than through a Halloween costume, which is offensive and trivializes her suffering and the suffering of millions during the Holocaust,” Alexandra DeVitt, a spokeswoman for the Anne Frank Center, told Fox News.

Frank is famous for her diary penned while hiding from the Nazis.

Contact Ari Feldman at feldman@forward.com or on Twitter @aefeldman.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at feldman@forward.com. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO