Visitors Take Selfies With Hitler At Auschwitz In Indonesian Museum
An Indonesian woman takes a selfie with a life-size wax sculpture of Adolf Hitler against a backdrop of the Auschwitz concentration camp at a museum in Yogyakarta. Image by HENRYANTO/AFP/Getty Images
(JTA) — A museum in Indonesia defended a wax figure of Adolf Hitler set against a backdrop of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
Da Mata, a waxwork and visual effects museum in Yogyakarta, amid outrage over the display said it was “fun.” The Hitler figure has been up since 2014.
“No visitors complained about it. Most of our visitors are having fun because they know this is just an entertainment museum,” Warli, the museum’s marketing officer, told The Associated Press in an article that appeared Friday.
Warli, who goes by a single name, said Hitler was “one of the favorite figures for our visitors to take selfies with.” Nazi Germany under Hitler’s command murdered 6 million Jews during the Holocaust.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center and Human Rights Watch denounced the display.
“Everything about it is wrong. It’s hard to find words for how contemptible it is,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told AP. “The background is disgusting. It mocks the victims who went in and never came out.”
Andreas Harsono, an Indonesia researcher for Human Rights Watch, called the setup “sickening.”
Warli said the museum would consider removing the display after being informed of criticism from the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
“We will follow the best advice and the response from the public,” he said. “Let people judge whether the character is good or bad.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
