Auschwitz-Patterned Skirts Removed From Online Store After Complaints
‘Work Sets You Free’: The gates of the Auschwitz death camp today. Image by Wikimedia Commons
Auschwitz photo printed on skirt Image by twitter
An e-commerce site was forced to stop selling miniskirts, tote bags and other merchandise printed with photos of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the Associated Press reported.
Australian online shop Redbubble carried items with black-and-white images of the Nazi death camp, its gas chambers and the railway tracks leading into it. A skirt in the collection went for $40 and a pillow for $45, according to The Washington Post. There was also a tote bag featuring a German-language warning sign at Auschwitz, where more than a million Jews and minorities were sent to their death during the Holocaust.
The Auschwitz Memorial and Museum in Poland recently condemned the site and its products. Employees were “shocked and outraged” for the lack of respect for Holocaust victims, museum spokesman Bartosz Bartyzel said Wednesday.
The museum reached out to Redbubble’s customer service department on Twitter.
.@redbubble Do you really think that selling such products as pillows, mini skirts or tote bags with the images of Auschwitz – a place of enormous human tragedy where over 1,1 million people were murdered – is acceptable? This is rather disturbing and disrespectful. pic.twitter.com/cdPvZGMXC6
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) May 7, 2019
“Do you really think that selling such products as pillows, miniskirts or tote bags with the images of Auschwitz — a place of enormous human tragedy where over 1.1 million people were murdered — is acceptable?” read the tweet. “This is rather disturbing and disrespectful.”
The company, in which artists can create a design and sell to consumers directly, admitted in a response tweet that “the nature of this content is not acceptable” and that it was taking “immediate action to remove these and similar works available on these product types.”
In a separate statement, it said: “Redbubble takes a strong stance against racism and violence, including the atrocities committed in Nazi concentration camps.”
Alyssa Fisher is a writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
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