Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Crossfit Guru Does Handstand on Holocaust Memorial, Posts to Instagram

When Crossfit “guru” Dave Driskell travelled to Berlin, he decided to go visit the city’s iconic Holocaust memorial. He didn’t know what to expect — or that he probably shouldn’t pose on it and send an uplifting fitness message to his 70,000 followers.

His caption on Instagram reads: “Hello Berlin, Germany. 15 hour layover. Checking the sites. Drinking the beers. Eating the bratwurst. #vagabond #wanderlustwods #handstands #365daysofhandstands.”

Kicking up his legs, he posed with his trademark handstand on the memorial dedicated to the victims of Nazi genocide.

Image by Buzzfeed

As you would expect, people were outraged, commenting saying things like, “Social media suicide right here…”, “WTF?”, and “You know this is a Holocaust Memorial?! #inappropriate”

The post has since been deleted.

“I feel completely terrible as I would never purposely offend or disrespect this memorial had I known,” Driskell told Buzzfeed.

The next day, Driskell posted another picture to Instagram — this time with a a message of apology.

“We walked near this memorial not knowing what it was at the time. People were walking on the pillars. Kids running around. People sitting on them,” he wrote. “I apologize for this horrible misunderstanding and any offense this might have caused… I respectfully ask your forgiveness.”

A message from our Publisher & CEO 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.

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

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.