Website Condemned For Selling Auschwitz-Themed Miniskirts, Pillows And Tote Bags

The Auschwitz Memorial and Museum said the items were "disturbing and disrespectful".
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The official Auschwitz museum has condemned a website for selling products that depict the former Nazi concentration camp, including a £30 mini skirt.

Red Bubble came under fire for promoting dozens of “disturbing” and “disrespectful” fashion and homeware items, including throw pillows and tote bags.

The site is a “global marketplace” that allows users to sell merchandise with their own prints on.

The Auschwitz Memorial and Museum tweeted on Tuesday: “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.”

The tweet included images of a mini skirt entitled “chimney” and a throw pillow featuring the infamous railroad tracks leading to the concentration camp.

An £11.90 tote bag showing a sign inside Auschwitz and a £17.50 coffee cup showing the camp are also listed on the site.

The products are no longer available to buy, but dozens of them are still listed on Redbubble’s website.

Auschwitz was a complex of more than 40 camps, with the original located in the town of Oświęcim in Poland, which was known as Auschwitz while under German occupation.

The Nazis converted what had been a local army barracks into a death camp where more than 1.1 million people, overwhelmingly Jewish, were killed.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau camp remains open as a museum in Poland.

Redbubble replied a short time later, writing: “We are taking immediate action to remove these and similar works available on these product types.

“Redbubble is the host of an online marketplace where independent users take responsibility for the images they upload. We have onsite reporting functions in place and are grateful to be made aware of these concerns.”

On Thursday, Redbubble CEO Barry Newstead, said: “I would like to apologise for the hurt that has been caused”, adding: “The Holocaust is an historical crime and tragedy that is personal to me.”

He said: “Redbubble is a learning organisation, we learn from our mistakes.”

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