Red Bubble
- The Auschwitz Memorial demanded an online retailer cease selling products emblazoned with images of the notorious Nazi death camp.
- Redbubble, a US marketplace for independent designers, listed a pillow, a tote bag, and a mini-skirt with images of Auschwitz on.
- Auschwitz tweeted: "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?"
- Redbubble said the items were against its community guidelines, and have been removed.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
The Auschwitz Memorial criticised an online marketplace for selling mini-skirts and tote bags covered with images of the Nazi death camp where 1.1 million people were murdered.
In messages posted on Twitter, staff who run the memorial highlighted items sold by Redbubble, a US online marketplace for independent designers.
Auschwitz listed the following items which feature photos of the death camp, the most notorious of the sites used by Nazi Germany for the mass murder of Jews and other minorities.
- A $45 throw cushion with a photo of Auschwitz’s train tracks — used to transport hundreds of thousands of victims to their deaths.
- A $15 tote bag with an image of Auschwitz’s electric fence, used to deter escapees, with the German for "Attention! High voltage! Risk of death!" on it.
- A $40 mini-skirt depicting an image of the main Nazi guardhouse at Auschwitz.
Red Bubble
More than 1.1 million people lost their lives at Auschwitz from 1940 until its closure in 1945, and more than six million Jews died in camps like Auschwitz across Germany and Nazi-occupied Poland. As well as Jews, the Nazis targeted groups including Slavs, intellectuals, gypsy travellers, and gay people.
Auschwitz called out Redbubble on Twitter, writing: "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."
Red Bubble
Redbubble responded: "Thank you for bringing this to our attention. The nature of this content is not acceptable and is not in line with our Community Guidelines."
"We are taking immediate action to remove these and similar works available on these product types."
Kacper Pempel/Reuters
"Redbubble is the host of an online marketplace where independent users take responsibility for the images they upload."
In April, Auschwitz urged people to stop posting social media photos of themselves posing on the railway tracks that carried Holocaust victims to their deaths.
They tweeted: "There are better places to learn how to walk on a balance beam than the site which symbolizes deportation of hundreds of thousands to their deaths."
Read more: Former Auschwitz guard describes camp in chilling detail
Auschwitz became the largest of the 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps in German-controlled France, Poland, Russia, and Germany in 1942.
Redbubble — who host 700,000 artists, designers, and fashion labels — say they list independent designers with "Uncommon designs on awesome stuff."
The pillow, the mini-skirt, and the tote bag are no longer listed on Redbubble.
Redbubble did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider.
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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Bill Bostock)