breaking news·190511 - Online store slammed for selling Auschwitz skirts

An online store has come under a storm of criticism for selling items with images of Auschwitz-Birkenau - the Nazi German concentration camp. The website Redbubble has apologized for selling skirts, pillows, bags and other products that had photos of Auschwitz printed on them. The Auschwitz Memorial Museum tweeted that the products were "disturbing and disrespectful". It asked: "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 quickly responded and said it was taking "immediate action to remove" the items.

It is estimated that at least 1.3 million people were sent to and incarcerated in the concentration camp in German-occupied Poland during World War II. Over 90 per cent of these were Jews. The Nazis murdered 1.1 million of the detainees between 1940-45. Poles, Romani, Russian prisoners of war and others were also killed. Most of the 1.1 million died in the gas chambers. Others died of starvation, hard labor and disease. Redbubble said it, "takes a strong stance against racism and violence, including the atrocities committed in Nazi concentration camps". A Twitter user wrote: "How very disrespectful to the memories of those murdered by the Nazis and the pain of their families."