Amazon removes 'disturbing' Christmas ornaments featuring Auschwitz

Amazon has since taken down several Christmas ornaments with images of Auschwitz concentration camps after Auschwitz Memorial, the museum that manages the site, tweeted about them saying it "does not seem appropriate".  According to the initial tweet, Auschwitz Memorial said: "Auschwitz on a bottle opener is rather disturbing and disrespectful. We ask Amazon to remove the items of those suppliers."

https://twitter.com/AuschwitzMuseum/status/1201069830553649153

Auschwitz Memorial later tweeted that there were more offensive objects such as mouse pads labelled as "Massacre Auschwitcz Birkenau Jewish Death". According to the memorial, these objects were initially removed, but a later check showed that more of such products from other sellers were still around. The disrespectful objects initially sold by third-party seller Fcheng included Christmas tree ornaments, bottle opener, and mouse pad, which contained images of train tracks leading to the entrance of Auschwitz II-Birkenau, according to multiple media reports including The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN.

As such, Auschwitz Memorial said, "We start getting an impression that people took upon themselves the job that someone at Amazon should be doing: verifying the products that are uploaded there."

Separately, CNN reported that the third-party seller such as Fcheng were also selling Christmas ornaments with images of the Genbaku Dome at the Hiroshima bomb site. Marketing has reached out to Amazon for comment.

Many of the Christmas ornaments by Fcheng mainly featured images of cities and landscapes from various parts of the world including Mongolia, Greece, Italy, and Holland. Jollin Travel Gifts is listed as the manufacturer.

Separately last year, Amazon UK also found itself in hot soup when it was slammed for a racist ad featuring white children dressed in a Chinese traditional outfit posing with slant eyed gestures. Facebook user Lily Ladlow demanded Amazon explained its thought process behind the product photo, adding that she was “dismayed at this level of marketing” and that Amazon was encouraging casual racism.