The Auschwitz Memorial has condemned the products available on the websites of two online shops that were stocking cushions and phone cases featuring photos of Nazi concentration camps victims.
The official Twitter account of the Auschwitz Memorial that preserves the site of the former extermination camp shared the screenshots on Wednesday of two products available in online stores. The museum said that although the system of uploading works on the website was probably “complicated” and “automatic”, verification system could have helped “as sometimes things go beyond just a bad taste and become disrespectful. Especially when images of victims are there”.
While the Pixels store was advertising “Soon To Be Exterminated Victims Arrive By Cattle Car at Auschwitz Poland Circa 1943” Pillow Case, Fine Art America online shop was offering a “Men Suffering From Starvation” iPhone X case for £20.
Unsurprisingly, Twitter users were shocked by the advertising on the online shops’ websites.
Fine Art America is a subsidiary company of Pixels and both websites tend to feature interchangeable items, and artists and photographers can upload their images to either FineArtAmerica.com or Pixels.com and then, after setting a price, sell their products to a global audience. The websites also take care of the printing and distribution of the products worldwide.
It is not possible to find the exact iPhone case and throw pillow on the shops’ websites anymore, but other products with Nazi symbolism, such as phone cases with Hitler images, Wehrmacht images and swastikas are still available to purchase.
Pixels and Fine Art America present themselves as the world’s largest print-on-demand technology companies and have been in business since 2006.