Mini Skirt With Auschwitz Images Pulled From E-Commerce site
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While Jewish organizations praised the platform for its action and apology, they expressed concern the incident reflects a wider lack of awareness about the Holocaust.
“This insensitive and disrespectful display is just the latest in what has become a pervasive trend among certain vendors to flippantly offer up offensive items without pausing to consider the dangerous ramifications of turning symbols of human evil and human tragedy into fashion,” World Jewish Conference CEO and executive vice president Robert Singer told Fortune.
The Redbubble incident is reminiscent of three separate offenses in recent years by global fashion retailers.
“In 2014, Zara sold striped t-shirts bearing the Star of David, an obvious replicate of the striped pajamas worn by concentration camp inmates and the Jewish stars forced on Jews in the ghetto,” said Singer, expressing disbelief the company would do this since, “Just two years before, in 2012, Urban Outfitters sold a similar shirt, to the disgust of the Jewish community.”
Singer continued: “In 2017, the Prada-owned Miu Miu company sold a similar item, containing a yellow patch, removing it from its website only after representatives of the WJC personally called to express its discomfort and disgust.”
“Most e-tailers are not resourced to provide ongoing, active monitoring of all content available on the site,” Greg Portell, a lead global partner at A.T. Kearney’s consumer and retail practice, told Fortune. “Most aren’t curated like a traditional retail environment. Rather, they operate as communities with a spirit of open access. So this issue will continue to challenge social and commerce sites.”
We do not pre-screen every image that is uploaded to the site, as there are tens of thousands of images uploaded daily,” a spokesperson said, noting the company has a team, as well as third-party technology, which scours the site to identify and remove content and creators that violate its guidelines.
“While our team works tirelessly on this review,” the spokesperson said, “considering the sheer volume of designs that are submitted, we greatly appreciate our community, or others, bringing any problematic works to our attention if something is found that has not yet been removed.”
In fact, shortly after Redbubble tweeted Tuesday it had removed the products emblazoned with death camp photographs, the Auschwitz Memorial tweeted it found another shirt on the site, featuring a drawing of a character named “Dr. Holocaust.”
This item was removed as well, and the Auschwitz Memorial thanked the e-tailer for its message and actions.
A 2018 study conducted by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and Schoen Consulting found two-thirds of millennials are unaware of Auschwitz.
Citing the rise of “Nazi chic” aesthetics around the world—from Nazi themed bars and cafes, to people dressing up in SS uniforms for parades—Rabbi Cooper said, “This may seem like a fleeting incident, but it isn’t.”
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While Jewish organizations praised the platform for its action and apology, they expressed concern the incident reflects a wider lack of awareness about the Holocaust.
“This insensitive and disrespectful display is just the latest in what has become a pervasive trend among certain vendors to flippantly offer up offensive items without pausing to consider the dangerous ramifications of turning symbols of human evil and human tragedy into fashion,” World Jewish Conference CEO and executive vice president Robert Singer told Fortune.
The Redbubble incident is reminiscent of three separate offenses in recent years by global fashion retailers.
“In 2014, Zara sold striped t-shirts bearing the Star of David, an obvious replicate of the striped pajamas worn by concentration camp inmates and the Jewish stars forced on Jews in the ghetto,” said Singer, expressing disbelief the company would do this since, “Just two years before, in 2012, Urban Outfitters sold a similar shirt, to the disgust of the Jewish community.”
Singer continued: “In 2017, the Prada-owned Miu Miu company sold a similar item, containing a yellow patch, removing it from its website only after representatives of the WJC personally called to express its discomfort and disgust.”
“Most e-tailers are not resourced to provide ongoing, active monitoring of all content available on the site,” Greg Portell, a lead global partner at A.T. Kearney’s consumer and retail practice, told Fortune. “Most aren’t curated like a traditional retail environment. Rather, they operate as communities with a spirit of open access. So this issue will continue to challenge social and commerce sites.”
We do not pre-screen every image that is uploaded to the site, as there are tens of thousands of images uploaded daily,” a spokesperson said, noting the company has a team, as well as third-party technology, which scours the site to identify and remove content and creators that violate its guidelines.
“While our team works tirelessly on this review,” the spokesperson said, “considering the sheer volume of designs that are submitted, we greatly appreciate our community, or others, bringing any problematic works to our attention if something is found that has not yet been removed.”
In fact, shortly after Redbubble tweeted Tuesday it had removed the products emblazoned with death camp photographs, the Auschwitz Memorial tweeted it found another shirt on the site, featuring a drawing of a character named “Dr. Holocaust.”
This item was removed as well, and the Auschwitz Memorial thanked the e-tailer for its message and actions.
A 2018 study conducted by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and Schoen Consulting found two-thirds of millennials are unaware of Auschwitz.
Citing the rise of “Nazi chic” aesthetics around the world—from Nazi themed bars and cafes, to people dressing up in SS uniforms for parades—Rabbi Cooper said, “This may seem like a fleeting incident, but it isn’t.”
These actions just prove the axiom, “Those who fail to study history, are doomed to repeat it.” Too bad the veterans from WWII, Korea, and ‘Nam are dying off. I did know a few WWII vets (including my maternal grandfather, who was plastered every time I saw him) that flat out refused to talk about what kind of action they saw at that point in time.
Unfortunately, no one gives a tinker’s damn about the horrors of the Holocaust, except for the obscene amount of money that can be made on another culture’s horror story.
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What.
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Gosh.
Reminds of a tidbit I read in the margins of the National Lampoon years ago. A real thing.
Some fashion designer had models wear dark shadows around their eyes, and wear garments with wide vertical black and white strips "inspired" by the prisoners of the death camps. The project was banned from the fashion show runway, but even so. Who would even dream up such an idea?
Reminds of a tidbit I read in the margins of the National Lampoon years ago. A real thing.
Some fashion designer had models wear dark shadows around their eyes, and wear garments with wide vertical black and white strips "inspired" by the prisoners of the death camps. The project was banned from the fashion show runway, but even so. Who would even dream up such an idea?
That's what I was also asking myself: who would want to wear that?!
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Was that the work of some bot scrapung the internet for images?
Like the adult diaper image on an iphone case.
Or the heroin on a spoon image.
These things don't actually exist until someone orders it, it doesn't cost anything to put it on the website, and it's basically the current state of AI generated products: random royalty free images on any product, to be produced on demand.
I mean... this isn't even some neo nazi thing, or some tasteless design to attract attention, .... it's just so random
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