Amazon removes 'disturbing' Auschwitz-themed Christmas decorations

The picture of the  main gate to concentration camp-  in Oswieciem, Poland.
A picture of the main gate to Auschwitz. [Getty]

Amazon has removed a number of Auschwitz-themed Christmas ornaments from its site after being called out on social media.

The official Twitter account for the Auschwitz Museum called out the online retailer for listing Christmas ornaments bearing the image of the Nazi concentration camp.

The items, listed by a seller on the Amazon site, include fridge magnets, Christmas tree decorations and a bottle opener.

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A representative for the Auschwitz Museum called the items “disturbing and disrespectful”, and called on Amazon to remove them.

Amazon responded within hours and removed the items in question.

But later the Auschwitz Twitter account found another couple of “disturbing” online products – a “massacre” mousepad depicting the concentration camp, and an ornament of a freight train transporting concentration camp prisoners for extermination.

Amazon also subsequently removed these items, as highlighted by the Auschwitz Museum on Twitter.

In a statement to Yahoo UK, Amazon confirmed that the "products in question have been removed".

It added: "All sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who do not will be subject to action, including potential removal of their account.”

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The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum protects the site of the former German Nazi concentration camp, the largest of its kind, where over 1.1. million people lost their lives.

Last year more than 2 million people visited the site.

It isn’t the first example of Holocaust images being used inappropriately.

Last month, luxury fashion brand Loewe apologised for selling a striped pyjama-style garment that resembled a concentration camp uniform.