Anne Frank Halloween Costume Sparks Internet Controversy
A costume in the likeness of Holocaust victim Anne Frank has received so much backlash that at least one online retailer has pulled it from its website.
The costume, on sale at HalloweenCostumes.com, featured a cheery young girl wearing a World War II-era dress, beret and bag. Twitter users picked up on the costume and quickly expressed their anger about it.
Yeah this seems super uncool. You seen this @carlosgeADL ? pic.twitter.com/uhKS3g9b2J
— Jerod MacDonald-Evoy (@JerodMacEvoy) October 15, 2017
What. The. Actual. Eff? @AnneFrankCenter are you aware? #annefrank #inappropriate #wtf #wtfisthis #wtfisgoingon #pleasebeascam pic.twitter.com/VxwMf8TEyx
— Noam Friedlander (@Noam25) October 16, 2017
Holocaust denial poll
Anne Frank Halloween costume
Neo-nazi trip to FL
Welcome to an America where the White House empowers anti-Semitism.— Adam Best (@adamcbest) October 17, 2017
.@funcostumes Anne Frank? You have got to be joking, right?
How in the world is this 'fun' ??? pic.twitter.com/CsWr7DV1wr— Far Right Watch (@Far_Right_Watch) October 15, 2017
Totally speechless. Just been shown this ad for an Anne Frank costume for Halloween. @AnneFrankCenter you might want to have a word pic.twitter.com/mu0t4lvY62
— Jude Habib (@JudeHabib) October 15, 2017
Carlos Galindo-Elvira, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Arizona office, summed up a lot of people’s feelings:
There r better ways 2 commemorate Anne Frank. This is not one. We should not trivialize her memory as a costume.
— carlosgeADL (@carlosgeADL) October 16, 2017
For those unfamiliar with her story, Anne Frank was a 15-year-old German teenager who hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam during World War II and wrote a diary about her experiences in hiding. After being discovered by the Gestapo, Anne and her family were split up. In October 1944, she, along with her sister Margot, was taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Anne nearly survived the war, but succumbed to typhus sometime in March 1945. Bergen-Belsen was liberated by British troops the next month. Anne’s diary, “The Diary of a Young Girl,” was published posthumously.
The costume has since been pulled from the Fun.com-run website. Ross Walker Smith, a spokesman for the site, tweeted on Sunday that while the costume had been removed, the company sells costumes for “many uses outside of the Halloween season, such as school projects and plays.’’
He added: “We apologize for any offense it has caused, as that’s never our intention.”
Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.
— Ross Walker Smith 🎃 (@RossWalkerSmith) October 16, 2017
A quick Google search reveals that the costume, and many others like it, are sold at other retailers online. One description for the same costume on CandyAppleCostumes.com says it “was designed by a British company to represent the British children who were evacuated from London to the countryside during World War II, like the Pevensie children in the Narnia books.”
Also on HuffPost
Stylish women (C) look to horses, 29 January 1939
German Nazi Chancellor Adolf Hitler
A picture dated 1939 shows German Nazi
Picture dated on September 1939 shows German
During german air raids on open belgium towns,this
Queen Elizabeth (R) chats with a girl
Two young Dutch refugee girls arrive
This file picture taken on August 25, 1944
US-born singer-entertainer poses during World War
George Herbert Walker Bush is pictured in the cockpit
US-born singer-entertainer Josephine Baker poses
Photo shows the house where Anne Frank
A young French girl clings to her mother
Charles de Gaulle (C)
Picture taken in 1942
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.