Amazon UK has removed a number of sale items featuring a notorious photo of a massacre of Jews during the Holocaust, after being alerted to their availability.
An investigation by Israel’s Channel 12 News found that “Holocaust victim” tank tops, t-shirts and hooded jumpers were available for purchase on the site.
The items were available from a seller called “Harma Art”, which describes its products as having “a unique style and character”. Another blurb for the seller’s products urges prospective buyers to “choose from our great collection of authentic designs and stand out from the crowd!”
Taken sometime between 1941 and 1943, it shows a Jewish man kneeling at the edge of a pit which is already filled with the dead bodies of other Jews.
Above him stands a member of SS Einsatzgruppe D, one of a number of Nazi death squads, holding a pistol pointed at the Jewish man’s head, about to shoot him. Watching the scene are numerous Nazi soldiers and workers. The name of the photo is said to have been written on the reverse side of the photograph.
Prior to the war, the town of Vinnitsa (Vinnitsya) had approximately 20,000 Jews. Most were either murdered in mass shootings or in extermination camps.
The items of clothing, which all featured the same picture, were being sold on Amazon UK for between £9 and £20, but have now been removed from the site.
However, the items were reportedly still available via Amazon France, with Israel’s I24 news channel reporting that as of Sunday, the French site was still offering them, as well as others featuring pictures of Hitler.
Commenting on Saturday, the Auschwitz Memorial in Poland tweeted: “’Holocaust victim tank top T-shirt’. It’s even hard to read such a description.”
It called on Amazon to “react quickly” and remove the items on sale from its website.
