“There are better places to learn how to walk on a balance beam.”
The Auschwitz Memorial and Museum have asked visitors to stop taking disrespectful photos while touring the site.
They shared a series of inappropriate images taken by tourists, later shared on social media, asking users to be more mindful of the one million people who lost their lives at the site.
All of the photos depict young men and women balancing on the railway tracks leading towards the camp.
When you come to @AuschwitzMuseum remember you are at the site where over 1 million people were killed. Respect their memory. There are better places to learn how to walk on a balance beam than the site which symbolizes deportation of hundreds of thousands to their deaths. pic.twitter.com/TxJk9FgxWl
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) March 20, 2019
“When you come to Auschwitz Museum remember you are at the site where over one million people were killed,” they wrote on Twitter.
“Respect their memory. There are better places to learn how to walk on a balance beam than the site which symbolizes deportation of hundreds of thousands to their deaths.”
The museum’s plea has received widespread attention on social media, with hundreds of people retweeting the message and issuing words of support.
Many also expressed surprise and dismay at the number of photos depicting visitors seemingly making light of their trip to the concentration camp site.
In the comments, the museum went on to say:
“Sometimes people need to de-stress a bit,” they said. “There are however more and less appropriate way of doing this within the historical site.
“Walking along the rail-line of the platform where hundreds of thousands of people were sent to gas chambers is one of those not appropriate ones.
“Quote from the regulations: ‘Visitors to the grounds of the Museum should behave with due solemnity and respect.'”
Over one million people died at Auschwitz during the second World War, most of them Jewish prisoners.
It was the largest Nazi run concentration camp built during the time.
