A visitor to Auschwitz’s inappropriate photo showing her striking a modelling pose and smiling while sitting on the railroad tracks leading to the site of the former death camp led to widespread condemnation after a photo of the incident was posted to social media.
The visitor was captured sitting leisurely on the train tracks used to carry Jews and other Nazi prisoners to their deaths at Aushcwitz, leaning back as a photographer took her photo.
A photo of the offensive behavior of the photographer and the model was taken by GB News producer Maria Murphy on Saturday.
Murphy, who was also visiting the concentration camp, posted it to Twitter along with the caption: “Today I had one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. Regrettably it didn’t seem everyone there found it quite so poignant.”
The photo shows the woman in a red flannel shirt and black pants gazing at the sky while smiling. She is siting on the tracks and leaning back as she appears to relax in the sunshine. Another visitor looks back at her in apparent disbelief.
Murphy’s tweet now has over 30 million views, with users furious over the pair’s behavior.
Murphy added: “Total detachment from reality. That’s the only explanation.”
One Twitter user noted that the guides at Auschwitz request visitors not to take such photos out of respect.
Murphy concurred, tweeting: “We were asked repeatedly to be mindful and respectful. You would think this sort of thing wouldn’t need to be specified as a no-go for that criteria.”
When a user wondered, “Shocking. Do they actually know where they are!”, Murphy replied that the tour had been going for between one and two hours at that point.
“There was no possible way of claiming ignorance,” she said.
In response, the Auschwitz Museum tweeted: “Pictures can hold immense emotional & documentation value for visitors. Images help us remember. When coming to [the Auschwitz Museum] visitors should bear in mind that they enter the authentic site of the former camp where over 1 million people were murdered. Respect their memory.”