Ice cream van sets up… outside AUSCHWITZ: Anger at ‘disrespectful’ trader
EXCLUSIVE – Ice cream van set up… outside AUSCHWITZ: Anger over ‘disrespectful’ trader taking in money next to the ‘Death Gate’ of the infamous Nazi prison camp
- The ice cream truck has been condemned as ‘tasteless’ and ‘disrespectful’
- Van appeared outside the entrance to Auschwitz extermination camp, known as ‘Death Gate’
An ice cream truck has sparked outrage after setting up shop outside the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz.
The van that also sells waffles has been condemned by the Auschwitz Museum as “tasteless and disrespectful” after it appeared in front of the camp’s main entrance, known as the “Death Gate.”
In addition to a logo with the text ‘Ice Love’, a portable toilet has also been placed nearby.
Museum spokesman Paweł Sawicki said: ‘This is not only an example of aesthetic tastelessness, but also of disrespect for a nearby special historical site.
‘However, it is outside the protection area of the Holocaust Memorial, so unfortunately we have no influence on that.
An ice cream truck has sparked outrage after setting up shop outside the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz
The van that also sells waffles has been condemned by the Auschwitz Museum as “tasteless and disrespectful” after it appeared in front of the camp’s main entrance, known as the “Death Gate.”
The ice cream truck appeared outside the camp’s main entrance, known as the ‘Death Gate’
“We trust that the competent local authorities will solve this embarrassing problem.”
Founded by Hitler’s infamous SS shortly after Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Auschwitz grew into the greatest killing machine in history.
Much of the Nazis’ “Final Solution” where they sought to rid Europe of its Jewish population, by the time of liberation in 1945, more than 1.3 million people had been killed in the gas chambers, and through execution and torture .
About a million of them were Jews.
Since 1947 it has served as the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, which was placed on the World Heritage List by Unesco in 1979.
Dagmar Kopijasz of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Site Foundation said: ‘Here we care about history and education, about the monument…the residents are angry because it looks awful.’
Pictured: Prisoners in Auschwitz during World War II
The ice cream truck appeared outside the camp’s main entrance, known as the ‘Death Gate’
One of the residents quoted by local media said the ice cream truck showed a lack of respect for the dead, after all this is the largest cemetery in the world.
Another told MailOnline: ‘Auschwitz is not a theme park. It is not a Disney campground where people are allowed to eat waffles, hot dogs or ice cream before, during or after experiencing the horrors that have taken place here.
“We live every day in the shadow of this terrible history. These people come here and treat it like a zoo.’
The controversy comes after the museum urged visitors to “respect the memory” of those who died at the death camp after a photo of a woman posing on the camp’s train tracks went viral online last month.
The museum wrote: ‘Visitors coming to @AuschwitzMuseum should expect to enter the authentic site of the former camp where more than 1 million people were murdered. Please respect their memory.’
It added that in addition to the ban on eating and talking on mobile phones, one should “behave with appropriate solemnity and respect” under it.
Visitors are also expected to “dress in a manner appropriate to the nature of the place.”