Internet reacts to woman posing for picture at Auschwitz (PHOTOS)

Twitter/@MariaRMGBNews

An image of a woman reclining on the train tracks at Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland has gone viral. The woman appears to be posing and smiling with her head tilted back while a man takes a photo of her on his phone.

The image was shared on Twitter by Maria Murphy, a producer at GB News, on Saturday.

“Today I had one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. Regrettably, it didn’t seem everyone there found it quite so poignant,” she told her followers.

Today I had one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. Regrettably it didn’t seem everyone there found it quite so poignant. pic.twitter.com/3OdWavqC4P

— Maria 🇬🇧 (@MariaRMGBNews) April 15, 2023

During the Holocaust, Nazi Germany deliberately and methodically murdered approximately six million European Jews and at least five million others, including homosexuals, Romany, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Soviet prisoners of war.

The largest concentration camp and extermination center was Auschwitz, where 1.1 million people were murdered. Auschwitz is an international symbol of genocide and is now open to the public as a museum and memorial.

According to Murphy, the tourists in the photo had “no possible way of claiming ignorance” as they were already over an hour into their tour of the museum.

“I had just come out of arguably the worst place, the gas chambers. I saw multiple people, not just this woman, making efforts to put on their most flattering pose,” Murphy said.

The official Twitter account of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has said that although photography is allowed, visitors should show respect.

Pictures can hold immense emotional & documentation value for visitors. Images help us remember.

When coming to @AuschwitzMuseum 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.

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) April 16, 2023

This is not the first time the museum has been forced to remind its visitors to be respectful.

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

According to commenters on Murpy’s post, selfie-taking at culturally significant memorial sites is far from a rare occurrence.

Absolutely disgusting. When I went, people were taking selfies. So disrespectful

— GemmaSherlock (@GemmaSherlock2) April 16, 2023

Had a similar experience at the 9/11 memorial. Girls pouting and posing for photos whilst leaning on the engraved names of the people who lost their lives in the towers

— Alan Hooks (@hooks_alan) April 16, 2023

The tourists in the photo, which has been viewed over 30 million times, have not been identified.

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The tweet serves to remind us that the capture-all photo culture induced by social media is not always compatible with showing respect. The Auschwitz Museum is a place to confront humanity’s darkest history and to honour lives lost, not a place to get a photo for Instagram.