An Indonesian museum that allowed visitors to take selfies with a life-size wax sculpture of Hitler against a backdrop of Auschwitz concentration camp has removed the exhibit following international outrage, the manager said Saturday.
De ARCA Statue Art Museum in the Javanese city of Jogjakarta drew swift condemnation from rights groups after details of the controversial display were published in foreign media.
The exhibit features a sure-footed Hitler standing in front of a huge photo of the gates of Auschwitz -- the largest Nazi concentration camp where more than 1.1 million people were killed.
Poor schooling, lack of awareness and ignorance
The museum’s operations manager, Jamie Misbah, said the the wax sculpture had been removed after the building was alerted to criticism from prominent Jewish human rights organisation the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
"We don’t want to attract outrage," Misbah told AFP.
"Our purpose to display the Hitler figure in the museum is to educate."
The Hitler sculpture is one of about 80 figures, including world leaders and celebrities, at the wax and visual effects centre.
The Nazi-themed exhibit was a popular attraction for visitors to take selfies, and photos circulating on social media show customers -- including children -- posing with Hitler and in some cases using the Nazi salute.
Misbah said he thought it was "normal' for visitors to take photos in front of displays, but said the museum respected the exhibit had upset people from around the world.
Historians have blamed poor schooling for the lack of awareness and sensitivity about the Holocaust in Indonesia, which is home to the world's biggest Muslim population and a small number of Jews.
In January, a controversial Nazi-themed cafe in the western Javanese city of Bandung closed.
The venue, which featured swastika-bearing walls and photos of Hitler, sparked global uproar when reports about the unusual venue surfaced several years ago.
Source: Agence France-Presse, November 11, 2017
Auschwitz's 'Death Wall', November 11, 1941
On November 11, 1941, on a day celebrated in Poland as the Independence Day, the first execution by a shot in the back of the head at a close range using a small-calibre silent gun took place in the German Nazi Auschwitz concentration camp.
It was done in the courtyard of Block 11, at the execution wall, also called “the Death Wall”.
The condemned prisoners were led to the wall one by one, naked, with their hands tied behind.
Before the execution each of the had his camp number written on the chest.
The camp commandant, the camp manager and the camp doctor were present. The execution was performed by Rapportführer Gerhard Palitzsch.
On that day Germans shot 151 prisoners: 80 Poles brought from Mysłowice and until the moment of execution held in bunkers of Block 11 (this group is mentioned in some testimonies, yet no documents about them survived); 27 prisoners who were kept in the cells of Block 11 for different reasons and arrested there between October 10 and November 2 as well as 44 prisoners called from the camp by the Political Department – camp Gestapo.
In their death certificates it said: ‘Erschiessung wegen Widerstand gegen die Staatsgewalt’ (shot because of resistance activity against the state authority).
One of the executed was a sculptor and reserve lieutenant Tadeusz Lech, who a couple of hours before his death said to one of the prisoners: “At least I am glad that I will die on November 11”.
Source:
Auschwitz Memorial / Muzeum Auschwitz (Facebook), November 11, 2017
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
