An insensitive comment pertaining to a visit to Auschwitz Museum which was posted on TripAdvisor was finally removed after the comment was initially approved as having complied with the submission guidelines of the site which features reviews of travel experiences.
“My Newborn Babys…Came Out Deformed”: Auschwitz Comment Posted on TripAdvisor
Greater than one million people — most of whom were Jewish — were killed by the Nazis at Auschwitz during World War II. Auschwitz is considered hallowed ground and a stark reminder of what can happen when inappropriately horrific human behavior spirals out of control.
“We have reported this review of the @AuschwitzMuseum posted on @TripAdvisor”, according to the official Twitter site of Auschwitz Memorial. “‘This place was great went there with my newborn babys to test the chamber but they came out deformed. But its fun for the family.’”
We have reported this review of the @AuschwitzMuseum posted on @TripAdvisor.
'This place was great went there with my newborn babys to test the chamber but they came out deformed. But its fun for the family.'
According the company, it complies with their submission guidelines. pic.twitter.com/JEHuLaTKxP
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) May 6, 2021
In reference to TripAdvisor, “According the company, it complies with their submission guidelines.”
The review was eventually removed from TripAdvisor; and the user who wrote it was banned.
A statement from TripAdvisor assured that discrimination is not tolerated and millions of reviews which violate its guidelines are regularly blocked or removed: “In this case, our initial screening failed to identify this review as promoting intolerance. Through our escalation process, this review was removed. We always aim to get it right the first time and we apologize to the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum and the Jewish community at-large for this initial miss.”
The official response from Auschwitz Memorial was “Thank you @TripAdvisor for removing the review.”
Thank you @TripAdvisor for removing the review.
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) May 6, 2021
Summary
The executives at TripAdvisor might want to consider improving its process of the approval of comments to its site to help avoid incidents like this one from happening again…
…but in the meantime, I will let the comments on Twitter in response to the aforementioned messages speak as to how I feel about this — as well as the articles which I have written to this point pertaining to my visits to the former concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau, both of which I highly recommend visiting:
- Gas Chamber I and Incinerator Room at Auschwitz
- “Your Mother Went Up in the Smoke”: A Sad Short Story From Auschwitz
- Video of Auschwitz as a Political Gaffe: A Positive Effect
- Dachau: A Photographic Essay
- Dachau: More Photographs in Honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day
All photographs ©2017 by Brian Cohen.