Auschwitz ice cream stand blasted for showing ‘disrespect’
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An ice cream stand operating a couple hundred yards from the Auschwitz concentration camp is in bad taste according to critics.
The structure in question showed up outside the infamous death camp’s front gate ‘a few days ago,’” Notes From Poland reported Sunday.
Polish outlet Gazeta Krakowska said the stand is situated on private property outside the camp’s “Gate of Death.”
Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation representative Dagmar Kopijasz reportedly told local media the “embarrassing” site is doing no one any favors.
“Here we care about history and education, about the memorial,” Kopijasz said. “The residents are upset because it looks awful.”
The Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau functions as a museum honoring political prisoners who died in the labor camp between 1940 and 1945. Above its entrance hang the words “Arbiet macht frie,” which translates to “work sets you free.” More than a million people — mostly Jews — are believed to have been killed at the facility.
An apparent photo of the confections operation also shows a pair of folding chairs set-up behind the unit. It seems to sit on a trailer bed. The business’s owner reportedly told Gazeta Wyborcza the shop operates in a space between the museum and a parking lot.
Roughly two million people visit the Polish town of Oświęcim to tour the camp annually. Construction of the camp began in January 1940 when Nazi Germany occupied Poland. Soviet Union troops liberated the 7,000 people still living in the death camp in January 1945.
The museum tweeted last month asking visitors to be mindful of Auschwitz’ history when visiting. It included tourists playing on the train tracks leading to the camp.
