World Wrestling Entertainment has come under fire for including an image of the Auschwitz concentration camp in a promotional video for a Saturday Wrestlemania match.
The five-minute video advertised the Wrestlemania 39 contest between Dominik and Rey Mysterio, with the still of Auschwitz shown in b-roll footage as Dominik spoke about his backstory of spending time in prison. Though the image has since been replaced with a stock photo of a jail cell in official replays, the promo featuring the concentration camp aired live during the event kickoff.
The Auschwitz Memorial took to Twitter to slam the advertisement, calling the WWE "shameless" for the photo's inclusion.
"The fact that [an] Auschwitz image was used to promote a WWE match is hard to call 'an editing mistake,' " the museum wrote. "Exploiting the site that became a symbol of enormous human tragedy is shameless and insults the memory of all victims of Auschwitz."
\u201cThe fact that Auschwitz image was used to promote a WWE match is hard to call "an editing mistake". Exploiting the site that became a symbol of enormous human tragedy is shameless and insults the memory of all victims of Auschwitz.\nhttps://t.co/b4bbYgWPwj\u201d— Auschwitz Memorial (@Auschwitz Memorial) 1680680849
The incident is far from the first time WWE has incorporated Holocaust or Nazi imagery within its stories. Last year, the organization filed to trademark the name Gunther Stark for a wrestler — the name of a Nazi U-boat commander. After backlash, they rescinded the trademark and settled on just Gunther.
In 2003, executives aimed to rebrand the character Heidenreich, who already had "reich" in his name, with one pitching to turn him into Nazi stormtrooper Baron Von Bava, who would wear a red armband and goose-step in the ring. The suggestion was reportedly so shocking that it sparked franchise owner Vince McMahon to leave the room and not return for the rest of the day.
McMahon himself has come under fire for using racial slurs, and there have been several characters deemed racially insensitive, ranging from stereotypes to actual slaves. Some of the most egregious examples, such as McMahon's remarks and a match featuring blackface, have been removed from streaming on NBC's Peacock.
WWE has yet to comment or release a statement on the recent Auschwitz image inclusion.
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