Online store pulls products for sale with ‘Zyklon B’ logo after outcry
Australian platform removes cups, T-shirts, cellphone cases and postcards bearing the name of infamous chemical used by Nazis to murder millions in gas chambers
An Australian-based online purveyor of customized products has come under fire again, this time for selling items with a “Zyklon B” parody logo printed on them.
On sale via Redbubble were cups, T-shirts, cellphone cases and postcards bearing the name Zyklon B, one of the chemicals — crystalline hydrogen cyanide — that Nazis used to murder millions in its death camp gas chambers.
According to the Daily Mail, the offensive items have now been removed from the site of Redbubble,which currently offers 70,000 different T-shirts for sale.
The Berliner Zeitung newspaper broke the story when it published a photo of the Zyklon B wares, which are designed to look like the logo of the Oral B dental hygiene brand.
According to the Daily Mail, British design firm ImperivmCloth marketed the products on the online platform, captioning the wares: “You too can look minty fresh with this beautiful Zyklon-B design.”
Geschmacklos: Die Internetseite #Redbubble, eine offene Verkaufsplattform, die unter anderem von #Berlin aus betrieben wird, sorgt erneut für Entsetzen – T-Shirts und Tassen mit Zyklon B-Aufdruck.#Internet #onlineshopping
via @BERLINER_KURIER https://t.co/eMQl95V72m— Recherche-& Informationsstelle Antisemitismus RIAS (@Report_Antisem) June 9, 2019
A Redbubble spokesperson told the Daily Mail that the Zyklon B products had been removed and the platform was working to ensure offensive products don’t remain on the site.
“As a global marketplace for more than 845,000 independent artists, Redbubble is continuously working to adjust our policies and procedures with regards to content of a sensitive nature,” the spokesperson said. “We have taken immediate action to remove the works in question and will continue removing any designs or images that violates our Community Guidelines and User Agreement.”
Last month, Redbubble, which sells tens of thousands of items bearing slogans of all kinds, was pressured to remove mini-skirts printed with the Arabic word for God – “Allah” – following a Twitter storm of criticism.
Also removed recently – after a Twitter complaint from staff at the Auschwitz concentration camp memorial in Poland – were miniskirts and handbags printed with images of the death camp.
