Online retailer HalloweenCostumes.com is facing a backlash after selling an “Anne Frank” costume on its website.
The costume, now removed from the site, “featured a green beret, blue dress, and brown satchel,” says the BBC.
The product’s original description on HalloweenCostumes.com read “We can always learn from the struggles of history!” and “Now, your child can play the role of a World War II hero”, The Evening Standard reported.
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Anger towards the costume erupted across social media, with many users saying it was disrespectful to Anne Frank's legacy.
Frank's now famous diary recounted how her and her family spent two years in hiding before they were found, arrested and transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944.
Ross Walker Smith, from HalloweenCostumes.com responded to one user on Twitter claiming that the retailer sells costumes for plays and projects in addition to Halloween and that the costume was never meant to cause offence.
But the leader of a chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, Carlos Galindo-Elvira said that the costume only trivialises Frank’s memory.
Many others shared his frustrations:
While others thought the issue called attention to a larger problem at hand:
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