Amid public outrage over offensive Halloween costumes, an online retailer removed a children’s costume portraying teenage Holocaust victim Anne Frank.
HalloweenCostumes.com issued an apology on Tuesday through a statement, saying, “We would like to apologize for any offense this has caused. Due to the feedback from our customers and the public, which we take seriously, we have elected to stop selling this costume immediately.”
Ross Walker Smith, a public relations specialist for the retailer’s parent company Fun.com, said in a statement posted on Twitter, “We sell costumes not only for Halloween, but for many uses outside of the Halloween season, such as school projects and plays.”
“We apologize for any offense it has caused, as that’s never our intention,” he added.
Some have been quick to note that the actual costuming does not reference Anne Frank, but is rather called an “Evacuee Girl” costume. Others pointed out that it is not a “sexy” Anne Frank costume and that many young girls like to dress as their heroes on Halloween out of respect, whether that’s Wonder Woman or Anne Frank.
“We are glad the Anne Frank costume was removed from the catalogue, but it’s hard to believe that anyone thought this was an appropriate costume for Halloween,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told Newsweek. “It shows we still have a long way to go in terms of educating people about what happened during the Holocaust, and why this unique event in human history should never be trivialized.”
This is not the first time a retailer displayed a Holocaust-related item for sale. In 2015, Urban Outfitters featured a gray and white striped tapestry with pink triangles inscribed. The design came under fire, including by the ADL, as “eerily reminiscent” of clothing gay prisoners were forced to wear in concentration camps.
Three years earlier, Urban Outfitters was caught selling a T-shirt with a six-pointed star badge that looked like the Star of David patch European Jews were forced by the Nazis to wear. Then-ADL Philadelphia director Barry Morrison said the symbolism was “extremely distasteful and offensive.”
Nor is this the first time a costume retailer has come under fire for selling something, though unrelated to Holocaust, that has been deemed offensive. In 2016, a month after reality star Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint, Costumeish.com sold a $69.99 “Parisian Heist Robbery Victim Kit” for people to dress up as Kardashian, the robbery victim. Although Kardashian was not mentioned by name, the details of the costume left almost no room for doubt.
