An influencer has been widely condemned on social media after she was filmed posing while sitting on the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, Germany.
TikTok account that goes by the handle @influencersinthewild shared the video of a woman, sitting on one of the concrete slabs of the memorial, wearing a black sports bra and leggings. She appeared to be getting ready to pose for the photographer that was with her.
The photographer then gave her instructions, and the woman leaned back, moving her hair to avoid it being messed up by the wind.
Unbeknownst to them, they were being filmed and a woman can be heard talking about the pair, saying: "I'm horrified beyond words".
The footage has garnered millions of views on the social media platform, with many labeling the influencer as "insensitive".
At the time of writing, over 1.7 million people have liked the post, and it has received more than 30.5K comments.
One outraged critic wrote: "Notice how everyone is staring at her bc it is so disrespectful [sic]," while another added: "the people saying 'the artist said it's ok to take photos' are completely missing the point of why this is disrespectful."
A third added: "'I'm horrified beyond words. That sums it up."
The latter comment refers to a statement made by the architect, Peter Eisenman, back in 2017, in response to a surge in people taking selfies at sites such as the Holocaust memorial.
"To be honest with you I thought it was terrible," he said, per the BBC. "People have been jumping around on those pillars forever. They've been sunbathing, they've been having lunch there and I think that's fine.
"It's like a catholic church, it's a meeting place, children run around, they sell trinkets. A memorial is an everyday occurrence, it is not sacred ground."
The Holocaust Memorial, which is also known as The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, was designed by Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold.
It opened in Berlin in 2005 in order to honor the memory of Jewish victims of the Holocaust during World War II, and its design includes 2,711 concrete slabs of different sizes, spanning 19,000 square meters.
