A viral video of an unknown influencer being photographed at Berlin's Holocaust Memorial has viewers shocked and appalled.
The work of Peter Eisenman and Buro Happold and officially titled Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe , the monument is a 20,000 square foot public space made up of 2,711 concrete slabs of increasing sizes, found in the heart of central Berlin.
The video was posted onto the popular TikTok page @Influencersinthewild and has received more than 12 million views.
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"Don't do this, ever" are the only words in the video's caption, while the video was accompanied by an overlay telling viewers where the video was taking place.
"This is the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin".
The video captured an unidentified woman, wearing what appeared to be a black sports bra and yoga pants, making model-like poses while being photographed by an unidentified man.
A female American tourist could be heard off-screen telling the unidentified (also American) man taking the video she was "horrified beyond words", which the unidentified man agreed with.
Viewers of the video were also horrified, but unlike the unseen woman, they had plenty to say.
Fellow TikTokers called out the influencer for her blatant lack of respect for her surroundings, with Jewish TikTokers particularly and justifiably outraged.
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@Influencersinthewild/TikTok
@Influencersinthewild/TikTok
@Influencersinthewild/TikTok
@Influencersinthewild/TikTok
@Influencersinthewild/TikTok
Many wished someone had confronted the influencer and told her to stop and remind her of where she was and what the monument represented.
@Influencersinthewild/TikTok
@Influencersinthewild/TikTok
@Influencersinthewild/TikTok
@Influencersinthewild/TikTok
@Influencersinthewild/TikTok
The video is the very latest in an ongoing debate as to where taking selfies simply isn't appropriate in this day and age where social media reigns supreme.
In March 0f 2019, The Auschwitz Museum, on the grounds of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim, Poland, took to Twitter to beg visitors to become more aware of their surroundings and to stop taking selfies or balancing on the train tracks leading into the museum.
"When you come to the @AuschitzMuseum, remember you are at the site where over 1 million people were killed."
"Respect their memory. "
"There are better places to learn how to walk on a balance beam than the site which symbolizes the deportation of hundreds of thousands to their deaths."
In 2017, German/Israeli artist Shahak Shapira took an even more drastic measure in calling out those who chose to take selfies or influencer posts at the Berlin Holocaust Memorial.
Shapira pulled 12 social media posts taken at the Holocaust Memorial, and replaced the background with actual, graphic footage taken from concentration camps, and placed them on a website known as "Project Yolocaust".
While Shapira's project was met with both praise and criticism, Shapira later revealed all of the subjects of the photographs he used for the project eventually contacted him and apologized for their behavior, promising to be more cognizant going forward.
This resulted in Shapira taking down the photographs from the website, instead replacing them with one of the apologetic emails, as well as several of the reactions of the website's 2.5 million visitors.
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is a public space, but it does include staff who monitor the behavior of visitors.
While they are primarily there to ensure that visitors don't partake in dangerous behavior, such as jumping on and off the concrete slabs, they are also known for approaching visitors engaging in behavior they believe to be inappropriate.
It remains uncertain if the influencer captured in the video was told to stop by the monument's staff.
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