WWE have apologised for footage from the Auschwitz concentration camp appearing during a video package at WrestleMania.
The footage of the camp appeared during the promo packages for Rey Mysterio taking on his son Dominik on the first night of the event in Los Angeles. Several fans noted the inclusion of the footage and commented on social media, which led to comments from the Auschwitz Memorial Museum.
“The fact that Auschwitz image was used to promote a WWE match is hard to call “an editing mistake”. Exploiting the site that became a symbol of enormous human tragedy is shameless and insults the memory of all victims of Auschwitz.”
WWE replaced the image of Auschwitz with generic footage of barbed wire on later airings and reruns. In a statement to The Washington Post, a WWE spokesman apologized, calling the footage an error.
“We had no knowledge of what was depicted,” the statement said. “As soon as we learned, it was removed immediately.”
In the less than 5 years that Auschwitz was operational, an estimated 1.1 million people were killed there, the majority of whom—roughly 1 million—were Jews.