World Wrestling Entertainment apologized on Friday after using footage of Auschwitz in a WrestleMania promotion.
The footage of Auschwitz, the largest of the German Nazi concentration centers where around 1.1 million people were killed, was used in a video promoting a match between Dominik Mysterio and his father Rey Mysterio during Saturday's WrestleMania Kickoff show.
An image of the concentration camp was shown after Dominik discussed his character's criminal background, saying “You think this is a game to me. I served hard time. And I survived. Prison changes a man."
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter here.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum condemned the WWE's use of the footage in a statement and tweet.
"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," it said in a tweet from the museum's account on Wednesday.
The WWE, after becoming aware of the incident, removed the footage and replaced it with generic images of barbed wire on later airings.
U.S. & World
"We had no knowledge of what was depicted," the WWE told NBC News in a statement on Friday. "As soon as we learned, it was removed immediately. We apologize for this error."
Auschwitz was built by the Germans in occupied Poland in 1940. Of the 1.1 million people who were transported to the camp and killed, most were Jewish. As a reminder of the tragedy, the site was preserved and currently operates as a museum and memorial.
