'Appalling' Anne Frank costume pulled by US Halloween fancy dress retailer
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said she was "speechless" after seeing the costume online.
Tuesday 17 October 2017 14:57, UK
A US fancy dress retailer has removed an Anne Frank costume from its website following a huge backlash.
HalloweenCostumes.com marketed the outfit - a blue dress, complete with a beret and satchel - on its website as a "historical Anne Frank costume for girls".
Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl who had to go into hiding during the Second World War, kept a diary during her time staying in a secret annex of a house in Amsterdam.
It was published after the war, turning her into a globally recognised symbol of Holocaust victims.
People have hit out at the costume on social media, with Twitter users branding it "disgusting".
Cathy Ashley, former chair of the Holocaust Memorial Trust, tweeted: "This company @funcostumes needs to understand why Holocaust victims aren't a profit-making figure of fun for Halloween. Or shame them to act."
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said she was "speechless".
"Incredible that someone actually thought this was ok??? How utterly inappropriate. Lost for words," she posted.
Other Twitter users also criticised the outfit, with one person saying: "Did I really just see an Anne Frank Halloween costume?"
Another wrote: "The Anne Frank costumer is beyond appalling."
The company's PR specialist issued a response after Rob McDowall, a member of the Equality Council, tweeted him asking: "What is this all about?"
Ross Walker Smith said the company sells costumes "not only for Halloween, but for many uses outside of the Halloween season, such as school projects and plays".
However, he said feedback on the costume had been passed on and it had been "removed from the website at this time".
The firm takes customer feedback seriously, he added, apologising for any offence caused.
Although HalloweenCostumes.com has stopped selling the costume, several other sites are still displaying it.
On entering the search term 'Anne Frank costume' into Google, results of the same outfit are generated with the description 'World War Two evacuee girl costume'.
Others defended the dress, with one person saying: "I really don't think the company meant anything malicious by including Anne Frank as a costume."