Australian sunglasses firm deletes ads shot at Croatian Holocaust site

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Australian sunglasses firm deletes ads shot at Croatian Holocaust site

By Jenny Noyes

Australian sunglasses brand Valley Eyewear has apologised and deleted its most recent advertising campaign, following international backlash over its use of a Croatian Holocaust memorial as a backdrop.

The Spomenik memorial at the site of the Jasenovac extermination camp, where more than 70,000 people were murdered by the Nazi-allied Croatian government during World War II, appeared in the background of photos and video shot for the eyewear brand's "Black Zero" collection.

Valley Eyewear pulled its ads showing the Jasenovac memorial as a backdrop.

Valley Eyewear pulled its ads showing the Jasenovac memorial as a backdrop. Credit: Valley Eyewear

Following international backlash, the Australian brand pulled the images from its website and social pages.

In a statement to Fairfax Media, Valley Eyewear director Michael Crawley said he had contacted the Jasenovac site and the head of the Australian Jewish Community to "offer our sincere apologies and to give our assurance that Valley Eyewear was completely unaware of the sensitivity of the sites in question".

He said in February, Valley Eyewear travelled to Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia for the purpose of undertaking a marketing campaign, documenting locations of Spomenik sculptures.

The Spomeniks are a series of striking, mostly concrete sculptures and monuments commemorating various historical events throughout the former Yugoslavia.

"Valley Eyewear was completely unaware of the sensitivity of a number of the locations, in particular the Jasenovac site where a photo shoot was undertaken for approximately 30 minutes," Mr Crawley said.

However, that contradicts screenshots from Valley Eyewear's Facebook page posted on social media, where the campaign was described as being "filmed on location in croatia at one of world war two's most historic and darkest locations (sic)".

Valley Eyewear has not posted a public apology despite calls from people on social media for the brand to do so.

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A visitor takes pictures at the snow-covered Holocaust memorial in Berlin.

A visitor takes pictures at the snow-covered Holocaust memorial in Berlin.Credit: Kay Nietfeld/ap

Peter Wertheim, head of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said he had spoken with a "very apologetic" Mr Crawley and was satisfied that the images had been removed.

"I think most people would instinctively understand that it is wrong to exploit an image of a memorial to victims of the Holocaust for commercial gain," he said.

"It trivialises and belittles the enormity of the genocide and suffering perpetrated by the Nazi regime and its allies, and disrespects the memory of millions of innocent people who were cruelly persecuted and killed.

It's not the first time Holocaust memorials have been misused as a photography backdrop.

In 2014, a teenager who took a grinning selfie at Auschwitz was criticised internationally after her photo went viral.

In recent years, Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe has also become a playground for selfie-snapping tourists, to the ire of those who see such behaviour as disrespecting the memory of those murdered by the Nazi regime.

Mr Wertheim said the context of these images and monuments is everything.

"The purpose of these monuments to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust is to evoke a response from an audience that will give them some level of insight into events that are well beyond their range of experience and understanding.

"In an educational or cultural context, this can be a powerful experience. But if images of these monuments are commercially exploited to market products, especially if the purpose is to glamourise or otherwise add to the appeal of the products, then the effect is the opposite, one of desensitisation."

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