Travellers publicly shamed for taking selfies at popular war memorial

You can’t get any more disrespectful than what some young tourist did during a trip to the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.

Many are disgusted by the growing trend of people posting “happy snaps” from the memorial on social media including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the dating app Tinder.  In the pictures, people are climbing and jumping on the memorials, dancing, juggling, and one photo shows a woman doing yoga on top of the tribute to those lost in the Holocaust.

An Israeli satirist has taken to naming and shaming the people by scanning the net for images to post on his page Yolocuast.  On his website, he modifies the photos of the disrespectful tourist onto historical images of concentration camps to put the images in perspective.  He also stated on the site, “It’s up to you how to behave at a memorial site that marks the death of six million people.”

Many have been supportive of the website with many more saying that it’s a reminder on how people should behave while on holiday.  They should respect the local culture and act as if they are representing their country.

As with most stories, though, there is an opposing side that believes that these people are living in the spirt of the place.  The American architect that designed the memorial reportedly claimed that he didn’t want the place to be treated as a cemetery but as a place for people to engage and express themselves.

What do you think about what these people are doing?  How would you expect people to act at a memorial such as this?