World Wrestling Entertainment is apologizing for using an image of the Auschwitz concentration camp in a WrestleMania 39 promo for wrestler Dominik Mysterio.
WWE was hyping up the father-son match between Dominik Mysterio and his dad, Rey Mysterio, ahead of the biggest wrestling event of the year, the 39th annual WrestleMania. “WrestleMania Goes Hollywood” was held last Saturday and Sunday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
In the original promotional video, Dominik’s backstory plays out through a series of clips, illustrating the longstanding animosity between the young wrestler and his dad. Part of the rift involves Dominik’s imprisonment. At one point he says, “You think this is a game to me. I served hard time, and I survived. Prison changes a man,” while images of prisons and barbed-wire fencing flash across the screen.
One of those images reportedly depicted Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration camp to operate during World War II. An estimated 1.1 million people — most of them Jews — were killed there over five years, according to the Auschwitz Memorial website. At least 6 million Jews total were killed in the Holocaust.
The video has since been revised, and the image replaced with an image of barbed wire.
The Auschwitz Memorial called out WWE on Wednesday, tweeting a still of the image and writing, “The fact that (an) 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.”
WrestleMania’s two-night extravaganza had around 2.26 million people tuning in, according to Deadline. Naturally, many of the event’s viewers recognized the Holocaust concentration camp and criticized WWE.
“WWE showing Auschwitz footage to build for Dominik vs Rey is certainly a choice #WrestleMania39 #Wrestlemania,” one user tweeted last weekend alongside a still of his television showing the image.
@KatyGoesArf tweeted, “Hang on, apparently WWE used footage of AUSCHWITZ to depict when Dominik Mysterio went to jail? What the F---? #WrestleMania,” and @MissingnoPixel added, “No good reason to ever see Auschwitz with a WWE watermark.”
In a statement to The Washington Post, a WWE spokesman said they were not aware they’d used an image of Auschwitz.
“We had no knowledge of what was depicted,” the statement said. “As soon as we learned, it was removed immediately.”
The Auschwitz Memorial added in a Thursday tweet commenting on a WWE post that “Sportspeople were among victims of #Auschwitz. Some could practice wrestling, boxing, football, basketball & more — often as entertainment for SS guards. Remember them with us. RT & share our #podcast ‘Sport & sportspeople in Auschwitz.‘”
