Photomontages from Holocaust memorial selfies go viral
BERLIN — A series of photomontages showing people striking poses, taking selfies and even juggling at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin before the background changes to show them posing amid piles of murdered victims of the Holocaust went viral on the internet Thursday.
The creator, Shahak Shapira, told The Associated Press he produced the “Yolocaust” website after seeing thousands of selfies and other photographs of young, smiling people posing on the memorial to Europe’s 6 million murdered Jews on social media.
The website went live Wednesday and was clicked more than 500,000 times and shared at least 70,000 times on Facebook, Shapira said. After a few hours, the site collapsed because so many people were trying to access it, he said.
Shapira, 28, a Berlin-based Israeli satirist and grandson of a Holocaust survivor, said the selfies didn’t disturb or upset him, but he thought it was “a shame that there are people who don’t care.”