BERLIN (JTA) — A British-based online purveyor of customized products is in trouble again, this time for settling items with the word “Zyklon B” printed on them.
On sale via Redbubble, which has an office in downtown Berlin, were cups, t-shirts, cell phone cases and postcards bearing the brand name of Zyklon B, one of the chemicals – crystalline hydrogen cyanide – that Nazis used to murder millions in its death camp gas chambers.
Redbubble currently has 70,000 different t-shirts for sale making the items difficult to track.
The Berliner Zeitung newspaper, which broke the story, published a photo of the Zykon B wares and said the logo resembles that of a popular oral hygiene brand.
The Zyklon B-themed products were removed from the website on Monday, the Daily Mail reported.
Last month, Redbubble, which sells tens of thousands of items bearing slogans of all kinds, was pressured to remove mini-skirts printed with the Arabic word for God — “Allah” — following a Twitter storm of criticism.
Also removed recently – after a Twitter complaint from staff at the Auschwitz concentration camp memorial in Poland – were miniskirts and handbags printed with images of the death camp.
Apparently non-partisan, Redbubble also sells wares with anti-Nazi slogans, for example.
Redbubble’s website said it offers “awesome products designed by independent artists” and encourages artists to display and sell their wares, with the disclaimer: “You must ensure, and you bear the related responsibility, that your art and its publication on Redbubble do not violate applicable law.”
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