Auschwitz Memorial Labels WWE's Concentration Camp Footage At WrestleMania 39 'Shameless'

It never hurts to double check. That might be just one of the lessons WWE has to re-learn this week as they're now facing genuine backlash from fans, casual observers, and especially the Auschwitz Memorial after including an image of the Auschwitz concentration camp in the promo package for the match between Dominik and Rey Mysterio. The Auschwitz Memorial released a statement on the matter early Wednesday morning, tweeting "The fact that 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." NPR reached out to WWE for comment and did not hear back as of the morning of April 6th.

While the promotional material featured Dom speaking at length about his time in prison, WWE used plenty of B-roll and stock footage of prisons throughout the video package. Most unfortunately, an image of Auschwitz appeared, and was noticed immediately by fans. However, while playing the same video package back later that night, that same image of Auschwitz had already been removed. It also does not appear again during any highlights recounting WrestleMania 39, specifically Night One.

Of course, this isn't the first time WWE has courted controversy with regards to Nazis or the Holocaust. Recently, they briefly brought back former superstar Brian Kendrick, despite his previous comments about the Holocaust. Meanwhile, as recently as last month, Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER denied that Imperium had anything to do with fascism. Months earlier, WWE moved to trademark the name "Gunther Stark," which also happened to be the name of a Nazi U-boat commander during World War II, before abandoning their attempts after learning that context.