Auschwitz Tripadvisor comments removed as website backtracks

Tripadvisor has reversed a decision to leave an 'offensive' post on its site for the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum. Photo / Czarek Sokolowski

Travel website Tripadvisor has removed an insensitive review of the Auschwitz Museum after initially saying it complied with its submission guidelines.

The museum at the site of the Nazi concentration camp in Poland on Thursday tweeted that it had asked the Massachusetts-based travel website to take down a review in which the writer said they went to Auschwitz to "test the chamber" and called the site "fun for the family."

More than 1 million people, most of them Jews, were killed by the Nazis at Auschwitz during World War II.

According to the company, "it complies with their submission guidelines," the tweet said.

We have reported this review of the @AuschwitzMuseum posted on @TripAdvisor.

'This place was great went there with my newborn babys to test the chamber but they came out deformed. But its fun for the family.'

According the company, it complies with their submission guidelines. pic.twitter.com/JEHuLaTKxP

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) May 6, 2021

While the 'reviews' were insensitive and outraged readers, this is not the first time that travel websites including Tripadvisor have received backlash over public comments. There are currently 14351 public reviews for the museum on the platform.

Previous inappropriate comments have ranged from the insensitive to the antisemitic. Last month, Google responded that it "must do better" after unearthing 150 offensive reviews which had been left for Auschwitz on its 'Google Maps' platform.

Auschwitz is the second most visited heritage attraction in Poland, according to Unesco. Three of the country's ten most visited sites are directly connected to the history of the Holocaust, including Oskar Schindler's Factory in Krakow and the Warsaw Ghetto Museum.

The review section has also raised more legitimate concerns with the running of the Museum, raising issues of "graffiti" being left on the barracks and whether "selfies" are appropriate.

Tripadvisor later reversed course, removing the review and banning the user who wrote it.

The museum then thanked Tripadvisor.

In a statement, the company said it does not tolerate discrimination and regularly blocks or removes millions of reviews that violate its guidelines.

"In this case, our initial screening failed to identify this review as promoting intolerance. Through our escalation process, this review was removed. We always aim to get it right the first time and we apologize to the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum and the Jewish community at-large for this initial miss," the statement said.

- Associated Press