In what was essentially the poorest taste ever, an Estonian newspaper printed an ad for slimming pills showing concentration camp victims as models. The caption on one of the ads reads, “There were no thickset people in Buchenwald!”
Needless to say, the ad has shocked and outraged the country with its reference to the largest German concentration camp during WWII.
“Do you, the respected editors of Eesti Ekspress, happen to know that a total of 56,549 people were tormented at Buchenwald?” wrote Mihhail Kõlvart, Deputy-Mayor of Tallinn in response to the ad. “And that Dr Mengele staged monstrous experiments on Jews, by the way not in Buchenwald, but in Auschwitz? That he personally selected the arriving prisoners and personally sent over 40,000 people to gas chambers? Do you find it amusing?”
Sadly it's not the first time this sort of marketing rot has happened in Estonia. National gas company, GasTerm Eesti, reportedly advertised products using a photo of Auschwitz, with the caption, "Arbeit macht frei" (Work sets you free) together with the company slogan, "Gas heating—flexible, convenient, and effective."
No doubt about it, Nazi merchandise and advertising is sick and beyond the pale, but is it actually a hate crime? Should such companies be fined or face criminal charges for their actions?
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