Ebay says sorry for offering uniforms of Auschwitz inmates via its platform

The World Jewish Congress has praised the online auction house eBay for removing Holocaust-related memorabilia that were to be sold via its website. Ebay removed about 30 items for sale within hours of an investigative report published in the British newspaper ‘Mail on Sunday’. "It is outrageous, disgusting and disrespectful that eBay sought to profit from the sale of artifacts related to the Nazis' murder of 6 million Jews, but the company did the right thing by removing the items and apologizing,” Robert Singer, CEO of the WJC, was quoted by CNN as saying.

Ebay said: “We are very sorry these items have been listed on eBay and we are removing them. We don’t allow listings of this nature, and dedicate thousands of staff to policing our site and use the latest technology to detect items that shouldn’t be for sale. We very much regret that we didn’t live up to our own standards. We have made a donation to charity to reflect our concern.”

In its guidelines the internet platform rejects the sale of Nazi memorabilia. EBay makes 10 percent of the final sale of items auctioned on its site. Among the items being offered for sale were a complete Auschwitz uniform, yellow Stars of David armbands worn by Jews during World War II, a Holocaust victim’s suitcase and a pair of shoes belonging to a death camp victim.