Exclusive: easyJet grounds in-flight magazine after Holocaust gaffe

Airline U-turn follows Holocaust Memorial fashion shoot

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An image from easyJet's inflight magazine's fashion shoot

 

The airline easyJet is withdrawing all copies of its in-flight magazine, easyJet Traveller, after a row erupted over a tasteless fashion shoot at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.

The airline took the decision after being contacted by the New Statesman this afternoon.

The latest issue of the in-flight magazine featured two unsanctioned photographs of models posing in designer clothes among the famous concrete blocks of the "Field of Stelae", Germany's foremost memorial to commemorate the six million Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide.

The magazine did not seek permission from the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which only became aware that the photographs existed when contacted by the New Statesman yesterday.

In a statement, the Memorial's director, Uwe Neumärker, said it "grants permissions only to projects which are related to the memorial, the Holocaust or some aspect of commemoration."

"The Foundation Memorial does not support commercial shoots, and fashion photography is considered to fall into this category."

"The Foundation Memorial will contact the easyJet airline company in writing in order to clarify the circumstances of the photo shoot."

According to the Foundation, security personnel are on duty around the clock to prevent such incidents happening, but it was impossible to monitor the entire area due to its size and complexity.

In a statement to the New Statesman, the airline said:

"easyJet profusely apologises to anyone who may be offended by the inappropriate fashion photo shoot at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin featured in this month's issue of the in-flight magazine."

"The magazine is produced by INK -- an external publishing house, and easyJet were not aware of the images until they appeared in print. As a consequence we are now reviewing our relationship with the publisher and are withdrawing this month's issue from all flights."

"easyJet prides itself on bringing together a wide range of cultures and beliefs and is appalled by this insensitive and inconsiderate photo-shoot, the aim of which was to highlight some of Berlin's iconic landmarks and certainly no offence was meant."

But the Labour MP Denis MacShane, who heads the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism, told newstatesman.com

"This is further evidence of the banalisation of anti-Semitism and the trivialisation of the genocidal massacre of Jews in the Second World War."

 

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2 comments

Joanne Goldstein's picture

It is well within the rights of anyone to make a complaint that they feel is worthy of discussion. What truly determines the conversational value of a topic is whether or not anyone responds to it. In essence, it is only my response (and future responses) that validate your words here projekty rodinnych domov. If no one reads and no one cares, then you might as well have been speaking to yourself.

Andrew Chapman's picture

This is quite a good article. Many new questions emerge to the surface, all you need do is to read further information about the issues. Only then one can form a final view on a particular subject. Otherwise everything is seen only in the dimension of more cum black and white. The natural logic of evaluating things before vstavane skrine they were properly cognitively processed is a horrible mistake, made by those less intelligent. People should not throw away their common golf sense easily. Anything and everything deserves appropriate time for making judgements.

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