Pregnant social media star posts #babyintheoven hashtag from Shoah memorial
Image published by Instagram account @hellentablada on Thursday has drawn fierce criticism
A pregnant social media influencer with 135,000 followers has been criticised for apparently using the hashtag #babyintheoven in a post about Berlin’s Shoah memorial.
A photo published by the Instagram account @hellentablada on Thursday shows 38-year-old jewellery and fashion designer Elena Tablada leaning against a concrete slab in Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe during a trip to the German capital.
According to screenshots circulated on social media, the photo caption, which appears to have been amended, originally read: “BERLIN”, with three emojis and the hashtags #babyintheoven #memorial and #berlin.
But the hashtag #babyintheoven drew criticism from online users, due to the Nazi regime’s practice of cremating the remains of Holocaust victims in death camps.
The hashtag was later seemingly removed and the caption amended to include the hashtag #neverforget.
Joining a chorus of criticism, the journalist Simon Hunter, from the English edition of the Spanish daily newspaper El Pais, tweeted a screenshot of the post in a tweet on Friday and wrote: “There are no words…”
The memorial, which opened in 2005 to commemorate the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, features some 2,700 slabs of concrete arranged in a grid and designed by the architect Peter Eisenman.
The site also includes an information centre on the persecution and extermination of European Jewry, frequented by nearly half a million visitors each year.
The controversial practice of taking selfies at memorials to the Shoah has attracted criticism in recent years. In March of last year, officials at the Auschwitz Memorial urged online users to stop taking selfies at the site’s railroad tracks.
“When you come to @AuschwitzMuseum remember you are at the site where over 1 million people were killed. Respect their memory,” organisers at the memorial said in a tweet.
“There are better places to learn how to walk on a balance beam than the site which symbolises [sic] deportation of hundreds of thousands to their deaths,” the tweet said.
Elena Tablada has been approached for comment.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
