Logo

LA Times

Non-TV Story of the Day: Retailer Pulls Children’s Shirt That Resembles Concentration Camp Uniform

Aug 27, 2014  •  Post A Comment

An international clothing retailer has apologized and removed a children’s shirt from stores after customers pointed out that it looks like the uniforms worn by Jewish prisoners in Nazi concentration camps, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The fashion chain Zara tweeted about the blue-striped shirt, which features a yellow, six-pointed star: “We honestly apologize, it was inspired by the sheriff’s stars from the classic Western films and is no longer in our stores.”

The company “tweeted dozens of similar replies in various languages to people who had posted objections to the shirt design,” the Times reports.

The report notes: “Nazi concentration camp uniforms tended to have vertical stripes that sometimes were blue, and Jews often were forced to wear a six-pointed yellow star on the left side of the chest.”

The Zara shirt reportedly has the word “sheriff” written on the star.

This isn’t the first time Zara, a Spanish company owned by Inditex, has had Nazi-related problems. “In 2007, it stopped selling a handbag whose pattern included a swastika,” the Times reports. “According to the BBC, Zara said at the time that it had sourced the handbag from a third party without having seen the swastika.”

zara concentration camp shirt

Zara’s “sheriff” shirt

Your Comment

Email (will not be published)