After receiving backlash for a gruesome antisemitic post about teen Holocaust victim Anne Frank, a Rhode Island restaurant issued an apology and has taken down its Facebook page.
According to The Newport Daily News, the Atlantic Sports Bar & Restaurant in Tiverton, R.I., posted a meme on Facebook last week that read “It’s hotter than an oven out there … and I should know!” over a photo of Frank with the hashtag #ohboy. A tweet from the StopAntisemitism organization regarding the post said “we have no words.”
Anne Frank was a Jewish resident of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, who hid in a secret annex when the Nazis invaded during World War II. She kept diaries of her experiences before she was captured and taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where she was forced to do labor, and later to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she died of exhaustion at age 15. Nazis cremated people, such as Frank, who they murdered at concentration camps.
Anne’s father, Otto, survived the war and posthumously published his daughter’s diaries in 1947. Since then, the book has been translated into 70 languages and has been adapted into a film and a play.
“He hoped that readers of the diary would become aware of the dangers of discrimination, racism, and hatred of Jews,” said the Anne Frank House non-profit organization of Otto Frank.
According to The Newport Daily News, backlash against the Rhode Island bar’s post with Frank’s image was “immediate,” and people called for a boycott of the restaurant.
In response, the bar and restaurant posted an apology.
“The team here at The Atlantic wants to issue it’s (sic) sincerest apologies for a deeply insensitive post shared by our account on 7/22. The post was poorly thought out and we realize that it was incredibly inappropriate and does not reflect our values as members of our community,” said a Facebook message posted after the meme was removed from the page. “There is no excuse for the sharing of this post, and there is nothing we can do to rectify it, all we can do now is offer our deepest apology to those who were rightfully hurt by our actions.”
The post also said that the Atlantic Restaurant “prides itself on being a tolerant, inclusive and safe space for all people and added that it planned to be “vigilant” about its social media posts.
“We appreciate the outpouring of support, as well as the outpouring of rightful criticism, this will certainly be a teachable moment for our team,” said the post.
That post also received backlash. Facebook users called it “disgusting” and told the establishment that “no apology,” would be able to make up for the insensitive meme.
By Thursday the establishment’s page, along with the apology post, appeared to be removed from the social media site.
According to the most recent report from StopAntisemitism, there was a 55% increase in antisemitic incidences from 2020 to 2021. A data tracker provided by the Anti-Defamation League has more than 467 reported antisemitic incidents reported from June 2021 to this June.
Last year, the ADL recorded the most antisemitic incidents since its founding in 1979, according to a Brandeis University report. This year, experts published a book – “Antisemitism on Social Media” – connecting social media to the rise in antisemitic incidents.
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