Anne Frank Halloween Costume Causes Twitter Uproar

HalloweenCostumes.com pulled an ill-advised Anne Frank Halloween costume for young girls after a Twitter uproar. A spokeperson for the Anne Frank Center called it “offensive” and accused the company of trivializing Frank’s suffering.

The “Anne Frank Costume For Girls” included a long-sleeve blue dress with a brown shoulder bag and a green beret. The product description called Frank a World War II history and an inspiration who shows that “we can always learn from the struggles of history.”

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“Now your child can play the role of a World War II hero with this girls World War II costume,” read the description. “It comes with a blue button up dress, reminiscent of the kind of clothing that might be worn by a young girl during WWII.”

Twitter users quickly pointed out how inappropriate the costume was. “There r better ways 2 commemorate Anne Frank. This is not one. We should not trivialize her memory as a costume,” Carlos Galindo-Elvira, a spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League in Arizona, tweeted.

“There are more appropriate ways to commemorate the legacy of Anne Frank than through a Halloween costume, which is offensive and trivializes her suffering and the suffering of millions during the Holocaust,” Alexandra DeVitt, a spokesperson for the Anne Frank Center, told Fox News. “We are pleased that the costume has been pulled.”

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Ross Walker Smith, a spokesperson for HalloweenCostumes.com, apologized for any “offense” the costume caused, explaining that it often makes costumes for other occasions, like “school projects and plays.”

Anne Frank was 15 years old when she was killed in the Holocaust. Her Diary of a Young Girl, first published in English in 1952, has become one of the most widely read books in the world and details life under the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands.

Here’s how others reacted to the costume on Twitter.