Does the lady who left a bad review for Auschwitz cafe deserve the backlash she got?

Some people have nothing better to do than spew out anonymous bile to strangers on the internet. They need to take a good hard look at themselves frankly.

I think the video she made was a bit thoughtless. Your at Auschwitz and recording yourself moaning about the price and taste of a drink there is a time and a place and thats not it.

I think her review and comments were in extremely poor taste . Sickening to be honest. Very disrespectful too.

She was definitely tone deaf, no doubt about that.

Yes. I think she does deserve the backlash. She was unbearably smug through the whole event and continued to paint herself in a corner with defensiveness and poorly thought through comments. No one wants to think about your strawberry smoothie or your daughter’s lemonade whilst simultaneously considering the horrors of Auschwitz.

Yes, I think your second sentence is key. Auschwitz is, mind-bendingly, both the site of incomprehensible atrocities and also a major tourist attraction.

If you google 'things to do in Krakow', tours of Auschwitz that will pick you up from your hotel appear top of the list, along with horsedrawn tours of the Old Town and the salt mines -- in fact lots of cheery ads encourage you to do a combination day divided between Auschwitz and the salt mines in the same way as Tripadvisor suggests the London Eye and the Tower of London.

I have neither been to Auschwitz nor seen the TikTok, but it's clear the woman in question is viewing the cafe as a tourist attraction rip off, rather than an aspect adjacent to a memorial site that commemorates genocide.

Survivors are the ones who made it into a museum.

The article annoyed me half way down.

"I went in 2011 and I didnt need to eat or drink" is one of the comments mentioned in the article. There's always a martyr.
I went to Auschwitz and unfortunately I did need a drink and snack whilst there.

I did feel awkward eating in a place where millions of people were starving but I have needs as a human too.

The cafe should be held to good standards as part of a museum. Not sure I'd make a tiktok, but I'd certainly complain about bad service. Just because people died doesn't mean everyone needs to tolerate poor service now, surely.

That’s not all she said. It wasn’t just about a drink. She also made a comment along the lines of if people thought she was being disrespectful about a drink then Auschwitz should be flattened out of respect because keeping it there was disrespectful. I watched her say it before she removed the post.

The irony of her post is astonishing. Zero self-awareness.

Well, as someone who is dairy intolerant, it’s helpful to know there are no non dairy options available.

It's a cafe, it's not even inside the site, just near it I think?

Why should they rip people off or sell horrible drinks just because something terrible happened there decades ago?

It's the same as any other place of historical interest, someone set up a business nearby to profit from the people visiting. Which is fine but so is reviewing the business's wares honestly.

I don't understand the logic of the people saying a review of a cafe is disrespectful to people who lost their lives or loved ones. But a private cafe serving awful and grossly over priced food and drink to people visiting, isn't disrespectful at all. There is no rule that says you've got to visit the camp first then accept shit service out of respect for what you've witnesses. So no she doesn't deserve it in my opinion

I already followed this lady on TT. She has had a complex life (I think maybe prison, or certainly convictions in the past - wasn't allowed to get off a flight to USA, has lived in a van etc, not through choice)

I think it takes all sorts to make a world - and, (if we are honest) there is probably someone in every office or factory that says similar things.

They are part of life's rich tapestry.

We can't all be part of the Guardian reading purity spiral.

I wish her the best.

Thinking of recent tragedies like the "Putney Pusher" and the Cambridge "professor"

I don’t personally think auschwitz should be a tourist site in the first place.

given it is and apparently there is a cafe people are reasonable to review it.

The cafe is at the far end of Birkenau car park and is privately owned. There’s no getting round the fact that Auschwitz is a tourist destination and has thousands of visitors. She also said that the camp ‘should be flattened’ so she hasn’t done herself any favours in the way she’s come across

If the cafe was run by a charity to benefit survivors and families, or raise awareness, then it would be unreasonable. However if this is a private business profiteering from the site, then it's absolutely fine to criticise them. As the other way of looking at this, is that overcharging people who are likely to be distressed for substandard refreshments, taking advantage of the fact that visitors may need a sit down and a drink after what they've witnessed, is pretty poor on the part of the operator.

She's right, that cafe is shit

It’s a cafe, where it is has no bearing on whether it can be reviewed honestly or not. YANBU

Arguably the cafe owners are being more disrespectful than she is, by clearly running a pretty substandard service outside a place of such tragedy and importance. It’s almost as if they know they’re going to be immune from criticism, because most visitors will have for more serious things on their minds.

I’ve been to Auschwitz, in case that makes any difference. It was a while ago and I don’t remember a cafe on the grounds, but the article says the cafe was close by. I doubt you’re supposed to eat or drink in there in case you spill anything?

I think a cafe is a cafe and if it’s shit you should be able to say so. If she’d said the horrible smoothie ruined her experience of the concentration camp then that’s different, but she just said the drinks were bad and expensive. She also didn’t post it on a Google review for the actual concentration camp, it was on her own TikTok.

But small cafes in or near attractions tend to be a bit rubbish. This is a very serious historical site, but it can’t be denied that it’s a tourist attraction. It’s to be expected that the offering will be basic (but drinkable, which it sounds like these drinks weren’t)

The people who are piling onto an old woman and accusing her of disrespecting the victims of the holocaust are probably the same morons who are trying to cancel Ed Sheeran for not taking sides in the ridiculous Macklemore debacle..

Of course she doesn’t. She was absolutely right to post her review especially as it had facts that decaf and non dairy options were not available. She posted her review about drinks provided by business which aim was to provide drinks. The fact of location is neither here nor there.
added: and I would like to know about non dairy options at a funeral site cafe if I couldn’t tolerate dairy. So the fact that she went there before was irrelevant either.

FGS what has providing decent refreshments that are paid for today got to do with the history?

I think the issue is she posted this before going into the Camp so it is incongruent. Had she visited I doubt she would have made a similar review. You can't help be impacted and it's so unsettling that complaining about a drink is the least thing on your mind

However I also think it shows ignorance, because it is a solemn site and you should be respectful. Would you complain and a post a tiktik, about a cafe at a funeral site for your loved ones?

I think it shows 2 people very unaware of their surroundings and the significance of the site.

Also another vote for taking down tiktok!