Zara has withdrawn a children's costume from sale due to its similarity to the clothes of Auschwitz prisoners.

The Spanish clothing brand Zara has withdrawn a children's Halloween costume from sale after its design was compared to the clothes of prisoners of Nazi concentration camps. This was reported on October 3 by the Allgäuer Zeitung newspaper with reference to the company's statement.

Israeli journalist Dov Gil-Har was one of the first to notice the costume. On his page on the social network X (ex. Twitter) On September 30, he pointed out that the blue-and-white striped fabric and the elements applied to it resemble camp clothes and barbed wire.

"The Spanish Zara chain is terrifying its customers in Europe with another of its nightmarish ideas — a costume in the style of Nazi concentration camps," Gil-Har wrote.

He also recalled that in 2014 Zara had already apologized for such a scandalous design: then the brand released a children's costume, the design of which used a yellow six-pointed star. It reminded many of the Star of David patches that were forced to be worn by people of Jewish origin in the territories occupied by the Nazis.

According to the British newspaper The Independent, the Zara novelty was sold online for £39.99 under the name "Children's Groom Costume for Halloween." Zara herself described it as a vertical striped suit with decorative stitching, a flower on the lapel and a scuff effect. At the same time, the buyers drew attention to the similarity of individual details with the uniforms of the Auschwitz prisoners. Some users, on the contrary, compared the outfit to the striped suit from the movie "Beetlejuice".

After the scandal broke out, the product disappeared from sale. Zara Home told the Allgäuer Zeitung newspaper that the company regrets the poor design.

"Zara Home is sorry for any misunderstanding that this children's Halloween groom costume may have caused. It is no longer sold in our stores or online," Zara said, without specifying why internal checks did not notice the similarity of the outfit to the clothes of concentration camp prisoners before the release.

The director of the Israel Information and Documentation Center, Naomi Mestrum, in a conversation with The Independent, called the emerging connection of Zara's new products with the Holocaust "painful." However, she noted that she does not consider the design to be a manifestation of malicious intent.

Zara has been criticized before because of similar design decisions. In addition to the scandal in 2014, in 2007 the brand also recalled a bag, the ornamental elements of which customers considered similar to a swastika.

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Last November, the German auction house Felzmann became the target of criticism from the International Committee of Auschwitz (IAK). The organization wanted to sell 632 documents and objects that belonged to the victims of the Holocaust, including the collection of documents "System of Terror. Volume II", which contains letters from concentration camp prisoners, as well as Nazi criminals, is indicated in the publication.

Gunnar Lindemann, a member of the German Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, said the auction was a terrible event. The politician added that valuable historical documents should be kept in the museum so that historians and researchers could have access to them. At the same time, he noted that copies can be made for those who want to get their hands on these materials.