British designer is blasted for selling Nazi products including T-shirts and cups themed on Zyklon B - the gas that killed millions of Jews

  • Designer based in Selby, Yorkshire, was selling products on website Redbubble 
  • The logo was based on oral hygiene brand Oral B and T-shirts were sold for £14 
  • The designer, ImperivmCloth, has since been removed from the online platform 

By Isabella Nikolic For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

A designer based in Selby, Yorkshire, has come under fire for selling Nazi products including Zyklon-B themed T-shirts and cups.

The sick products, themed after the gas which killed millions of Jews in the Holocaust, featured on the Internet site Redbubble, a global online marketplace for print-on-demand products, which has its headquarters in Melbourne and offices in Berlin and San Francisco.

Based on the logo for oral hygiene brand, Oral B, the products included T-shirts, cups, phone cases and rucksacks.  

Design firm ImperivmCloth marketed the products with the caption: 'You too can look minty fresh with this beautiful Zyklon-B design'.  

A designer based in Selby, Yorkshire, has come under fire for selling Nazi products including Zyklon-B themed T-shirts and cups

A designer based in Selby, Yorkshire, has come under fire for selling Nazi products including Zyklon-B themed T-shirts and cups

Zyklon B was a cyanide-based pesticide invented in the 1920s but was then sold to the Nazis and used to kill millions of Jews during the Holocaust

Zyklon B was a cyanide-based pesticide invented in the 1920s but was then sold to the Nazis and used to kill millions of Jews during the Holocaust

The sick products, themed after the gas which killed millions of Jews in the Holocaust, featured on the Internet site Redbubble

The sick products, themed after the gas which killed millions of Jews in the Holocaust, featured on the Internet site Redbubble

On the site, the designers describe themselves as: 'Just a couple of guys, up to no good, starting to make trouble in your neighbourhood.'

They add: 'We're pretty new, but we'll have more and more designs popping up all the time, so keep an eye out, and thanks for checking us out!'

Zyklon B was originally developed as a cyanide-based pesticide in Germany in the early 1920s, but was later used during the Holocaust to murder around a million people in gas chambers. 

The man that developed it, Bruno Tesch, was executed in 1946 for selling it to the SS knowing it was to be used on humans.

The products were universally blasted in German media which took offence to the 'disturbing Nazi products' being sold in Germany and other European countries on the Redbubble marketplace.

Based on the logo for oral hygiene brand, Oral B, the products included T-shirts, cups, phone cases and rucksacks

Based on the logo for oral hygiene brand, Oral B, the products included T-shirts, cups, phone cases and rucksacks

Design firm ImperivmCloth marketed the products with the caption: 'You too can look minty fresh with this beautiful Zyklon-B design'

Design firm ImperivmCloth marketed the products with the caption: 'You too can look minty fresh with this beautiful Zyklon-B design'

What is Zyklon B?

Zyklon B is the name of a cyanide-based pesticide that was invented in Germany in the 1920s. 

It is made of hydrogen cyanide and an eye irritant. 

However its inventor, Bruno Tesch, sold it to the Nazis during the Second World War - knowing it would be used to kill Jews. 

Zyklon B cannisters

Zyklon B cannisters

He was put on trial after the war, where the prosecution said Zyklon B was used for 'systematically exterminating human beings to an estimated total of six million, of whom four and a half million were exterminated by the use of Zyklon B in one camp alone, known as Auschwitz.'

The development of the gas was done  by Fritz Haber, a Jew, in the 1880s.

Tesch was sentenced to death and died by hanging in 1946. 

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Redbubble sparked a similar scandal last month when Auschwitz themed miniskirts and pillows with photos of the train tracks leading to the former Nazi concentration camp as well as the chimneys of the Auschwitz ovens were put online.

It was immediately slammed by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, which released a statement which read: 'Do you really think that selling such products as pillows, mini skirts or tote bags with the images of Auschwitz - a place of enormous human tragedy where over 1.1 million people were murdered - is acceptable?'

The Auschwitz-themed clothes were since removed from Redbubble with the company saying on Twitter that the designs were 'not acceptable' and that 'immediate action' was taken to remove them from sale.

The Zyklon B themed products have been removed today after the massive criticism.

A Redbubble spokesman said: 'As a global marketplace for more than 845,000 independent artists, Redbubble is continuously working to adjust our policies and procedures with regards to content of a sensitive nature. 

'We have taken immediate action to remove the works in question and will continue removing any designs or images that violates our Community Guidelines and User Agreement.'

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