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At other Holocaust memorials around Europe, social media use is seen largely as a positive development.

“’Selfies’ are a part of today’s cultural experience and the virtualization of the world,” said Günter Morsch, who directed the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum, a former concentration camp near Berlin, for 25 years. “In the virtual world, people try to integrate an authentic place into part of their own image and that’s actually something positive.”

\"PHOTO:
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
PHOTO: Two visitors sit on the Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe, also called the Holocaust Memorial, Nov. 7, 2018, in Berlin.
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Morsch has seen attitudes change toward Holocaust memorial sites, especially as fewer people from the generation who lived through the horror remains. Yet, overall, he is impressed: “The overwhelming majority of the 700,000 visitors a year behave appropriately.”

One of the hot-spots on the debate surrounding inappropriate social media behavior is Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, comprised of 27,111 cement slabs of different heights. Its uneven concrete floors and vast expanse give visitors the feeling of losing themselves inside the labyrinthine interior. And its abstract design has prompted debates over how visitors should interact with it, as many choose to sunbathe on the stones or use them as a picnic spot.

In 2017, Israeli-German writer Shahak Shapira started a website called “Yolocaust” featuring the selfies of visitors to the Berlin memorial overlaid on photos of harrowing scenes from concentration camps — corpses and starved prisoners -- to highlight, in his view, how the photos were a sign of disrespect. The website caused a media flurry and received both praise for its boldness and criticism from some who felt it went too far.

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Picture Alliance via Getty Image
PHOTO: Railroad tracks lead to the entrance of the Auschwitz concentration camp, Jan. 27, 2018. Trains brought people to the camp.
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The memorial’s designer, New York City-based architect Peter Eisenman, intended the space to be used freely, not necessarily as a sacred space.

“The concept is that it’s an open place and that visitors experience it for themselves and see what they want to do in this space, what it does to them,” Felizitas Borzym, a spokesperson for the memorial, told ABC News.

While few activities are expressly forbidden — aside from jumping on the stones and other activities that might be considered a safety hazard — the memorial is staffed with employees who might approach guests to speak with them if they see inappropriate behavior.

“We don’t forbid selfies, but if someone is doing a pose a little too much in the direction of too flashy, employees might mention to the person that this is perhaps not the right place for it while explaining what the memorial represents,” Borzym said. This type of dialogue, she said, is effective.

Selfies and other photos are also largely accepted, Borzym said. “People should explore the location with selfies as a person with their phone. To have photos of themselves in the location is really the way young people experience this memorial.”

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